The Milwaukee Bucks won the 2021 NBA Championship, defeating the Phoenix Suns in six games with superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo leading with a heroic effort. After losing the first two games of the series, Milwaukee rattled off four in a row to take home the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
It was a hard-fought road to the title for Milwaukee. After sweeping the Miami Heat in the first round, they went to seven games against the Brooklyn Nets, six against the Atlanta Hawks, and six against the Suns.
Giannis Antetokounmpo won NBA Finals MVP, averaging 35.2 points, 13.2 rebounds and 5.0 assists in 39.8 minutes per game. He also added seven total steals and 11 blocks in the six games, turning the ball over only 14 times.
It was a masterful performance by Giannis, who was unstoppable in the paint. He overcame a knee injury as well during the postseason, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him from achieving the ultimate goal of a championship.
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However, even with his first title victory, he is not satisfied and still has the hunger to achieve more.
“Are we satisfied? I’m not satisfied. I’m not even close to being satisfied,” Antetokounmpo said at his season-opening news conference Monday. “That’s the tone we got to set as a team. As the leader of this team, that’s the tone I’m going to set. We understand that teams are coming for us, but we’re going to be ready.”
This is the perfect mindset to have. The Bucks aren’t going to be complacent heading into the season, as they know teams will be gunning for them. They will get the best each team has to offer every night as they want to be the ones to knock off the defending champs.
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Giannis Antetokounmpo acknowledges this and his goal is to just keep improving. While a championship is nice to have, he feels the same pressure as always to continue getting better as a player.
“Right now what I want is to get better,” he said. “I don’t care about trophies. I don’t care about the MVPs. I don’t care about Defensive Player of the Years. All those things, I don’t care. I care about getting better because if I do that more things are coming.
“That’s what I’ve done my whole career and that’s how I am in this position. So, there’s no weight off my shoulder, I feel the same weight. I enjoy, obviously, that we’re the champions, but the weight is the same. Get better.”
With Giannis leading the way, expect this Milwaukee Bucks team to be right there until the very end again. When your best player and leader has a mindset and attitude like this, everyone else will follow suit and similarly carry themselves.
