Usually rather smooth in his statements and far from controversies by microphones, Giannis Antetokounmpo slipped a fairly harsh criticism towards one of the Bucks’ rival teams. This will not go unnoticed…
With more than 28 points and 11 rebounds on average, all at more than 53% in shooting and being ultra-dominant in defense, Giannis Antetokounmpo continues to provide mutant benefits this season. Worse, or rather better, he even trivialized them. Candidate for the title of MVP after leaving his crown to Nikola Jokic, the Greek Freak has only one obsession: back-to-back with the Bucks.
Because make no mistake about it: there are few fiercer competitors than Antetokounmpo, and if he finally succeeded in winning the Grail, his past failures still stick in his throat – in particular the famous experience of the bubble in 2020…
Giannis sends a thinly veiled tackle to the Heat
In Orlando, in a very strange context which notably deprived the players of fans, Milwaukee had been sharply eliminated by Miami in the conference semi-finals, with the score of 4 to 1. And obviously, it remains across the throat of Giannis, who swung a criticism to Jimmy Butler and his clique during an interview with The Athletic:
It was my 7th season, and it ended with Miami. I don’t want to use excuses as a sportsman, but this year has been frustrating for me because I feel like in a normal situation it wouldn’t have ended like this. But hey, for me the Heat was built to be an NBA bubble team, you know what I mean?
Quite clearly, Giannis is referring to the many criticisms that the bubble has fostered the emergence of teams and players who wouldn’t have shined so brightly in normal times. We remember for example the declaration on the “bubble gangsters” of Charles Barkley, who considers, like many other observers, that these playoffs do not have much value.
Everyone has their opinion on the matter, and it seems a tad excessive to diminish in this way a Heat team which had succeeded in a superb campaign in Orlando, only surrendering against the Lakers in the Finals. The following year, on the other hand, Giannis vented his rage by sweeping the troops of Erik Spoelstra badly. Not enough to purge all his feelings, obviously…
Giannis Antetokounmpo did not really digest the famous passage in the bubble, and the defeat against a team which had no chance of beating his Bucks out of the bubble according to him. The best would be to have Jimmy Butler’s answer…
