Giannis Antetokounmpo Is Why We Love Sports: A Short, Incoherent Rambling About One of the All-Time Greats
On Tuesday July 20th, 2021, the Milwaukee Bucks made history. In front of a sold-out home crowd, and an additional 65,000 rabid fans watching outside the stadium, the Bucks won their first NBA Championship in 50 years. They were led by a truly Herculean effort by their star player, Giannis Anttetokounmpo. Very few times have we seen a player put on the kind of performance that Giannis just did in the NBA Finals. Giannis is only the second player in NBA history with 50 points in a close-out game of the NBA finals, along with withBob Pettit, and he joins Shaquille O’Neal as the only two players in NBA history to have three 40+ point and 10+ rebound games in a Finals Series.
The story of Giannis will probably be turned into a feel-good Disney+ movie someday, but the origins of Giannis were anything but a fairytale. Born the child of Nigerian immigrants in Greece, Giannis and his family had to fight for everything in life. Giannis was effectively a stateless person, unable to obtain Greek citizenship until the age of 18 when the government saw his promise as a basketball player. The Antetokounmpo family lived in poverty. A young Giannis would spend his days selling watches, purses, and CDs on the street to help put food on the table. They lived in a tiny two-bedroom apartment and often wouldn’t have enough food. He and his brother once had to share a pair of shoes for a basketball game. In a 60 Minutes interview a few years back Giannis talked about his childhood and said “We didn’t have a lot of money. But we had a lot of happiness. So we weren’t broke happiness-wise. When we were struggling back in the day, we were all together in one room, the same room. We were having fun. We were smiling.”
Everything changed in 2013 for Giannis and his family when he was drafted by the Bucks with the 15th pick in the NBA draft. At the time, Giannis a 6'9 lanky forward impressed scouts with his tantalizing athleticism and the prospect of what he could become one day. His rookie year wasn’t productive stats-wise, but it was evident that he could turn into something spectacular in due time. Nobody imagined he would turn into what he is now. A late growth spurt shot Giannis up to nearly 7 feet tall. A relentless work ethic in the gym and access to proper nutrition allowed him to put on nearly 50lbs of muscle. Giannis refined his game over the years, turning into a player who can get to the basket seemingly at will and is quite possibly the greatest defender in NBA history. By the age of 26, Giannis was already a two-time MVP, defensive player of the year, and a multi-time all-star and all-NBA player.
Fast forward to this year. NBA Finals. This was Giannis’ series, this was his moment, this was his legacy. So much of sports legacies, where a player ends up in our minds of the pantheon of all-time greats, is determined by moments. We remember LeBron James’ block on Iguodala in 2016. We remember the Jordan shot in 1998 to bury the Jazz. Giannis gave us three of those moments in one series. The block on DeAndre Ayton in Game 4, the alley-oop on Chris Paul in Game 5, and finally dropping 50 (On 17–19 free throw shooting two days after Paul said everyone expects Giannis to miss free throws) in Game 6 to clinch the series. Giannis cemented himself as one of the all-time greatest players Tuesday night, and he did it with joy. Joy has often been a word associated with Anteteokounmpo. As a young player, his teammates thought he was too nice and Giannis had to practice his scowl in the mirror. We saw Giannis, and really the whole Bucks team, play with so much joy this series. The team seemed like they truly loved each other, which sounds corny as hell but I think it matters! In the post-game celebration, they were pushing praise onto their teammates, not taking it all for themselves. Just look at the relationship between Giannis and teammate Khris Middleton. Giannis stated earlier in this series that the day Khris retired would be the saddest day of his career. We have seen them grow together over the last 8 years. Seeing those two embraces on the podium after everything they have they have been through, people saying Giannis should leave for seemingly greener pastures, that Middelton should be traded, that one had to be Batman and the other had to be Robin, was truly special.
In some ways, Giannis saved NBA basketball in Milwaukee. In his rookie year, the team won only 15 games. Questions about Milwaukee’s viability as an NBA city were raised. Giannis brought the franchise a new level of respect that it had not seen before. And even when outside forces were telling him to go somewhere else, to leave small-market Milwaukee and form a super team in a bigger market, Giannis stayed. He in some ways healed a wound that had long been there for Bucks fans. A wound of their great stars of the past like Kareem Abdul Jabar, Ray Allen, leaving the team. Giannis helped fix that, and Bucks fans rewarded him by tirelessly having his back and showing how strong the Bucks fan community is. Night in and night out in these playoffs Buks fans took to the street in the “Deer District” and showed their support for their team, hearing late into the night. Giannis didn’t quit on them and they didn’t quit on him.
Giannis now appears to be the face of the NBA. He seems like he has taken the baton and will be the next iconic player that becomes a household name and is the guy the next generation of fans look up to. Some would say Giannis can’t be the new face of the league because nobody can relate to him. As their evidence, some will say that people can’t relate to Giannis Antetekounmpo. We can’t relate to someone who is 7 feet tall with that elite athletic ability. Poppycock. It doesn't matter how tall or athletic Giannis is. That's not the point. In many ways, we love our athletes and our sports icons not for what they accomplish on the court or the field, but for who they are off of it. People didn’t love Ken Griffey Jr for his towering home runs, but his smile and child-like joy for the game. Kobe wasn’t an icon for his post fadeaway, but because of his “Mamba Mentality” work ethic. In that sense, I can’t think of a more relatable athlete than Giannis, a man who has simply worked his whole life to help his family. A man who has done everything he can to improve himself and get better to provide for his family and to set his kids and their kids up for success. A man who celebrates the greatest accomplishment of his career by getting Chick-fil-A. Giannis is a classic, relatable story that we all can root for. He is the epitome of the “American Dream” and in a time when in many ways it seems the “American Dream” is dead maybe this is the guy we need. Giannis inspires us, he shows us that even still to this day, with hard work, and a little bit of luck, we too can accomplish incredible things.
When the final buzzer rang, and the Bucks officially became champions. Giannis made a beeline for his family. He embraced his mother Veronica, hugged his brother, and then he went over to the bench and collapsed to the floor before taking a seat. As tears welled in his eyes you couldn't help but wonder what was going through his mind. The journey from a malnourished kid in Greece to an NBA superstar. The ups and downs that his Bucks teams have faced the last eight years. How his late father Charles is probably looking down on him right now so incredibly proud of his son. You could see it all, you could feel it all. It instantly became an iconic picture that encapsulates everything we love about sports. The passion, the joy, the heartbreak, the jubilation. It’s why sports are so god damn cool and special. Sports are community-based, they help us build bonds with people we would otherwise never talk to. They’re family-based, connecting us to our loved ones. Giannis and his story highlight all of these facets of sports wrapped up in an extremely likable and inspiring package. He is not just the face of the NBA but the face of sports, and there is not a better athlete out there for that role.
