For many years, Giannis Antetokounmpo has been the Milwaukee Bucks’ leader — both on and off the court. He is without a doubt the dominant dog. So, what happens when another alpha is introduced into the mix?

This is the exact situation the Bucks will face following their blockbuster Damian Lillard trade.

Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks Keeps It Real

Giannis offered his brutally honest thoughts on this topic in a recent interview with Eric Nehm of The Athletic. According to the Bucks talisman, he understands the difficulties of sharing the leadership role with his new superstar teammate:

“You can feel it with Dame. You know he’s a leader,” Antetokounmpo said. “He’s been leading his team the last 10 years. I think he went, like, seven times in the playoffs. He’s been leading his team. But it’s kind of it’s hard. And for me, like I cannot imagine myself leading a team in Milwaukee and going to play with a great guy also in his team and try to be vocal. Like, it’s hard. And he’s a guy that he doesn’t really say much, he talks on the court.”

Nonetheless, Antetokounmpo insists that this will not be an issue for him, Dame, or the Bucks. It is evident that Giannis is prepared to go to any length to make Lillard feel at ease in Milwaukee:

“But at the end of the day for me, whenever we have conversation, I’m always listening, I listen to him. Like he was talking to me today, like ‘Hey, Giannis, we gotta, boom, boom, boom.’ Got you. You know, then we were talking some about the pick-and-roll, how would we run this, and I looked at him and I said, ‘Whatever way you want it to be run.’ And the one thing that I can say, as a leader and as a teammate, you kind of give that power to the guy. Like ‘Hey man … you’ve been here three, four, five days, it doesn’t matter. When you get the ball, you put us in a position. We run it the way you want to run it. I feel like it kind of hits you like, ‘Oh, OK. OK. This is my s—. This is mine. I’m going to do it my way.’”

Damian Lillard Is an ‘Artist’

Milwaukee may take some time to figure it out, but I’m convinced they will. Giannis has the correct attitude, and it appears that Lillard has the same. They really cannot afford not to make this work.

But once they are on the same wavelength, these two are going to produce some stunning basketball.

“So you got to give guys like him freedom, because he’s an artist, man. He’s got to create art. And hopefully, when you’re next to him, you can also create your own art and then you create the art together,” Giannis said.