Wizards' Khris Middleton reflects on trade, Bucks career: 'My time ran out'

WASHINGTON — Giannis Antetokounmpo had seen this scene transpire many times.

Sitting on the Milwaukee Bucks bench after fouling out with a little more than three minutes to go Friday, Antetokounmpo, his team up three points and only five seconds remaining, watched Washington Wizards forward Khris Middleton curl off a screen and catch the ball in front of the Bucks bench.

For 12 seasons, such a sequence would have engendered joy from Antetokounmpo. Any clean touch for the Bucks’ best clutch performer for the last decade would cause excitement.

But plenty had changed in two weeks, so this feeling was far different than usual.

“We were terrified,” Antetokounmpo said with a laugh of his former Bucks teammate. “Quick, it flips. Usually I’m like, ‘Make it, Khris!’ And today, I was like, ‘Miss it, Khris!’”

With a strong contest from Kyle Kuzma, Middleton missed the off-balance 3-pointer that would have tied the game, just as Antetokounmpo — for the first time in his NBA career — had hoped and Milwaukee pulled out a 104-101 victory over Washington. The Bucks’ third consecutive win moved them within a half-game of the Pacers for the East’s No. 4 seed.

Middleton went to work late in his and Antetokounmpo’s first head-to-head NBA contest, hitting his first 3 of the night with 61 seconds remaining to pull the Wizards within a point. It was harrowing down the stretch for Milwaukee, but the Bucks pulled out a gritty win with Antetokounmpo limited by foul trouble and three regulars, including Damian Lillard, out for the second night of a back-to-back.

Picking up a hard-fought win allowed Middleton’s longtime teammates a chance to smile and joke as they attempted to wrap their heads around playing against their close friend.

“Happy to see him out there,” Antetokounmpo said. “He looks weird with that jersey on.”

“It was bizarre,” Bucks center Brook Lopez added from across the locker room. “So surreal.”

“He does not make that jersey look good at all,” Antetokounmpo said, cracking a smile. “It’s fun. We had a few laughs on the court. I miss him. I definitely miss that guy.”

Friday’s game presented plenty of unusual scenes. Middleton took a charge on Antetokounmpo in the first quarter, and Antetokounmpo drew a foul on Middleton driving to the rim in the third quarter. Middleton pulled Lopez to the ground (before helping him up) as Lopez tried to get post position on a clutch-time possession. To close out the game, Lopez swatted a floater from Middleton, who was driving to the basket with a little more than 30 seconds remaining.

While this is the new reality, with Middleton on a different team for the first time in 12 seasons, that didn’t make it feel any less unusual for all parties involved Friday. For Middleton, who, for the first time since the trade, spoke one-on-one with The Athletic following the Wizards’ shootaround on Friday morning, playing for a team other than the Bucks and working through the emotions that come along with such a move is something he is still trying to process.

“Yeah, it’s a range,” Middleton said of the emotions he continues to feel after the trade. “Like, it’s a cycle I go through a lot of times. I’m trying to get out of that cycle now because it’s over with, and there’s no point of really going down that path. But definitely anger. Definitely, like sadness. Like denial, ‘Why would they do that?’ Questioning their decision and stuff like that.

“But I think it’s healthy for me to think about all that stuff and try to bottle that and put that into something positive. And for me, that’s starting here. That’s helping these guys get their building blocks and helping them grow this organization like I did with the Bucks.”

Sitting alongside the court at the Wizards practice facility two weeks after being traded, Middleton admitted that he realized he was not going to get one last chance at a buzzer-beater to save his situation in Milwaukee.

“I’ve had many opportunities,” Middleton said. “I mean, that’s the way I’ve kind of looked at it. My time ran out. Simple as that.

“I mean, I could say my time could have ran out a long time ago. They held onto me, believed in the potential, believed in the work that they saw. But I think this time, it was just, we think a different route is better for our team going forward. And I can’t do nothing but respect that.”

With his time expired in Milwaukee, Middleton reflected on his 12 years with the Bucks and why he no longer shares the same path with the team he helped win the 2021 NBA Championship.

(The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.)

As the trade deadline approached, your name was included in more rumors than normal. When did you get the sense you might get traded?

You see the rumors online, and then you get a couple texts like, ‘You see this?’ They’ve happened a couple of times before throughout my career there, and I try to treat it the same. I mean, I gotta keep doing my job. I need to focus on what I need to do every day to go out there and perform until I get that phone call. That’s the mindset I tried to take because it could be a distraction.

I mean, you can go out there, cause hell, be a cancer in the locker room, especially when things aren’t going your way, but that’s not right. Be professional, be a teammate, brother, friend. So just try to not see it, try to ignore it as much as I could and focus on what I needed to do.

