NBA: Does Giannis Antetokounmpo have a point about potential asterisk?

Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks recently shared his opinion on the potential asterisk that comes with an NBA title this season.

With the NBA resuming later this month in Orlando, it will be unlike anything ever seen before. After five months without play, players will head down to an enclosed “bubble” at Walt Disney World’s Wide World of Sports to play eight regular season games and the postseason to crown a champion. While these irregular circumstances have many saying this title should have an asterisk attached, MVP frontrunner Giannis Antetokounmpo strongly disagrees.

“I feel like a lot of people say that there’s gonna be a star next to this championship,” Antetokounmpo said. “I feel like, at the end of the day, this is gonna be the toughest championship you could ever win — because the circumstances are really, really tough right now. So whoever wants it more is going to be able to go out there and take it.”

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Antetokounmpo has a valid point. With several months away from the game, players will have to be ready for the postseason after a mere eight games. This break was not like that of a typical offseason, as the pandemic limited players and their modern lifestyle drastically. In April, Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that neither Giannis nor All-Star teammate Khris Middleton had access to basketball hoops and could not work out during the pandemic.

As strange as it sounds, not every player has that access to a basketball hoop and will likely show with rust from players after this time off. Nothing about this NBA restart says easy, because although players are coming off a rest-filled hiatus, the pandemic has limited their ability to work on their craft or even pick up a basketball.

This hurts all 22 teams invited to Orlando but impacts the Milwaukee Bucks far more significantly. Although they dropped a few games before the season halted, they were 53-12, riding one of the most historic seasons in NBA history behind a dominant season from Antetokounmpo. Although the hiatus gave Giannis time to heal his knee, whether both he and the Bucks could revamp this authoritative momentum is questionable.

The idea of a secluded “bubble” atmosphere in Orlando also increases the stakes for all 22 teams involved. Because each team is going to play in a remote location, there will be no legitimate home-court advantage regardless of seeding.

For a team like the Philadelphia 76ers, this scenario could prove interesting. At home this season, the 76ers were a league-best 29-2. However, on the road, they were an abysmal 10-24. Playing in a single location could be a daunting task not just for Philadelphia, but for other top teams in the league.

Another prime example is the Los Angeles Lakers, who now face a significant disadvantage in a potential series against the rivaling LA Clippers. With a predominantly Lakers-based following in Los Angeles, each game in that potential seven-game series would have essentially been all home games for the purple and gold because of that fan base. With home-court advantage eliminated, it will be much more challenging for the Lakers to succeed against a top-heavy series against the Clippers. This lack of home-court could bring out the best in every team, and have the best one come out of the series victorious.

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Several teams, those Los Angeles Lakers included, will also be without key players in their resumed season as a plethora of contributors have opted out of returning to play. If a team can win a title without a starter, such as Avery Bradley on the Lakers, that title would hold more weight. Bradley was the team’s starting shooting guard, an efficient scorer, and arguably the best perimeter defender in the game. Although the teams signed J.R. Smith as a replacement, they will still be missing that critical contributor that was Bradley.

This is an issue that several teams will soon face regarding their players and has some wishing that the season just got canceled. However, that predicament mixed in with every other problematic threat posed by the resumed season makes this championship far more complicated than anything seen before.

So, yes, Giannis Antetokounmpo has a legitimate argument about this season’s title not having an asterisk placed next to it, regardless of who wins it all. With all of the adversity after such a long hiatus such as the missing players, loss of momentum, no home-court, or whatever else, whoever comes out on top of it all should receive praise rather than criticism.

Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks currently have the second-best odds to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy, standing at +250 with less than a month to go. When play resumes on July 30th, the belief that this could undoubtedly be the hardest championship to win in NBA history will undoubtedly fuel the likely back to back MVP in his quest for a title.