We Don't Deserve Giannis

Game 4 of the 2021 NBA Finals in Milwaukee is where it happened.

It will be known henceforth in the basketball archives as "The Block".

The moment Giannis Antetokounmpo defied physics, the moment the collective heartbeat of a small market team stopped in it's throat, you could see the play unfolding...

Devin Booker is red hot, on his way to 42 points, he runs a pick and roll with Deandre Ayton with 1:15 to go, he's making everything, he draws Giannis in to defend the mid range jumper and Booker, Chris Paul's understudy, uses one of the old Point God's oldest tricks, he throws the lob pass over the top to Deandre Ayton who is barreling toward the hoop behind Giannis. All 7 feet of him, Giannis is out of position, the angles suggest this will be an easy dunk. We've seen this play before...

As the ball floats toward the rim, you're counting the bucket--tied with a minute to go, okay, fine.

But then something impossible happens.

Giannis turns, outruns and out-jumps the basketball with such-- I'll say it--freakish athleticism and precision it is hard to actually compute as you watch it. It doesn't make sense. How did he do that? The basket was ten feet behind him when it left Booker's hand. He recovers and blocks the ball free from Ayton's hands, and the game away from the Suns.

Now our hearts are beating! The floor of the Fiserv was shaking, horns honking all over town, it's bedlam in every sports bar in Milwaukee, high giving strangers, jumping up and down, screaming like warriors at battle. An absolute circus.

The Bucks held on to get the win and even the series at 2-2.

The city is electric. 30,000 people in and around the stadium like basketball Woodstock, fireworks going off, Uber drivers, bartenders, strangers on the street it's all Bucks. Bucks. Bucks.

Meanwhile, Giannis Antetokounmpo, two-time MVP, on pace to be the greatest European professional basketball of all time, a future Hall of Famer, an athletic supernova, international celebrity, 26 year old multi millionaire, a seven foot Goliath says in a post game press conference these four mighty words:

"I had to tinkle."

That was his response when asked why he left the floor early in the game. Because he had to tinkle.

We've all been there buddy!

This is Giannis, just a pure little angel in the body of a behemoth. I jokingly refer to him as my son when I watch the games, but it kinda feels like he's family. We've watched him grow up.

The first time I saw Giannis was at a press event, he had a boom microphone above him for an interview, he was gangly and boyish, a few inches shorter than he is now, a baby faced basketball unicorn, he grabbed the microphone and started rapping, goofing around, happy to be there.

He's a little more serious now, and a heck of a lot thicker. But he's still Giannis.

Before the game, as always, Giannis spent a good thirty seconds in embrace with his older brother Thanasis, also on the Bucks roster. The outward show of affection in a macho environment is unique and worth mentioning, saying words like "tinkle", not leaving Milwaukee for the spoils and flash of the big markets when his contract was expiring. How can you not root for him? His made-for-the-screen backstory from selling sunglasses on the street in Athens to NBA legend. His father passing away years back, how much that affected him. His work ethic. That time he was running to the Bucks practice facility as a rookie and a local gave him a ride because he didn't have a car. How innocent he was! When he had a smoothie for the first time and said "I love this. I love America!" Completely earnest. The first place finishes, the MVP's, the Defensive Player of the Year. The hope for a championship team we hadn't had in most of our lifetimes.

These are just a few of the reasons we love Giannis so much.

Giannis was the long shot of long shots, and so were the Bucks. An often overlooked city, just like a Memphis or Salt Lake City, it doesn't sound sexy. Giannis has an accent, his game isn't polished, he doesn't have ballerina-like moves and fade aways in his arsenal. He is a battering ram. Humble and steadfast.

Bobby Portis described himself as "a blue collar player in a blue collar city, that's why they love me." BOBBY P! He's right. And the same is true for Giannis, that and his untapped potential. Giannis' raw talent is unbelievable, he's like Netflix stock in 2018--on the rise, pricy, but still a LOT of upside there. (Do yourself a favor and ignore any and all of my investing advice).

Giannis' unlikely rise to stardom over the years has brought so many new fans into the sport in Wisconsin. This kind of finals is crucial for the NBA over the long haul. People will become lifelong fans because of this Finals run. This city and nation-wide, new stars are becoming visible to casual fans that weren't before. This happened in Dallas with Dirk, Cleveland with Lebron, OKC with the--wait they didn't pull it off--you get the idea.

It's growing the game--all of that is true for Phoenix too. Mad respect for that fanbase out there.

The casual fans and national media are bored by this matchup, accustomed to seeing yet another sequel of Lebron vs the Warriors, and now it was supposed to Brooklyn vs Lebron, etc. I understand the draw for those matchups, but those are Marvel Movies. This is an indie darling, get some culture NBA fans, will ya? This is how the sport grows.

Milwaukee could've cared less about the Bucks when Middleton and Giannis were first together, winning only 15 games.

Now look at us. The city is lit up, we have a new arena with a great atmosphere outside of it, and Stephen A. Smith, like most outsiders, dismiss it as a 'meh' city. Meanwhile you can't even buy a Middleton jersey cause they're all sold out.

Many in the basketball landscape quietly dismiss Giannis as an unskilled superstar who relies too much on brut force, not putting him in the same atmosphere as Lebron, KD and Kawhi. And it's true, he is still learning the game, in real time before our eyes in the NBA Finals, it's frustrating at times. He's running around tinkling and hugging his brother, doing his thing, and yet his talent is so immense this team, with all its quirks and frustrations, are they just resilient enough? Do they have enough to do win the NBA Finals?

So now it's 2-2. If the Bucks can steal on in Phoenix, they'll come back here to our welcoming arms. Can they fulfill the "Bucks in Six" prophecy?

The mantra of the Bucks on the Internet and at games for the past few years has been "Bucks in Six". I don't know where it originated, but it's now a known phrase across the city, the fans chant it, willing it into reality. At bars after Game 4, people were hugging and saying goodbye, following up their handshakes with "Bucks in Six" with a quiet serenity you might expect in a religious ceremony.

Can Giannis etch his name, and his teammates names, into NBA history?

I hope so, but either way I am grateful to witness this playoff run.

Bucks in Six.

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