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Faced with the biggest test of his young career, Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo gave a herculean performance on Tuesday night in Milwaukee, leading his Bucks to their first title in a half century with 50 points in a 105-98 Game 6 win over the Phoenix Suns.
The 26-year-old overcame a knee injury he suffered in the Eastern Conference Finals and his own poor free throw shooting in the playoffs to grab 14 key rebounds and block five shots while sinking 17 of 19 from the line on Tuesday.
Prior to Game 6, the Athens native known as the ‘Greek Freak’ had made just 55.8 percent of his foul shots in the postseason while being teased relentlessly by opposing crowds.
Tuesday, in his adopted home town of Milwaukee, Antetokounmpo didn’t listen to ridicule, but rather chants of ‘MVP’ from the capacity crowd at Fiserv Forum and the estimated 65,000 fans surrounding the arena.
Naturally, voting media members agreed, and awarded Antetokounmpo the NBA Finals MVP award.
‘People told me I can’t make free throws and I made them tonight,’ Antetokounmpo said after winning his first NBA title. ‘And I’m a freaking champion.’
‘It’s hard to find more words to describe what Giannis does,’ Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said after Tuesday’s win. ‘But the way he made his free throws, the way he did everything, stepped up, the poise, the confidence, the leadership – he has been working on it.
‘To win a championship, you’ve got to make free throws and you’ve got to make shots,’ he continued. ‘He’s made shots throughout the playoffs. He’s made free throws throughout the playoffs. [Five] blocked shots, however many points. He’s off the charts. He’s the MVP of the NBA Finals.’
Antetokounmpo surprised the basketball-loving public back in December by singing a five-year, $220 million extension with the club amid rampant speculation he would try to force his way to a bigger market to match his burgeoning star power.
But for Antetokounmpo, one of five sons born to Nigerian immigrants, winning with the team that drafted him as a skinny teenager in 2013 was too important.
‘I wanted to do it here in the city and I wanted to do it here with these guys,’ Antetokounmpo said.
Without mentioning the names of LeBron James or Kevin Durant – two MVPs criticized for bailing on their clubs to join better contenders – Antetokounmpo made it clear at his post-game press conference that he never had any interest in teaming up with established All-Stars to win a title.
‘That’s my stubborn side,’ he explained. ‘It’s easy to go somewhere and win a championship with somebody else. It’s easy. I could go… to a super team, and just do my part and win a championship, but this is the hard way to do it.’
He also credited the late Kobe Bryant with challenging him to become an MVP, himself, in 2017 and then to win a championship in 2019.
‘He made me believe,’ Antetokounmpo said. ‘I’m like, Kobe Bryant thinks I can do this and I can play at a high level and build my team and win my MVP? I had to do it. I had to work hard. And to not necessarily let him down. I had to work hard because people believed that I can do it.
‘That’s the thing. I’m a people pleaser. I don’t like letting people down. I don’t like — when I signed with the city of Milwaukee, that’s the main reason I signed because I didn’t want to let the people down and think that I didn’t work extremely hard for them, which I do. But to be able to accomplish those things, it’s crazy. It’s unreal. It’s freaking unreal. I can’t believe it.’
Exactly three weeks after suffering a knee injury that appeared to put his future in doubt, Antetokounmpo carried the Bucks to their first championship in 50 years. Just as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar led Milwaukee to its first championship in 1971, the 6-foot-11 Antetokounmpo made sure a big man also carried the Bucks to their next title.
Antetokounmpo was an easy choice for the MVP honor after posting at least 40 points and 10 rebounds in three of the six games in this series.
He did all that while dealing with a hyperextended left knee that prevented him from playing in the last two games of the Eastern Conference finals against the Atlanta Hawks. Antetokounmpo initially feared the injury was more serious and would keep him out of action for an entire year. He instead was back on the floor a week later for the start of the NBA Finals.
He collected 20 points and 17 rebounds in a Game 1 loss. He followed that up by producing at least 41 points and 12 rebounds in each of the next two games.
But his biggest impact may have been on the defensive side.
