Giannis Antetokounmpo gave his brother, Kostas, a nice champion’s welcome home.
Kostas Antetokounmpo was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, who won the NBA championship on Sunday. Kostas was representing the Greek flag throughout the championship ceremony after Game 6.
Kostas returned home to Greece and had all sorts of love from his family. Giannis shared a video on Instagram of the horns he sounded and great welcome they gave Kostas at the airport in Athens.
That was beautiful to see.
There was some thought that Giannis might be a tad jealous of his brother for being the first in the family to win an NBA championship, but based on that video, Giannis seems nothing but happy for his brother. Someone needs to show the video to JaVale McGee.
JaVale McGee threw a little shade at Giannis Antetokounmpo after the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat 106-93 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night to win the championship.
The Lakers winning the championship meant that Kostas Antetokounmpo, a reserve for the Lakers, got a championship ring. He became an NBA champion before his brother, Giannis. And Giannis has won two NBA MVP awards!
McGee reminded those watching his Instagram Live Sunday about that fact.
“Y’all talk about the Greek Freak. (Kostas) is the first one to win it! He’s the first one to win it! He’s the first one with a ring!” McGee said in the video.
McGee was celebrating and gets a bit of a pass for the trash talk.
But how does Giannis feel about things? He’s probably ecstatic for Kostas, but also a little jealous deep down. Kostas did at least represent their home country during the Lakers’ celebration.
Giannis Antetokounmpo came prepared to win his second NBA MVP award.
Antetokounmpo on Friday was named NBA MVP for the second consecutive season. He received 85 first-place votes, compared to 16 for LeBron James.
Antetokounmpo celebrated with a cool photo posted on Instagram that showed him reading a newspaper. The paper had a front-page headline about him winning the second MVP.
Though Antetokounmpo has won two MVP awards already, he still is trying to remain humble. That attitude is reflected in his mentality surrounding his victory.
The Milwaukee Bucks star winning the MVP award had another effect too, and it’s one that won’t please the Nuggets.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is now a two-time NBA MVP, but he doesn’t want to hear that title.
Last year, Antetokounmpo made headlines when he asked Bucks fans to stop referring to him as the MVP until he won it a second time. As of Friday, he now has, but he still doesn’t want to hear it. His reason this time? He hasn’t won a championship.
Giannis is keeping his eye on the prize. If he’s using this as motivation to pursue his next goal, that’s certainly not a bad idea. After all, at this point, a championship is really the only major honor that has eluded him in his young NBA career. That’s part of why the Bucks’ playoff exit after posting the NBA’s best record was such a disappointment.
The star forward also had some positive news for Bucks fans about his future with Milwaukee. Those fans should be very excited about the fact that Antetokounmpo is both motivated and saying all the right things.
Milwaukee Bucks fans are understandably concerned about the possibility of Giannis Antetokounmpo leaving the team after next season, but he has yet to give any indication that he is planning to do so.
Antetokounmpo won his second consecutive NBA MVP Award on Friday, and he spoke with NBA TV’s Ernie Johnson about his future in Milwaukee shortly after receiving the good news. He was noncommittal about possibly signing a supermax extension with the Bucks this offseason, but Giannis said he has no desire to leave Milwaukee “as long as everybody’s on the same page” and fighting to win a championship.
“I had a great meeting with the owners to talk about the team, what went wrong and what we can improve,” Antetokounmpo said. “As long as everybody’s on the same page and as long as everybody’s fighting for the same thing I’m fighting for every day, which is to be a champion, I don’t see why (I won’t) be in Milwaukee for the next 15 years.”
There has been a lot of talk that the disappointing way in which the Bucks’ season ended this year could contribute to pushing Antetokounmpo out the door. However, the recent meeting he alluded to with Milwaukee’s brass was said to be a very productive one. He also emphatically shot down talk that he is thinking about leaving the Bucks.
NBA fans are going to freak out about Giannis’ social media activity no matter what he says, but they need to remember how much the Bucks can pay him. Antetokounmpo will be eligible to sign a max extension this offseason that is worth somewhere between $220-250 million over five years. That gives him even more incentive to stay put as he enters the final year of his deal.
The NBA is Giannis Antetokounmpo’s league and LeBron James is just playing in it — at least according to the 2020 MVP voting.
