Giannis Antetokounmpo: From Greek Freak to Greek God

On several levels, humanity has that base desire to look toward an entity that goes beyond their own understanding. We often seek a greater power, an explanation to serve as the answer to every phenomenon that occurs in this world.

The ancient Greeks once had their own explanation for things that, at the time, could not be explained by science, logic, or any sort of concrete proof. Their pantheon of gods has transcended time, often making appearances in several modern-day forms of media and literature.

But such a pantheon is, and always will be, relegated to myth, beings of pure imagination whose transcendence into the realm of reality is an impossibility.

That is, if you haven’t heard of Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Antetokounmpo does not fit the traditional definition of a god. He does not lord over a certain element or natural body of the world. He does not live at the peak of a mountain that is cut off from the rest of the mortal world, nor does he partake in the politics, schemes, and foolishness of higher beings who revel in such machinations.

In lieu of lightning, the seas, or even the idea of life after death, Antetokounmpo’s domain is relatively humble, yet provides the opportunity for humans to become divine, larger-than-life figures. Such a stage has allowed the likes of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Kawhi Leonard – a hallowed list of names – to ascend to a higher plane inconceivable by most human beings.

There is nothing else that can describe this Game 6 performance from Antetokounmpo as anything less than divine: 50 points, 14 rebounds, 2 assists, and 5 blocks, on a 64/33/90 shooting split and 74.9% true shooting.

All too often, we are swept in the waves of recency bias, victims of our tendency to see what is immediately before us and subscribe to hasty generalizations and sweeping conclusions. But Antetokounmpo’s ascendance to a higher plane isn’t one of those – not if you consider his body of work throughout these NBA Finals.

Antetokounmpo finishes the series on the highest pedestal: 35.2 points, 13.2 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.8 blocks, on a shooting split of 62/20/66 and 65.8% true shooting – numbers that garnered him a well-deserved Finals MVP trophy.

The dominance of Antetokounmpo – his brutality in the paint and the way he bends the geometry of the floor in ways not seen since the likes of O’Neal – was on full display against the Phoenix Suns throughout the series, but arguably not more so than it was in Game 6.

Antetokounmpo finished the game with a 10-of-12 clip at the rim – his domain within the larger domain that is the basketball court. The Suns couldn’t find ways of forming walls, nor could Deandre Ayton – the only Suns player capable of stifling Antetokounmpo’s physicality and strength – stand up in the face of a relentless assault.

Ayton was widely considered to be the single-coverage ballast the Suns could throw at Antetokounmpo, eliminating the need for any kind of floor-warping scheme that would’ve stretched the Suns defense thin. But Antetokounmpo was up to the task of blowing away such an obstacle, both through sheer paint dominance and flair that had Ayton up in arms, at a loss as to how to defend such a force of nature.

By virtue of being tall and strong, Ayton was Antetokounmpo’s primary defender throughout this series, but save for Jae Crowder, who was once part of the anti-Antetokounmpo wall corps the Miami Heat used on their way to Eastern Conference supremacy in 2020, no one else had a snowball’s chance in hell of stopping Antetokounmpo from wreaking havoc in the paint.

Even Crowder had his limitations – Antetokounmpo’s size and length wouldn’t be denied, not even by the most experienced Antetokounmpo defender on the Suns:

But the absolute nightmare scenario for the Suns defense also occurred a couple of times: an outright switch onto a less-than-ideal defender. These possessions should not serve as a referendum on Mikal Bridges’ ability as a defender – his stock as a premier 3-and-D wing has seen a meteoric rise this season – but his wingspan cannot truly compensate for his lack of physicality.

Antetokounmpo had his way against height and against heft – what more against Bridges, who, when switched onto the Bucks’ paint monster, had neither of those traits to survive under the rim.

