NBA legend Gilbert Arenas found himself in hot water this weekend after making some controversial statements about 2x MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Speaking with Lakers’ assistant head coach Phil Handy on his No Chill podcast, the former Wizards guard went off on Giannis and accused him of not yet fully understanding the game of basketball.
“The media says he’s the best player in the league. Not even close, just stop it!” Arenas said. “I can look at his game and say he doesn’t understand basketball yet. He plays the sport, he won a championship, cool! But he doesn’t understand how to be better, how to train his body. To be at the top, you have to train your body at least 38 minutes and above. LeBron played 37 minutes at 37. Allen Iverson was playing 43 minutes”, he added. “Learn how to play basketball.”
Arenas earned a lot of backlash for that take and had to address the heat on Instagram, where he wrote a long and lengthy post defending his stance.
Sometimes it’s hard to understand messages when success is been gotten, kobe and kanye commercial” are u the same ANIMAL but a DIFFERENT beast the rookie greek til now has just gotten “stronger on his rim runs and wiser” has he added any new skill to his game? has his 3% gotten better (nope) has his mid range gotten better (nope) has his freethrows % gotten better (nope) has his back to the basketball play gotten better (nope) he’s gotten stronger, his ability to take bumps and finish has gotten better which helps his over all shooting % the same flaws he walked into the game with he still has now which is why i said he needs to learn the game more to understand how to improve his over all game, As of now he’s the same animal and the SAME beast, just stronger and meaner….let’s switch greek to jordan….if jordan was greek would Jordan still have these same flaws? jordan couldn’t be stopped on his rim running BUT the development of his fadeaway became his signature ✅ so if the the answer is NOPE then my point is prove! Players don’t get better b/c their success tells them they don’t need to improve we’ve all said this (if greek got a consistent jumper and 3 he would be unstoppable we’re saying the same thing 9 years later but my take is wrong ,!!HOW MUCH MORE SUCCESSFUL CAN U GET! #mambavoice MORE SUCCESSFUL….✅Listen to a hater becuz a hater knows ur flaws, which means u have the blueprint to getting better a d-ckrider will never help u improve becuz all they will tell u is (ur great the way u are)
There is no doubt that Giannis has some holes to fill in his game. He can definitely get better at things like shooting, ball handling, and conditioning.
Still, as one of the best players in the game, Giannis probably has fewer flaws in his game than anyone else. And after leading the Bucks to a title in 2021, he has nothing left to prove in terms of his ability to win and lead a team.
If he is somehow able to implement more tools to his game, though, it could be all he needs to catapult himself into the next tier of NBA superstardom.
