Two-time MVP. Defensive Player of the Year. Most Improved Player. Five-time All-Star and All-NBA selection. NBA Finals MVP.
This is the résumé of a surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer. It’s also the résumé of Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose meteoric rise in one of the greatest rags-to-riches stories in the history of pro sports has turned him into a global superstar and delivered Milwaukee its first championship in 50 years.
It’s probably also worth mentioning that the guy doesn’t even turn 27 until this December.
It’s hard to know where to even begin when discussing Giannis and his ascent to greatness or what he’s meant to Milwaukee.
His incredible story is well-known by Bucks and NBA fans by now: the son of Nigerian parents who endured racism and a life of poverty growing up in Greece.
He eventually took to basketball despite growing up a soccer fan, a decision that led him to the second division of pro basketball in Greece. It was there that he caught the eye of several NBA scouts, including Milwaukee’s then-assistant GM Jeff Weltman.
In the 2013 NBA Draft, John Hammond, the Bucks’ general manager at the time, forever altered the course of the franchise by pulling the trigger on selecting Giannis with the No. 15 pick.
No one could have fathomed what was in store.
For an 18-year-old kid who ate so infrequently that he suffered liver damage due to malnutrition, simply making the NBA was a dream realized. But, as we know, it was just the beginning.
Giannis came to a small-market franchise that had spent decades mired in mediocrity. If a person who was only casually aware of the NBA was doing a Sporcle quiz where they tried to name all 30 teams, the Bucks would’ve been very high on the list of teams they’d be most likely to forget.
It was also a franchise whose future in Milwaukee was very much in doubt at the time.
Housed in the crumbling Bradley Center with and a lethargic fan base and then-owner Herb Kohl looking to sell, the Bucks seemed like a prime contender to move west as a revival for the Seattle SuperSonics.
In Giannis’s rookie year, the team bottomed out. Milwaukee posted a league-worst record of 15-67 during the 2013-14 season and drew the No. 2 pick in the 2014 draft.
Giannis almost immediately enamored himself with the Bucks diehards still following the team at rock bottom, but he was still just largely untapped potential. It was Jabari Parker who was supposed to return the franchise to relevancy.
Parker suffered an ACL tear in his left knee 25 games into his NBA career. Another ACL tear in the same knee 26 months later all but dashed any remaining hopes of Jabari being the franchise’s savior.
But by the time of Parker’s second ACL tear in February 2017, Antetokounmpo had firmly begun his climb. He had signed a four-year, $100 million extension the prior September and followed it up with a breakout season that saw him earn his first All-Star selection and be named the NBA’s Most Improved Player.
The franchise’s fortunes were changing along with it. Kohl had sold the team to a new ownership group prior to the 2014-15 season and plans for a new arena were approved the following year.
The Bucks’ future in Milwaukee was secured, and just in time for their budding star to drag the team out of basketball purgatory and toward the limelight.
With the new Fiserv Forum opening and a new head coach in Mike Budenholzer joining the franchise for the 2018-19 season, Giannis reached new heights.
He won his first MVP that year and followed it up with another the next, becoming the 12th player in NBA history to win the award in back-to-back years.
But with the rapid rise came increased scrutiny when the Bucks posted the league’s best regular-season record before flaming out in the playoffs two straight years.
The Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat used walls of defenders to deny Giannis the paint. He was unable to sufficiently find alternate ways to score and his supporting cast failed to pick up the slack.
There were reactionary takes pondering if Giannis, a 25-year-old two-time MVP who had improved every year of his career, had what it took to be The Guy on a championship contender.
If it wasn’t that, it was speculation as to where Giannis might go when he became a free agent in the summer of 2021. To some, it was matter of when, not if, he left Milwaukee for greener pastures.
Giannis was eligible for a supermax extension with the Bucks last offseason. He could’ve waited until after the season to make his decision after seeing how this year went, but instead committed to the franchise and city where he had made his NBA dreams a reality by signing that extension through 2026 this past December.
That itself was a monumental win for Milwaukee, but only a taste of what was to come.
Giannis entered this postseason with a “playoff choker” label among certain fans and talking heads he needed to shake. He did so in the most resounding way imaginable, shaking off continued scrutiny along the way.
Giannis was criticized for saying “I don’t know if it will be different” ahead of Milwaukee’s playoff rematch with Miami. The Bucks promptly swept the Heat.
When he called Kevin Durant “the best player in the world right now” after the Nets took a 3-2 series on Milwaukee, some took it as evidence that Giannis lacked the requisite killer instinct to win in the playoffs. He went ahead and scored 70 points over the next two games as the Bucks moved on.
