The best is Giannis Antetokounmpo
“I’m here because I’m desperate. I’m not as talented as [Curry]. I’m not as talented as KD [Kevin Durant]. I’m fucking desperate. Obsessed. I’m afraid of losing what God has given me and the life I’ve been able to give my kids, my siblings and my mom. That’s why I’m working as hard as I can, because I don’t want to lose all of this.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo, the NBA’s postmodern version of Captain America, has the physique of a superhero, but feels human. He admits weaknesses, doesn’t hide shortcomings and sees himself more as a product consolidated by perseverance. The fruit of work and not of talent.
Giannis has been the living example of the passage from beggar to millionaire. From having nothing to having everything. From sleeping in the same bed as his brothers Thanasis, Alex and Kostas to walking around the rooms of his mansion in River Hills. The son of Nigerian immigrants Charles and Veronica, Giannis went from selling watches, CDs and eyeglasses until he was 17 to trying on an NBA championship ring at 26. Square benches and five-star hotels.
He knows very well that no one in life can achieve things alone. It is us, but much more than that it is us and the environment that surrounds us. And so, with that maxim in mind, he fights inch by inch with his team to achieve results.
Antetokounmpo is a rare specimen in the NBA. He is a star, the best player with miles ahead of his nearest rival, yet he is rarely talked about. Or at least much less than he should be. The reason is clear: in a league full of stars emulating Dorian Gray, in an ocean of heirs of Narcissus and his circumstances, Giannis escapes a majority logic that is pure hysteria: seducing the masses to then not materialize.
The versatile Greek striker, who belongs to the family of hybrid laboratory players, is pragmatism in its purest form. Dynamism, vertigo and, above all, execution. Everyone is talking and he makes it happen. It is content over form, a complete result in a universe of fantasies and empty promises.
Antetokounmpo is the best player who makes the best team. Or vice versa: the best team that makes the best player. Here is a battle won by the common ego that escapes the cameras: Giannis is the best because he makes others better. Because he enjoys the success of others, because he escapes in his nature the excessive “selfishness” of other figures of his caliber. So much so that his figure never looked so strange with that invented rebound against the Washington Wizards to end the night with a triple-double. It was something so absurd, so unbecoming of him and his career, that he surely felt embarrassed just for the impulse, which was far more ridiculous than ingenious. It’s almost impossible to think that something like that will ever happen again with Antetokounmpo.
Let’s look at Milwaukee as a whole. Beyond the championship won in 2021, something that certainly gives him another skin as a figurehead, the interesting thing is to see what Antetokounmpo did with that. Far from wanting to leave for a bigger market, discuss contracts loudly for the cameras or complain recurrently, he managed to do something almost impossible: show up when the team needs him and run to the side when the advantage is elsewhere. Thus, stars like Jrue Holiday emerged on the perimeter, Khris Middleton grew as a scoring small forward, Brook Lopez became a protagonist on both sides of the court, Bobby Portis continued to be an X-factor and they added, among others, Joe Ingles, one of the smartest men playing in the NBA.
Giannis eventually found the secret of the game: he is better when others are better. One for all and all for one. The Bucks shredded the 76ers on Sunday night to reach their 56th win in a regular-season series. It’s the third season in five under Mike Budenholzer that the Bucks have posted 55-plus wins. Of course, the coaching staff in building Antetokoumpo has been vital. They’ve counseled him well and he’s followed their advice.
Let’s not forget something key: loyalty in a world accustomed to breaking locks and promises on a daily basis. Giannis wants to stay in Milwaukee and instead of asking for more stars, he improves the ones he has. He lives basketball the way of other times: less excuses and more work.
So, today the basketball environment is debating between the choice between Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic for MVP. It seems that to be in that discussion it doesn’t matter how much you win but how many points, how many assists and how many rebounds you have on the stat sheet. win? We’ll get to that later. For this writer, the NBA has had a recurring problem for years: rewarding the best in the regular series, when it is clear that no one plays the regular series like they play the playoffs.
Giannis Antetokounmpo does not shoot like Stephen Curry, he does not attack like Curry.