Antetokounmpo has been named MVP of the NBA for a second consecutive year. He received 85 first-place votes compared to LeBron’s 16. Giannis had a total of 962 points, which was slightly more than the 941 he got last year when beating out James Harden. Antetokounmpo and LeBron were the only players to receive first-place votes.
Here are the full results:
The vast majority of voters felt that Giannis was once again the best player in the NBA, and it’s hard to argue with that. The Milwaukee Bucks star averaged a career-high 29.5 points and 13.6 rebounds per game this season. He also had 5.6 assists per game. LeBron had 25.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game.
We know at least one of LeBron’s teammates who is not going to be happy about the voting results, but they were hardly a surprise.
Kendrick Nunn is having fun at the expense of his team’s vanquished foes.
The Miami Heat guard wished Jimmy Butler a happy birthday Monday with a funny post on Instagram. The post was a Photoshopped image depicting Butler with Giannis Antetokounmpo and TJ Warren as his children.
The Heat, led by Butler’s excellent two-way play, toppled Warren and the Indiana Pacers in the first round. They then took down Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round. Miami begins their Eastern Conference Finals series against the Boston Celtics on Tuesday.
While Nunn’s post was pretty funny, he may want to tread lightly here. After all, the Heat could be targeting Antetokounmpo as a free agent in the future.
The Milwaukee Bucks are dealing with the reality that Giannis Antetokounmpo may only be with the franchise for one more season, but they are doing everything they can to assure the reigning NBA MVP that there is no need to chase a championship elsewhere.
Antetokounmpo met with Bucks owner Marc Lasry for three hours on Friday to discuss the direction of the franchise, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports. In that meeting, Lasry assured Giannis that the Bucks are willing to spend into the luxury tax this offseason to give him a championship supporting cast. Milwaukee’s payroll for 2020-21 will be close to the $132.7 million luxury tax as is, so they would need to do that in order to add more pieces.
Lasry and Antetokounmpo reportedly discussed some specific roster upgrades that could be made, but they will talk further once Giannis returns from vacation.
Antetokounmpo is eligible to sign a mammoth extension with the Bucks this offseason that will be worth somewhere in the range of $220-250 million over five years. If he doesn’t agree to a max extension, he will be eligible to become a free agent after next season.
The Bucks had the best record in the NBA in the regular season, but their year ended in disappointing fashion. They were dominated by the Miami Heat in five games in the second round of the playoffs. Despite that, they are supposedly planning to stick with their head coach heading into next year.
There has been a lot of talk about Giannis leaving the Bucks given the way they have underachieved, but he emphatically shot that down after they were eliminated. That didn’t stop NBA fans from freaking out over some of his social media activity.
Antetokounmpo’s meeting with Lasry is a good sign for Bucks fans. The relationship between the two appears to be in a good place.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had some NBA fans alarmed due to his Instagram activity.
Someone noticed that Antetokounmpo unfollowed the Milwaukee Bucks and all his Bucks teammates on Instagram.
That set off some concerns, especially among Bucks fans who thought it was a negative sign about Antetokounmpo’s future with Milwaukee. Antetokounmpo is under contract with the Bucks for one more season. Milwaukee wants to sign him to a contract extension, but there are constant talks about him possibly leaving.
On the surface, Antetokounmpo’s Instagram activity might be a concern, but with more context there might not be as much of an issue.
Some people like to cleanse their accounts from time to time. Some have even said that Antetokounmpo did the same thing last offseason too.
And, most importantly, when Milwaukee’s season ended with a playoff series loss to Miami, Antetokounmpo said he wasn’t ditching the Bucks.
Antetokounmpo won NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Award and is likely to repeat as NBA MVP.
We’re a year away from Giannis Antetokounmpo’s potential free agency, but teams are already being linked to the Milwaukee Bucks star.
According to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, the Heat, Warriors, Raptors, and Mavericks are at least interested in making a run at Antetokounmpo in free agency.
Notably, O’Connor adds that multiple league sources believe the Los Angeles Clippers are planning to pursue the Greek superstar. That would give the team a fearsome core of Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George.
O’Connor does note that the Bucks are the “clear favorite” to retain Antetokounmpo when he hits free agency.
The reality is that Antetokounmpo doesn’t seem to want to leave Milwaukee. A lot can change in a year. That’s especially true if he gets to the open market. For now, Milwaukee can feel some encouragement that they’ll be able to retain their star. It looks like plenty of heavyweights are lining up in the event they can’t, though.
