Giannis Antetokounmpo is starting a new season with the Milwaukee Bucks where he’ll have big pressure. Even though Giannis doesn’t think this season the Bucks need to win a title or it would be a failure, everybody is waiting to see what the Greek Freak is going to do with his team. Giannis is one of the best players in the league and if he doesn’t deliver, criticism will keep arriving.
He’s putting to work this offseason trying to improve his game and seeing his first games in the NBA preseason, you can tell he did a very good job. Giannis was hitting jumpers and even making some fadeaways. The Greek player is ready to lead his team to the NBA Finals (and maybe a title) and he did a good job. ESPN’s reporter Malika Andrews described what Giannis had to do to improve another aspect of his game, free-throw shooting.
In between the most rigorous parts of the workout, Antetokounmpo would shoot a pair of free throws. That way, by the time he stepped up to the stripe, he was breathing heavily — the way he would in a game.
Antetokounmpo added a wrinkle to the routine. If he missed his free throws, his coaches would need to run and he would need to watch. Seeing other people pay for his mistakes was torture for Antetokounmpo, and this is a common motivational strategy used by high school coaches everywhere.
That wasn’t enough. He invited Riddlesprigger and their 10-month-old son, Liam, to the gym. Now, Antetokounmpo had to hit his free throws or go through the torture of watching Riddlesprigger run with Liam. It was an airtight plan to boost accountability and focus.
This is really incredible and it surely had to have some effect in Giannis’ mind. The Bucks will try to take advantage of that and see if they can win it all this season or the next one, led by the back-to-back NBA MVP.
