Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo deserves to be two-time MVP

Giannis Antetokounmpo is the MVP and has everything to prove it

What does all of this have to do with Antetokounmpo winning MVP? The better question is where does all of this leave Antetokounmpo, the MVP?

When your team’s performance is subpar, yet you as an individual have played your best, then you have every right to accept all of the accolades on behalf of your team. Giannis Antetokounmpo is very much deserving of the MVP award in spite of the critics and he was deserving of it last year. This is further more reason why he deserves the award.

Let’s rewind for a second. Antetokounmpo was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2013 draft at the 15th overall pick . He was a tall, skinny 19-year-old from Greece. He had no college experience and his pick came as a shock to everyone. The Bucks took a chance, but it was one pick shy of the lottery, so the chances of Giannis being beneficial was still good.

Whatever the draft stock for the young Greek Freak was on draft night, which should’ve been higher considering who he is now, he’d sure raised the bar by game time. Antetokounmpo in his first 3 years with the Bucks, which were primitive years before he became known around the league as the Greek Freak, a nickname given to him because of his out of the ordinary dominance and skill, showed off two things: that he could play important minutes for the Bucks and that he could score in those minutes.

These are the two things which define a superstar in the NBA. The two things which control the stat sheet of superstars. Minutes and scoring is what Antetokounmpo possessed then and he hasn’t slowed down since.

Since elevating to superstar status, Antetokounmpo continues to improve and he can only go up from here. The Greek Freak won the Defense Player of the Year award this year in addition to MVP. It’s hard to imagine that anyone could criticize him or disagree with this, but of course, the NBA’s elite, the real superstars of the NBA, the fans and critics, love to overanalyze things and voice their opinion.

Fans and critics base their ideas solely off of their opinion. That is to say, who they like, such as James, Harden, Leonard, Paul, and others. Some fans and critics sometimes, to curve the situation, base theirs on analysis, except their analysis is just flat-out wrong.

For example, “Giannis didn’t score as many points as LeBron” or “Giannis didn’t do [said thing] during the season.” When in fact, Giannis’ averages were higher than LeBron’s this season at 29.5 points per game ( LeBron’s 25.3 ). His averages were higher than Kawhi’s, whose was at an impressive 27.1. The only other player whose points per game was higher is Harden’s, but even that is not a factor against Antetokounmpo who provides a better overall game. An MVP is someone who excels in all categories, and volume shooters like Harden often fall short in this type of situation.

Giannis did it all this season and last.