It may have taken a while, but it is safe to say that most people would now regard Giannis Antetokounmpo as the best player in the NBA. Giannis had won back-to-back MVPs in 2019 and 2020, but postseason failures had meant he had his share of critics, who claimed he would never succeed when it matters most. He put an end to all that talk last year, as he led the Bucks to the title with some stunning displays.
Giannis shows no signs of slowing down either, as he averaged a career-high 29.9 points per game this past season, and Duncan Robinson recently admitted that there are times when he’s just not sure what can be done to stop the Greek Freak. Robinson was on the “Road Trippin'” podcast where he was asked about players who made him go ‘WTF’ when he came into the league, and he named Giannis as one of them.
(starts at 18:34 mark):
“The first one is Giannis because it’s like his mentality and his size and his length. There are certain possessions where I don’t know what you’re supposed to do with that. I mean certainly, I don’t know what to do… and every year, he is coming back just a little bit more buffed up.”
To be fair to Robinson, we are sure a lot of players in the NBA feel the same when they go up against Giannis. There is absolutely nothing you can do at times because that combination of size, strength, and speed can just be too much to handle. It is why he is one of the betting favorites for MVP next season, and regardless of whether he wins it or not, we can expect another monster year out of him.
Paolo Banchero, the first pick of the 2022 NBA Draft, also holds Giannis in very high regard, as he named him in his all-time European starting five, which also included Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic.
