The Milwaukee Bucks beat the odds and are now your reigning NBA Champions. They swept the same team that beat them last year in the Miami Heat, got past the clear-cut favorite Brooklyn Nets, held off an inspired Atlanta Hawks team, and came back from a 0-2 hole to beat the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Finals.
Crazy as it may seem, not many people trusted the Bucks to get the job done. Even though they had a solid team, they had that underdog mentality that helped them through adversity.
Even Giannis Antetokounmpo took a light shot at those players who win ‘the easy way’ by putting together a superteam, claiming that he could’ve done just that:
“It’s easy to go and win a Championship with someone else. I could go, it’s easy. I could go to a super-team, play my part and win it but this is the hard way to do it and we did it. We f*cking did it,” Giannis said.
Then again, former NBA Champion Stephen Jackson doesn’t seem to agree with the Greek Freak. According to Jackson, the Bucks are – indeed – a Superteam, even if they don’t have superstars:
“It means a lot to him to stay and win in Milwaukee but he is on a super team. You got Jrue Holiday, you got a closing Middleton, he is the most dominant player that I have seen in a long time. I’d like to give him his credit. He has a closer,” Jackson started. “Same thing Shaq has, Shaq is the most dominant, but he had a closer in Kobe.”
“Have Jrue Holiday, one of the most dominant defenders in the game. So don’t make it seem like your team is just a whole bunch of D-Leaguers, you have one D-League, he is an All-Star now. So you have a superteam, you might not have super names. Don’t diminish your teammates,” Jackson added.
There’s no such thing as an easy way to win an NBA Championship and the Bucks had a well-balanced roster from start to finish, so I get where Jackson is coming from.
Then again, to say that they’re as stacked as, say, the Brooklyn Nets, well that’s a big stretch.
"Giannis is on a Superteam. The Bucks have Jrue Holiday and a closer in Khris Middleton. … You have a Superteam — you might not have super names, but don’t diminish your teammates." — @DaTrillStak5 pic.twitter.com/v8tgggzMP2
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) July 21, 2021
