The team was foundering, and they faced more questions about energy and effort. Antetokounmpo and Connaughton openly wondered where the joy had gone. One player said his teammates were still arguing about schemes as they felt the urgency to turn it around.
“Giannis is Milwaukee,” a former teammate said. “When you have a guy like Giannis it’s never going to leave your mind of wanting to win a championship. It’s not a thing. There is no such thing of having a good year and figuring it out. It was an overwhelming feeling of ‘We’ve got to get it done.’” Rivers pulled together the top nine rotation players to check on the mood of the team. Though the immediate feel from the veterans afterward was positive, Rivers would call yet another meeting, only with just the championship five. "He drove a wedge between the guys who a championship," one player said, "and everybody else."
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
