Giannis Antetokounmpo suspended one game for head-butting Moritz Wagner

Tom Gatto

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Giannis Antetokounmpo suspended one game for head-butting Moritz Wagner image

The NBA on Wednesday suspended Bucks big man Giannis Antetokounmpo one game without pay for his head-butt of the Wizards' Moritz Wagner.

Antetokounmpo will sit out the Bucks' final seeding game in the Orlando bubble, Thursday against the Grizzlies.

Antetokounmpo head-butted Wagner during the second quarter of the Bucks' victory over the Wizards on Tuesday night. He was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul and ejected. Antetokounmpo said after the game that he was frustrated by opponents' "dirty" play.

He expressed remorse for his "terrible action."

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"If I could turn back time and go back to that play, I wouldn't do it," he told reporters. "But at the end of the day, we're all human, we all make mistakes. I think I've done a great job all year and in my career, keeping my composure and focusing on the game. But like I say, we're all human, we all make mistakes.

"I'll learn from it, keeping playing good basketball and keep moving forward."

Thursday's game means nothing to Milwaukee; it clinched the best record in the Eastern Conference long ago. It will begin its playoff campaign the week of Aug. 17. Memphis, meanwhile, is fighting for a spot in the Western Conference play-in game(s) to determine the eighth seed and a first-round matchup with the Lakers.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.