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The Milwaukee Bucks clinched their first title in 50 years Tuesday night, thanks to a masterful performance from Giannis Antetokounmpo. He finished the game with 50 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocks, numbers which, honestly, don’t completely do justice to the physical force he was in this game. By Game Score, an all-in-one box score metric of single-game production, it was the second-best performance in NBA Finals history.
Rising to the occasion and winning a ring will burnish Giannis’ legacy beyond reproach but the specific ways in which he did it are particularly noteworthy. Stylistically, it was a signature performance — with endless drives to the rim, using a combination of force and length to finish over and through the defense. The only piece that felt like something new was his 17-of-19 performance at the free-throw line, a monumental improvement from the 58.7 free-throw percentage he posted across the entire postseason.
Throughout this entire playoff run, Giannis averaged 12.7 drives per game and made 63.8 percent of his shots off drives. That’s about the same as his regular-season marks and made him the only player in the regular season or playoffs to shoot 60 percent or better on 10 or more drives per game. But the conventional wisdom had become that the Bucks couldn’t win because of their overreliance on Giannis creating from the perimeter against static playoff defenses. Teams could simply build a wall on key possessions — Giannis didn’t have a counter and the Bucks didn’t have any other offensive wrinkles they were comfortable trying.
But Giannis simply smashed his way through the conventional wisdom. He shot 64.5 percent on 11.8 drives per game in the Finals, including 16 points on 16 drives in Game 6. He had no problems scoring in the clutch throughout the postseason — shooting 59.1 percent during the entire postseason and 66.7 percent in the Finals. And he did it without adding any real diversity to his offensive package — he was 3-of-15 on 3-pointers in the Finals and shot 31.8 percent on all pull-up jumpers in the playoffs.
Same Giannis Antetokounmpo, different results
It’s continually amazing how short our memories are when it comes to sports, how stubbornly we cling to misconceptions of the past and how little imagination we bring to predicting the future. For me, in my basketball lifetime, the seminal example is Dirk Nowitzki — he was an MVP and all-time great but also irrevocably flawed, a player who wasn’t good enough to lead his team to a title … until he was.
Dirk’s narrative arc maps almost perfectly onto Giannis’ — individual brilliance, awards and accolades, regular-season dominance and a steady string of playoff disappointments. The difference wasn’t stunning development from Dirk, there were no fatal flaws addressed. He won a title as the same player he’d always been, with (like every other champion ever) the right supporting cast and a lot of random variables finally breaking his way.
Giannis undoubtedly benefited from injuries to opponents, from the Jrue Holiday upgrade and unlikely performances at different points from Bobby Portis, Brook Lopez and Pat Connaughton. Those variables broke the Bucks’ way but the biggest variable for them was the Giannis was and is good enough to lead a team to a championship. Not some hypothetical version of Giannis that can drain pull-up 3-pointers or melt seamlessly into a new role as a screener and off-ball threat. The same one we watched win back-to-back MVPs, a Defensive Player of the Year Award and lead his team to back-to-back 60-win seasons. That guy was good enough too.
The funny thing is that, by winning a championship, Giannis has effectively ended this particular conversation about him and his basketball legacy. But it would be nice if we could please hold onto this idea when we’re talking about Chris Paul, or Damian Lillard or the next ascendant young player whose team repeatedly falls out of the playoffs sooner than we expect — you can be good enough to lead a team to a title without actually leading a team to a title. And, if you wait long enough and keep grinding, sometimes the universe will let you prove it.
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