Make Hay While The Sun Is Shining, By Losing In Earnest While Giannis Is Injured | Defector

"He hurt his calf Friday night in a loss to the Denver Nuggets. Calf injuries are serious business, linked in a few prominent cases with catastrophic Achilles tendon ruptures, and this is Antetokounmpo's second already this season. He's going to be out for a while. This will be the second consecutive All-Star game he's had to miss due to injury, and the third in four tries, although in 2023 he made a brief ceremonial appearance, scoring one gimme bucket in 20 seconds of action."

"The threshold for qualification is 65 games, and Giannis, who has already missed 14 games this campaign, would need perfect health and attendance after the break in order to make it to 58 games, which would already be the fewest he's ever played in his 13 NBA seasons. There are no automatic contractual consequences triggered by Antetokounmpo failing to make All-NBA, but it's significant anyway: He's made one of the teams every year since 2016, and has made the first team for seven consecutive seasons."

"He's hoping to return by mid-March, by which time the Bucks will be moldering in a ditch. "I'm going to work my butt off to come back," he said Friday night. "That will probably be the end of February, beginning of March. Hopefully the team will be in a place that we can at least make the play-in or make the playoffs and just take it day by day, try to get better.""

Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a calf injury Friday in a loss to the Denver Nuggets and will miss the 2026 NBA All-Star Game. The calf injury is his second this season and is linked to increased risk of catastrophic Achilles ruptures; he will be sidelined for an extended period. He will fall short of All-NBA qualification because the 65-game threshold is unattainable after already missing 14 games this campaign. There are no automatic contractual penalties, but the All-NBA streak (first team seven straight seasons) will end. He will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2016; he hopes to return by late February or mid-March while the Bucks sit 18-26 and 2.5 games out of the play-in.

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