By @AzDoh12
On July 8 2010 LeBron James would drastically change the landscape of the NBA. In a televised event LeBron announced he would be leaving his home town Cleveland Cavaliers and joining fellow NBA All-Stars Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh at the Miami Heat.
The three of them formed what would become known as a super team and he would win consecutive titles with the Miami franchise in 2011-12 and 2012-13.
The effects of that power play, which occurred nearly 9 years ago, are still being felt today in the NBA with teams scrambling to free up cap space to try and land multiple stars in Free Agency hoping to form the next super team.
LeBron would attempt the same thing again with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014-15 by being heavily involved in getting Kevin Love from the Minnesota Timberwolves to form a Big Three with himself and Kyrie Irving.
The Golden State Warriors would go on to add Kevin Durant, game’s premier scorer, to a team that boasted an NBA record 73-9 record the season before. Los Angeles have had several attempts to form a super team. New York and Houston have also attempted to compile “Super teams” over the seasons as a response to the Miami Big 3 collaboration.
Now more troublingly - for the NBA players are forcing their team’s hands to trade them to rivals to form more super teams. Kawhi Leonard forcing the San Antonio Spurs hand for a trade. He made no disguise of his desire to play in Los Angeles, where LeBron had just signed the 2018-19 season.
Most recently, Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans also put his team to the sword informing them that he had no intention of staying on past his contract and that he would like to be traded and would prefer to end up in Los Angeles with LeBron. While many would argue that it’s the Golden State Warrior’s dominance of the league that has formed this move for the best of the best to team up, I believe that LeBron pioneered this shift of power.
Over history, there have been other examples such as the Celtics with Pierce, Allan and Garnett as well as Barkley joining the Houston Rockets. However, the fundamental difference is that these players had already had lengthy careers before deciding to join forces. LeBron and the Heat marked the first time in a long time that three players in their prime, and the cornerstones of their respective teams, had decided to join forces resulting in the shift of the balance of power in the NBA.
Despite this however, there is still a light in the darkness, a hero we NBA fans that still want to see the best compete against each other rather than with each other can rally behind.
Not necessarily a hero that the NBA deserves, but one it certainly needs right now.
Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The ‘Greek Freak’ hailing from Athens, Greece, and making his mark with the small market Milwaukee Bucks. A ridiculous combination of height, speed and skill. Standing nearly 7 feet tall and possessing the skills of an NBA guard, Giannis has quickly risen up the ranks to be one of the NBA’s elite players. Going from strength to strength in the 2016-17 season, he shot to superstardom leading the Milwaukee Bucks in all five major statistical categories becoming the first player in NBA history to finish the season in the Top 20 in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. He won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award that season.
As the 2018/19 season draws to a close, Giannis has 27.1 Points, 12.6 Rebounds and 6 Assists per game and has led the Bucks to an NBA best 60 wins and 22 losses. He looks primed for a deep playoff push and is a legitimate threat to make it all the way to the NBA finals. He is the leading candidate for the Season’s Most Valuable Player award.
However, the most endearing thing about Giannis Antetokounmpo is not the impressive skill set, the freakish combination of size, strength and power but his throw back attitude to the sport of basketball.
He has been vocal in his refusal to affiliate closely with his rivals from other teams turning down multiple invites to work out with his peers during the offseason. The way he sees it, it just doesn’t feel right to work out with guys he’ll be competing against all year.
It’s this type of mentality that the NBA needs, a genuine star player that wants to go out there every night and beat the best of the best. This throw back mentality is a welcome and refreshing change to the near constant stream of articles and conjecture around where star players are going to end up in free agency or watching teams free up cap space in the hope of luring multiple star players together.
Michael Jordan famously condemned LeBron’s move to Miami saying he’d never consider a team up with Larry Bird or Magic Johnson. I feel Giannis is the champion of a new generation of players that want to compete on the highest level. In a recent interview he described his confusion with the influx of young players in the NBA that are far more media focused rather than excelling on the court. Instead he stated he would rather players, “stay in your lane, get your job done and everything else is going to come.”
A player that just wants to excel on the court and win games is a breath of fresh air. Unless you are a fan of a genuine contending team, every fan needs to be cheering for the Bucks come playoff time. It’s this attitude that will keep the NBA exciting and stop it from becoming 4 or 5 teams competing and the rest making up the numbers.
Giannis is the champion of the little guy. Not only does he have no interest in teaming up with his peers, he plays elite level basketball on the offensive and defensive end and he also does it playing for a small market team in Milwaukee.
Unless you support the Warriors or another genuine contending team, basketball fans everywhere should be throwing their support behind Giannis and the Milwaukee Bucks. They personify David v Goliath, the underdog taking it the big boys.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is the hero we all need to get behind. A knight still championing the cause for the best to beat the best rather than forming more ‘super teams’. A player that until this point hasn’t gone chasing the bright lights of the big NBA markets, a player focused on being the best he can be and then letting the game reward his hard work rather than the other way around. A bright light shining against the attitude of the best teaming up.
He may not be the hero everyone deserves but he is the one the NBA needs, the one that aspiring players everywhere need. I’m certainly hoping that 2019 is Giannis Antetokounmpo’s year.
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