On a simple action on the elbow: Antetokounmpo screening for Khris Middleton, denied by a top-locking Devin Booker with Jrue Holiday using the Middleton top-lock as a screen, forcing the Suns to switch Crowder onto Holiday and Bridges onto Antetokounmpo:

And a side pick-and-roll that forced another Antetokounmpo switch onto Bridges, a late-clock situation in which Bridges did his best to bother Antetokounmpo’s shot, but was simply too disadvantaged to affect such clutch shot-making:

Even in a game where, compared to previous games, the Bucks scarcely leveraged the threat of Antetokounmpo as a screener, the Bucks found small opportunistic pockets through which Antetokounmpo could force the Suns defense into a conundrum, such as on this possession:

Antetokounmpo seamlessly flows into pitch action with Holiday in the corner, after a failed attempt at busting through Ayton. The transition into such a deadly secondary action leaves the Suns defense having to pack the paint desperately in a bid to stop the downhill roll – but Antetokounmpo cannot be denied.

The kind of dominance Antetokounmpo displayed not only as an individual scorer on one-on-one possessions but also on screen-and-roll actions was sublime; per Synergy, Antetokounmpo as the screener produced a whopping 1.31 points per possession during these playoffs. 

The efficiency of such an action put the Suns in a precarious position throughout the series, a predicament they were ultimately unable to solve – even in a series where the Bucks were displaying ghastly half-court offense all throughout, finishing with a half-court offensive rating of 95.7, a mark that would’ve slotted them as 19th during the regular season, per Cleaning the Glass.

However, the second-fastest team in the league during the regular season found profit through the margins, the hustle plays and stops that allowed them to face a non-set Suns defense. Their transition supremacy made up for their struggles in the half-court; the Bucks put up a whopping 145.0 points per 100 transition plays throughout the Finals, a mark that would have overwhelmingly led the league in the regular season, per Cleaning the Glass.

As usual, Antetokounmpo – arguably the most dominant transition force in the modern NBA – was front and center. Nothing was more exemplary of his hustle, defensive chops, and freight-train transitionality than this sequence:

In a series where the Bucks had the clear size advantage on the boards – they rebounded 31.6% of their misses, a mark that would’ve led the league during the regular season – Antetokounmpo was the series’ undisputed king of offensive boards (24). The second most prolific offensive rebounder – Ayton – had 13.

Antetokounmpo played with the hunger and desire of someone willing to lay it all on the line. The eye of the tiger that has been present ever since his rise from obscurity never wavered throughout his career; it served him well during the biggest game of his life, on a stage where increased scrutiny and pressure can all too easily break lesser beings.

Antetokounmpo, however, was no lesser being:

As much as Antetokounmpo’s been dominant on offense, he has been equally – if not more – dominant on defense, a fact made even more mind boggling by this statistical nugget: In Antetokounmpo’s 239 minutes on the floor in the Finals, the Bucks allowed 12.4 points per 100 possessions fewer, with a defensive rating of 108.0 when he’s on the floor and a defensive rating of 120.4 while sitting on the bench.

So much for those naysayers in the past, whose arguments of Antetokounmpo’s Defensive Player of the Year award being fool’s gold were rendered obsolete – and, quite frankly, moronic – after six games of Finals basketball.

There can be no argument for Antetokounmpo’s greatness at this point, solidified through his incandescent performance and immortalized by his exploits, a superstar who stayed true to his team, to his fans, and to his teammates after years of obscurity, failure, and criticism from every corner of the NBA universe.

At 26 years old, there is more in store for Antetokounmpo, more awards to be won and rings to add to his collection. His story is far from complete, but you can’t help but be amazed at the climax it has already reached.

Antetokounmpo’s journey has finally reached its apotheosis – transcendence to a higher state, the divinization, deification, and transfiguration of a superstar into a legend.

The Olympian gods of old may all have been born out of imagination, the closest visage of their reality being statues, relics, and words passed down orally and through literature. Antetokounmpo will have statues of him built, old keepsakes and memorabilia stored for posterity, and words such as these written to jog memories of this generation and to tell the tale to those who have yet to be born.

But unlike those myths, Antetokounmpo is all flesh and bone, grounded in reality and humanity yet already taking his place within the pantheon of basketball immortals.

All hail Giannis Sina Ugo Antetokounmpo – no longer the mere Greek Freak, but the certified Greek God of Basketball. – Rappler.com