Giannis Antetokounmpo has won a lot of laurels in his time with the Milwaukee Bucks, including a championship.
After Kareem Abdul-Jabbar helped the city of Milwaukee win its first championship in 1971, the Bucks were in a tough spot for years.
But Giannis Antetokounmpo ended the long wait of 50 years when he helped the Milwaukee Bucks win the championship in 2021.
Since winning his first ring, Antetokounmpo has not had a great deal of success in the playoffs, winning only one playoff series in the last four years.
Discussing his legacy on ESPN, Stephen A. Smith stated Antetokounmpo would be an underachiever if he finished his career without another championship, but Kevin Durant took exception to that statement.
Despite losing in the early round of the playoffs for the past few years, Antetokounmpo’s performance has never taken a dip and he continues to perform at a high level.
After the loss in this year’s playoffs, it was reported Antetokounmpo was looking at other options due to Bucks’ ability to put a championship-contending team around him.
However, the talks about his potential move have calmed down and while the Bucks have questions about their roster next season, the two-time MVP wants to stay in Milwaukee.
Talking about Antetokounmpo and his legacy on ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith made interesting comments about his career.
“Underachiever, I’m going to tell you why,” said Smith when asked about the word he would use to describe Antetokounmpo’s career.
“He’s one of the greatest players to ever play the game, over the last four years minimum 200 games, Giannis second in the league, 30.4 points per game, fifth in the league, 11.7 RPG, fifth among qualifiers at 58% from the field and nine All-NBA selections in his career, nine All-Star selections and top 10 selections in the MVP voting nine times and he does and he has more of that in the postseason series win, that is unacceptable.
“I’m not in anyway pointing to him or what he’s not doing, I’m saying, you don’t look at somebody that dominant that fantastic, with that kind of fire in his belly to compete on a night in night out basis and all you have is one championship to show for it,” added Smith.
Durant and Antetokounmpo have been rivals for multiple years now, but both have respect for each other’s game.
Smith’s comments received backlash from a lot of people and Durant was also one of them who commented on a post from an X comment, criticizing Smith for his take.
KD commented: “Game is ruined,” referencing ESPN’s biggest figure once again pushing the narrative that championship rings matter above all else.
Antetokounmpo and Durant have both actively been involved in trade talks with teams around the league.
While the former is likely to stay with the Bucks, KD is expected to leave the Phoenix Suns soon.
Although they might face each other multiple times in the future, it’ll always be known KD took a stand for Antetokounmpo when questions were raised about his legacy.
