Drea Rodriguez remembers marching down the 16th Street Viaduct in June of 2020 to protest the George Floyd murder and seeing Giannis Antetokounmpo and his Milwaukee Bucks teammates show up in a U-Haul truck.
“He towered over us like a titan,” said Rodriguez, owner of the consulting business Thrive Service Learning MKE. “Everyone went from exhausted to amazed in three minutes.”
Antetokounmpo and his teammates provided water, snacks and other supplies as they marched alongside residents. She said the Bucks star “walked the walk” and won her over right then.
She’s among many in Milwaukee with strong emotions about the basketball superstar from Greece potentially being moved by the Bucks before the NBA trade deadline on Feb. 5.
Rodriguez said she’ll be sad if he and his wife, Mariah Riddlesprigger, who also is active in the community, leave.
She also wonders whether other Bucks players will step in to fill the void in terms of presence and leadership if he does.
“‘If he could do it, why can’t you?,” Rodriguez said.
‘Giannis put a spotlight’ on the city
Losing Antetokounmpo would be a “big blow for the city,” said prominent radio personality and community voice Homer Blow.
“Giannis put a spotlight that hadn’t been on the city in decades,” he said. “We had people that would come from other states to come see Giannis play.”
Part of his charm and what endears him to fans, Blow said, is that despite his worldwide fame and megastar status, he was still an everyday person.
“You’ll see him at Chick-fil-A, you’ll see him at some of the common everyday places that people go to, and he was always willing to sign an autograph and all of that,” he said.
If he does leave in a trade, which Blow said seems inevitable, it will create a void for the Milwaukee Bucks and the city.
He still understands why he wants to leave.
“You can go to a place and kind of give your heart and soul and give your all, and you don’t always have the right supporting cast,” he said. “I’m going to miss him.”
‘Respect’ mural
Joe Katz, owner of Highbury Pub in Bay View, has a mural featuring Antetokounmpo wearing a shirt that says “I can’t breathe” and a facemask on the second floor exterior of his business.
The mural, painted by Ruben Alcantar in the summer of 2020, is a lasting symbol of both the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID pandemic. Katz said it also exemplifies his business.
“The mural has definitely helped define the Highbury’s beliefs in equality and mutual respect,” Katz said.
Katz, who said Antetokounmpo is and has always been great for the city, thinks it’s still best if he’s traded.
“We are struggling with him and without the right pieces around him,” he said. “We should trade Giannis now while he is worth max return.”
A role model for kids and adults
Local artist Rozalia Hernandez-Singh worked with youths to paint a mural of Antetokounmpo in the stairwell of COA Riverwest Center, 909 E. Garfield Ave., and painted another featuring him and more of Wisconsin’s greatest Black athletes on North 28th and West Vliet streets.
And while she said she has a lot of respect for the man who helped the Milwaukee Bucks win their second NBA championship in history in 2021, it’s her husband and son who have the most to say about him potentially leaving.
Her son, Rohan Singh, 19, said Antetokounmpo is a leader and great role model for all of Milwaukee. His work ethic, the financial impact he’s had and the opportunities he’s created for others are all part of what make him a “Milwaukee staple,” he said.
Singh said losing Antetokounmpo will change the atmosphere at Bucks games and of the city.
But he also wants the Bucks to do right by him by not wasting his potential and by rewarding his loyalty.
“The best thing that we could do for him since he’s done so much for us is to allow him to use the rest of his years where he’s still one of the best players in the league and use that on a winning team,” he said.
Mohit Singh, Hernandez-Singh’s husband, said Antetokounmpo is the type of role model that both kids and adults need.
“He shows us work ethic, pride and humbleness,” he said. “He shows us to be proud of where you come from and that just because you face a loss doesn’t mean you failed.”
He said that Antetokounmpo needed Milwaukee and that the city needed him. Together, he said, great things were achieved.
Mohit Singh said if he leaves it will be because it’s something that is best for his family and his career.
“I will be happy for him, but will be sad to see him go,” he said. “No matter where he goes I will always be a fan.”
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
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