‘I think he embraces us being great defensively,’ Budenholzer said. ‘Giannis does, the whole team. When we get stops and get out and run and get Giannis in space, get our team in space, I think he’s special. He was able to put his stamp on the game in the third quarter and flip the score. And then some big plays in the fourth quarter — big plays, big blocks. It’s hard to keep finding words for Giannis.’
Then he played major roles in the two signature plays of this series.
First he blocked Deandre Ayton’s dunk attempt to prevent Phoenix from tying Game 4 with just over a minute left. And after Jrue Holiday made a steal with the Bucks protecting a one-point lead in the final minute of Game 5, Antetokounmpo raced down the court and was on the receiving end of Holiday’s alley-oop that helped clinch the game.
He saved his finest outing for the championship clincher. Antetokounmpo became the first player to collect at least 40 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks in any playoff game since Shaquille O’Neal in 2001.
Antetokounmpo scored 20 points in the third quarter alone to help Milwaukee rally from a 47-42 halftime deficit, though the game was still tied 77-all heading into the final period.
He had 27 of the Bucks’ 48 total points through the game’s middle two quarters. And after making just 55.6 percent of his free throws in his first 20 games of this postseason, Antetokounmpo went 17 of 19 from the line Tuesday.
His rapid recovery to lead Milwaukee to it first title since 1971 represents the crowning achievement in Antetokounmpo’s remarkable rise to NBA stardom.
The 26-year-old Antetokounmpo noted at a Monday news conference that he hadn’t even started playing basketball yet in 2007, when LeBron James made his first finals appearance. His rare blend of size and athleticism made him the No. 15 overall pick in the 2013 draft, and he made his first All-Star appearance four years later.
He earned back-to-back MVP honors in 2019 and 2020 while leading the Bucks to the league’s best regular-season record each of those years, but they kept falling short in the playoffs. The Bucks blew a 2-0 lead to Toronto in the 2019 Eastern Conference finals and lost to Miami in the second round last year.
Antetokounmpo kept his faith in the Bucks by signing a supermax extension in December. He also decided to take a different mental approach.
He acknowledged getting too caught up in the emotional swings of each win and loss earlier in his career. He stayed more level-headed this year while also emerging as a more vocal leader.
‘I was getting too high [after wins], and maybe the loss I felt like it was the end of the world,’ Antetokounmpo said Monday. ‘I feel like this year, lose or win, that did not happen. I was the same kind of guy. I just live with whatever outcome comes because I believe that I’m supposed to be there in that time and place.’
That strategy allowed the Bucks to erase 2-0 deficits in the second round against Brooklyn and again in these finals. It helped Antetokounmpo deal with the uncertainty in the immediate aftermath of his injury.
And now it has him on the highest of highs as the MVP of a league championship series.
What started as a gradual rise for Antetokounmpo and the Bucks sped up in the last few years and they thought they might be here the last two seasons. They had the NBA’s best record in 2018-19 but blew a 2-0 lead against Toronto in the Eastern Conference finals.
They came back with the best record again last season but never regained their momentum after the season was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic in March. They were eliminated in the second round by Miami in the bubble.
The Bucks traded for Jrue Holiday before this season and even though they weren’t quite as strong in the regular season, they were finally NBA Finals ready.
And Milwaukee was ready for the moment.
Middleton scored 17 points and Bobby Portis came off the bench with 16. Holiday had 12 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds to go along with his usual sturdy defense that helped finally cool off Booker.
‘I think it’s just a credit to the players,’ Budenholzer said. ‘We’ve been pushing. We’ve been trying to get better. The players embrace everything. They’re amazingly coachable. They take it, soak it in and make the best of it.’
Fans began filling the streets and restaurants in the afternoon on what felt like a holiday in Milwaukee. The Brewers moved up the start time of their home game against Kansas City to be played in the afternoon to accommodate Milwaukee fans – and Brewers star Christian Yelich, who was part of the crowd inside Fiserv Forum.
The game was tied at 77 after three quarters but Antetokounmpo had 13 points in the fourth to make sure Milwaukee wouldn’t have to go back to Phoenix for Game 7 on Thursday.
The Suns returned to the postseason for the first time since 2010 but remain without a title and have never won more than two games in their three appearances in the NBA Finals.
‘Nobody probably expected us to be where we are except for us,’ Paul said. ‘B
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