Giannis Antetokounmpo has been one of the hardest workers the NBA has seen in the past decade. The Greek player landed in the US as an intriguing prospect with a clear ceiling, but he made sure to erase that, create his own image and let people know that the limits are only in his mind.
After being a skinny forward, Giannis put up some muscles and now is the best player in the world. It wasn’t an easy journey by any means, but that difficulty motivated him to push himself, to reach the next level and now Antetokounmpo is a global superstar.
In prior years and even months, Giannis constantly brought himself down when people mentioned him as one of the best or the best players in the association. Humble as usual, the Greek Freak has dismissed those claims. The most recent case happened when he said Stephen Curry was the best player in the world, as he was the last man standing after the 2021-22 NBA season.
Giannis Antetokounmpo Names The Current Best Players In The NBA
His hard work and passion for the game have paid off: he’s an NBA champion, two-time NBA MVP, one-time Finals MVP, one-time Defensive Player of the Year, and more. He has established himself as a top player in the league. This was something unthinkable for Giannis when he first started his NBA career, but things didn’t go exactly as he thought.
“They ask, ‘Did you believe you’d be what you are today?’ I don’t,” Antetokounmpo told The Athletic. “And there’s the other question, ‘Did you want to be what you are today?’ And I never intended to be what I am today. I wanted to be a great basketball player. I never wanted to be the best player. I said I wanted to be an NBA player, I never wanted to be one of the best.”
“But I worked extremely hard, so hard that all of a sudden I got to this point and I was like, ‘Holy s—, what the f—‘s going on?’ I’m at the top of this mountain.”
Giannis admits that he’s aware that he’s one of the best players in the association, but never misses a chance to give flowers to other stars, mentioning some big names that he thinks are at the top of this mountain with him.
“And I’m like, ‘Is anybody else here?’ ” Antetokounmpo continued. “And then you look next to you and you see the Kawhis, the Paul Georges. You see the Lukas, the Jokićs, the Embiids, the LeBrons, the KDs, the Stephs and you’re like, ‘I was kind of looking for the kind of good role players, like the solid great careers, like where are they?’ Not to disrespect them, they’re great. But I just wanted to be a great role player, a great sixth man. And all of sudden, when you work extremely hard, when you commit your life to it, crazy s— happens.
“And this is the f—ed up part — sorry, excuse my cursing — the messed up part is, I want to be here now. I’ve accepted it. I’ve taken the challenge, the next chapter of my life. But everything that comes with it, I don’t want it. I don’t want it. The attention. I’m in Abu Dhabi, like I’m shooting a free throw warming up like I always do, and there’s 50 people around me taking pictures — **chk chk chk chk** — I don’t want that. But at the end of the day, with my personality, I’m not going to shy away from it, but I’m going to focus on the game. If I focus on the game, I stay humble. I can keep on moving forward. I can keep navigating what’s coming next.”
Life has been crazy for Giannis, who struggled a lot during his youth. He found his biggest passion in basketball, and that changed everything for him. He’s now a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and one of the greatest players in today’s NBA, and Giannis is just entering his prime.
The sky is not the limit anymore for him, and we can’t wait to see what the 2021 NBA champion will bring to the table this season. The Milwaukee Bucks are one of the top teams in the league, and if Giannis and Khris Middleton stay healthy, they will have a big chance to get another championship.