When did you get that call?

Wednesday morning before shootaround, I got that call, maybe 8 or 9 (a.m.). I had talked to my agent (Mike Lindeman) the night before, and he was, yeah, there’s some truth behind that or whatever, but we don’t know what’s going to happen yet. Then he got the call on Wednesday morning, and I found out.

Your agent was the one to inform you?

Yeah, yeah, it was Mike at first. I mean, of course, (Bucks GM) Jon (Horst) reaches out, (Bucks assistant GM) Milt (Newton) reaches out, all those guys reaching out, but the first call was definitely from my agent, Mike.

Have you talked to Jon?

Yeah, I spoke to him briefly. Of course, I’m not going to say what was involved in that conversation, but it was short. It was a lot of thank yous and whatnot and short and sweet. Just kind of kept it moving.

We had spent a lot of time together, grew up in that organization together, so it was a tough conversation. We both wanted to keep that (as) short as we could because we both needed to keep going, keep doing our thing. He was focused on making the rest of his decisions that he had to make for the team. I was focused on trying to get my head straight, wrap up that chapter and get to this.

I read your interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Your comments made it seem as though you were playing the full limit of your minutes and you didn’t feel like the organization was holding you back. I wanted to confirm that. Did you feel like the minutes program they had you on was as much as you could play physically?

Uh … I think that was the group decision for everybody to keep those minutes where they were just to allow me to keep building up, getting back to, you know, how I usually move, how I usually play.

From your perspective, did you feel like by the time the playoffs hit in mid-April you would be ready to play at least 30 minutes per game?

Yeah, that was the plan. I can sit here and confidently say that I definitely think by the time the playoffs started, I would be playing 30 minutes. I was close a couple times. We had to back it off, but I was 24, 25, 26 minutes. It’s only four to seven more minutes, somewhere in that range, during playoff time, I think I could handle that, for sure.

Was it frustrating to you that you didn’t get to see that through? You had the ramp-up plan for the postseason, and you didn’t get to see it through. After all you’ve done for the franchise, that had to be frustrating for you.

I’ve had many opportunities. That’s the way I’ve kind of looked at it. My time ran out. Simple as that. I mean, I could say my time could have ran out a long time ago. They held onto me, believed in the potential, believed in the work that they saw. But I think this time, it was just we think a different route is better for our team going forward. And I can’t do nothing but respect that.

They leaned on me in a lot of different ways. Giannis goes down? They counted on me to take them to the next round. Things like that. Giannis is in and out or we need a big shot or we need whatever, they counted on me many times. And I guess they couldn’t count on me.

As a player and as a person, I mean, I can’t control their opinions and beliefs on me. I can only control what I think of myself. I definitely think I’m still that player. I can still be that player. Yes, it may take a little bit of time, but I think ultimately I can. But they didn’t think that, and they gotta do what’s best for them.

After sacrificing your body and playing through injuries to both ankles last postseason, did you feel like you earned that opportunity?

It’s a tricky thing when you say somebody owes you something. I never wanted to feel like somebody owed me something. So I go in there, work as hard as I can, I try to earn what I get by showing and proving what I can do.

I guess I didn’t earn it. And you have to be honest with yourself. Sometimes, you can say it’s BS, sometimes, you can say it’s real. At this stage, I don’t know where I’m at with that, but it’s part of it. It’s part of the process. I love it because now it gets me thinking about how I need to improve as a player and as a teammate overall.

In his media availability after the trade, I asked Jon about what he saw in Kyle Kuzma that would suggest he can perform as well as you did — an efficient scorer, efficient playmaker, clutch shot maker — as the No. 3 option in Milwaukee He responded that he didn’t think that was what they would be expecting from Kuzma. He would be more of a role player than a primary guy, and they thought Kuzma would make it easier for Antetokounmpo and Lillard to be their best as the No. 1 and No. 2 options. I heard his answer and wondered if he was suggesting you were somehow getting in the way or having you around wouldn’t also make it easier for Antetokounmpo and Lillard. How did you feel when you heard that?

I have to take it as, it’s not a comparison of we still have these guys and we’re going to get the same production. I totally think they needed a different look. Like, they saw enough, they had a big enough sample size to see us three on the court or on the team together, and for some reason or whatever, they decided that this wasn’t probably going to be the right pairing, so let’s try to change something. They probably believe that it can work, and I hope it does for them.