Giannis’s straightforward honesty is no sign of weakness, but rather an indicator of just how comfortable he is with himself. He’ll wax poetic about living in the moment rather than focusing on the past or poke fun at himself for the occasional airballed free throw. On the court, he’ll aggressively go up for a risky block the possession after being put on a poster.
That comfort level combined with his relentless tenacity toward bettering his game and putting himself in a better position to help his team compete for a championship showed up in a major way for this playoff run.
The scars and lessons from the Toronto and Miami fiascos were present. This was not a Giannis who was going to impatiently try and ram his way into a wall of defenders and take avoidable offensive fouls in the process. His passing and court vision along with improved scoring in the paint outside the restricted area made him much more formidable.
Drawing charges is sometimes the best defense against Giannis, and he deftly avoided them all postseason long. He was constantly playing under control and rarely turning the ball over.
Combine all that with his usual phenomenal defense and he provided a level of consistency for a Bucks team that at times seemed allergic to the concept.
Now that the Bucks have won the championship, players’ and coaches’ strengths naturally get all the focus rather than the flaws they showed during the playoffs. But those shortcomings would’ve gotten laser focus had the team not picked itself up off the mat on numerous occasions.
Jrue Holiday was a versatile defensive stalwart and rediscovered his shot at convenient moments during this run. But his shooting woes wouldn’t have been so easily forgiven with a loss. Khris Middleton hit clutch shot after clutch shot throughout these playoffs, but his slow starts to series could’ve prompted another round of discussion about his viability as the No. 2 option on a title contender had Milwaukee fallen short.
Mike Budenholzer showed a greater willingness to adapt (especially defensively) and shorten his rotation after intense criticism for his failure to do so in previous years. With a loss before the NBA Finals, Bud could have easily been on the chopping block and the team’s inconsistent half-court offense scrutinized again.
And since the Bucks won, we can mostly gloss over the fact that their collective 3-point shooting (the fifth-best in the NBA during the regular season this year) inexplicably disappeared for the most part for a third straight postseason.
All of this is to say, Milwaukee wasn’t some juggernaut that comfortably rolled to a championship. They had their flaws and came back from the brink on multiple occasions. The margins between finally getting over the hump and suffering another round of playoff agony were paper thin at points during this run.
The Bucks found just the right mix of resiliency and good fortune to exorcise their postseason demons and capture a championship. Because of that, we can applaud what each individual contributed to the effort rather than rue the mistakes and missed opportunities that could have caused them to come up short.
Had the Bucks not won the title, however, Giannis would’ve (or at least should’ve) escaped such criticisms. There were really no potentially fatal flaws to speak of in his game this time around.
He was a force on both ends of the floor night in and night out, doing more than his part to contribute to the cause. It was usually just a matter of what the supporting cast would do.
That frightening hyperextended knee in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals could have derailed his narrative-shifting run. He thankfully avoided structural damage and his teammates picked up the slack in his absence to win the final two games against the Hawks and send the Bucks to the Finals.
By some miracle, he was not only able return for the start of the series, but able to play perhaps the best basketball of his career yet on the biggest stage.
All Giannis did against the Suns was average 35.2 points and 13.2 rebounds on 61.1 percent shooting, score 40 points in back-to-back games for the first time in his career, pull off one of the most iconic blocks in NBA Finals history and then follow it up the next game with an all-time alley oop.
Then there was his Game 6 masterpiece. A city packed with tens of thousands of raucous Bucks fans desperate to see that 50-year title drought end. It was a shaky performance for most of the team, but not for Giannis.
He poured in 50 points on 16-of-25 shooting to go along with 14 rebounds and five blocks. He became just the seventh player to score 50 in a Finals game and joined Bob Petit as the only ones to do it in a title-clinching game.
He even answered the one real criticism about his game these playoffs, his free-throw shooting, by going 17 for 19 at the line Tuesday night. It was simply the stuff of legends.
Giannis and Khris have completed the unlikely journey from a 15-win season seven years ago to the 16-win odyssey required to get a title in the postseason. Bud went from basically fired to the exclusive club of championship-winning coaches. Brandon Jennings saw his “Bucks in six” prophecy that he foretold eight years ago come to fruition.
And Giannis has added the greatest chapter yet in his meteoric rise to superstardom, continuing his all-time great trajectory and silencing critics. More people than ever are embracing a guy who seems like he was sent from Mount Olympus to be the most likable star athlete in sports.
He may be an outlier in an NBA where the 3-pointer is more important than ever, but his greatness can no longer be denied. And the idea that he’s an elite player but not a closer? He’s not the Robin to anyone’s Batman.
Though it doesn’t really matter what you call him. Batman, Robin, Superman, whatever. As long as you’re calling him NBA champion.
And while we’re at it, it might not be a bad idea to get used to calling him the best in the world.
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