Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks holds the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Award and the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy after defeating the Phoenix Suns in Game Six to win the 2021 NBA Finals (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
Giannis Antentokounmpo put the world on notice after helping the Milwaukee Bucks bring home their first title in 50 years… without any superteam formations.
It’s customary for NBA franchises to take bits and pieces of talent and create a superteam that is worthy of playoff contention. You can argue that it became popularized with the formation of the Big 3 in 2010 with LeBron taking his talents to Miami (that was really 11 years ago, wow), or when Shaq joined Kobe in Los Angeles.
Nonetheless, talented players have been moving and shaking to talented teams and markets where they have the highest probability to win it all. But 2021 NBA Champion and Finals MVP Giannis Atentokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks isn’t trying to hear all of that.
In the forked road towards success, Giannis took the road less traveled
After a stellar performance by the Greek Freak with a 50-piece and 10 boards, he provided not only the first championship in five decades for Milwaukee, but he made a valid point on the talks about the “small market” team who went through hell and high water to get to where he’s sitting today.
When asked if he could imagine things playing out the way things did, he put it all out on the table. When signing the supermax contract, Giannis probably wasn’t thinking that seven months later it would play like this. He could have easily picked a different route for himself and left the Bucks in the dust.
But he didn’t. He stuck with his guns and worked with Kris Middleton and Mike Budenholzer to create the best opportunity for Milwaukee to survive and advance despite an abbreviated season riddled with injuries, COVID, and loud fans counting while he shot free-throws.
Like any great story, it’s not great if you can’t find an underlying theme in it. For this newly crowned champion, the theme comes two-fold: good things come to those who wait and the good things aren’t going to come without adversity.