But for me as a player, I hear that, and that means I have to be a better basketball player, honestly. That’s just where I take it. Just be more than a primary guy. Be the guy that does all the little things. He cuts more. He’s a better cutter, probably a better roller because that’s his game. So it’s not maybe I’m not good enough, it’s more (that) this guy probably fits better in between these two pieces. That’s just the way I try to see it.

I mean, I’m not taking it personal. I think Jon knows the type of player I am because he’s seen me every day for 12 years. He knows the type of person and performer I am. So, it goes down to what’s going to be the best fit for this team going forward, and they thought I wasn’t going to be the best fit. Like I said, as a player, that hurts, that sucks. But it motivates you, and you have to take that challenge in a positive way wherever I go next, and that’s here.

The idea when Jon originally traded for Dame was a big three with you and Giannis. Injuries made that difficult, but there were times when it didn’t seem to be working that well. There were nights when you went scoreless and only took a couple of shots. There were nights when Dame talked about not being aggressive enough because he was trying to make it work with you on the floor as well. 

Did you feel like you three were getting somewhere in that process and going to figure it out by the postseason?

It was complicated. I would say we were all trying to do the right thing, but, like I said, it was a hard fit. I mean, you got two primary, ball-dominant guys, and I’m halfway in the middle with that. To find that balance, it was hard because we never had consistency with it.

If we don’t have consistency with that, you’re going to have scoreless or shotless nights or nights where Dame looks like he’s not really involved with the game as he should be. That was the part that was tricky. We just couldn’t get enough reps. As much as we tried, as much as we tried to communicate and make things work, that’s the result we got a lot of times in games, which wasn’t fun.

At times, it was frustrating, but we weren’t frustrated with each other. We were just frustrated, like, why? Why can’t we figure this thing out? You need time and, you know with the situation we were in, there was not enough time.

When you look back at your time in Milwaukee, what are your favorite moments? And what will you miss most?

I think my favorite moments were winning the championship, obviously, but also my first two years there. There’s a lot of things, a lot of special moments, but those were the two points. Of course, you win the championship, everything’s on top, everybody sees that, but nobody really recognizes or really understands how hard it is to go from 15 wins (in 2013-14) to the playoffs the next year, right? So those are two things that are pretty cool.

And of course, I’m gonna miss playing over there, like I said, all the great memories, but to me, it was the fans, man. You talk about a hard place to play in. After a couple of years, like everybody knows, ‘All right, like s—, they got a great team, but you know, if y’all not careful, it can loud in there, they can get rolling.’

I think that’s pretty special. To play in an arena like that, the Bradley Center and then Fiserv (Forum). When you could count how many people were in each section when I first got there to it being sold out, almost sold out, every night. Fans being enthused the whole game, even when we were on bad stretches, we never heard many boos. Every now and then we did and that’s hard to do, but it’s fun and I’m grateful that I played in front of a fanbase like that, that supported us through the ups and downs, through many times.

And (the fans) were always there, through snowy storms, cold weather, freezing weather, it didn’t matter. They were in that building every night.

On Friday, for the first time in their careers, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton were opponents in an NBA game. (Geoff Burke / Imagn Images)

Since the trade, we’ve chatted with Giannis about how he’s never played a game without you on the roster. You obviously had your year in Detroit, so you at least have a little experience playing without him, but now that you are separated, how do you keep that bond strong?

I think that relationship with us will never change. Just from that aspect, people don’t really know, we really never talked or hung out. I mean, you (journalists) probably see because you’re around every day, but me and Giannis, we didn’t talk much off the court. We never really hung out off the court. We live less than a mile apart, and people would think, ‘Damn, y’all hate each other.’

And it’s, ‘Nah, we’re just private guys that like to stay at home.’ He stays with his family. I stay with mine. Our kids mingle a lot, do different play dates and activities and our wives and whatnot.

It’s one of those things where it’s weird because we won’t see each other every day, but that bond will never be broken. Just because of our early days, what we’ve been through, everything we came from, everything that we respect (about) each other came from what we did together on the court and went through on the court and then how we saw us treat our families off the court.

Because I know family’s really important to him, and he knows family is really important to me. We always respected each other from that perspective, just because we know what we put in when we’re on the court, but we also know that there’s another side to us and knowing what’s really important in life. That’s something that you see with his brothers. I think you’ve seen (it) with my sister from time to time. Same with him.

Whenever we cross paths, we will give each other s— all the time. I think it would be weird if we hugged and cried. We would be like, ‘All right, bro. Something’s not right.’

But that’s the type of relationship we have, and I think we’ll always have that until the day we die. Even if he moves to Greece, it will be the same. I know he won’t answer my fifth FaceTime, but if I pull up on him, he’ll answer the door and invite me in.

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(Photo of Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)