Giannis goes from off-court joker to on-court assassin
By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist
Some jokes are good jokes, capable of eliciting a laugh from even the most stony-faced grump. Some jokes are bad jokes, but get a free pass because they’re so bad they’re good.
And some, like the collection of dad jokes told frequently throughout the NBA season by reigning Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, are simply awful jokes. Just terrible attempts at humor, with few redeeming qualities.
Yes, Antetokounmpo’s jokes are garbage. He usually busts them out to bring some levity to the start of a press conference, a lot of them are about cows, for some reason. They’re guaranteed to make you groan and all of them serve to make one of the biggest stars in basketball even more likable.
The guy who is arguably the best player on the planet is not afraid to laugh at himself, even amid the serious business of trying to help the Milwaukee Bucks repeat.
"When the cows go out, where do they go? To the moo-vies!"
Antetokounmpo’s bids to raise a chuckle are silly and in perfect keeping with his whole deal. He is a down-to-earth guy who has found a nice fit in Milwaukee, where he stays humble, smiles a lot, hangs with his family and works to establish himself as a serial NBA champion. He’s immensely popular for the best of reasons: he marries hoops excellence with a similar level of personal character.
Nikola Jokić will probably beat him to this year’s regular-season MVP award, with Joel Embiid a close second, but the Greek Freak has one thing neither of those men have sniffed – an NBA title – and is better positioned than either of them to shoot for another one.
"Obviously a lot of people think once you win a championship and you succeed in life, there’s no pressure," Antetokounmpo told reporters last week. "But … your mind is going to find something to replace that. OK, you won one time. Now your mind wants to win a second time or a third time."
Having gotten over the hump last season, his career is judged differently now and he knows it. How many rings can he get in this role as the chief architect behind what the Bucks hope can threaten to become at least a mini-dynasty?
Milwaukee took care of business, 93-86, in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series against the Chicago Bulls on Sunday, and it wasn’t perfect. Antetokounmpo got into foul trouble and didn’t score in the fourth quarter, but it had the feel of Chicago’s best chance to pinch a game and it still didn’t happen.
The Bucks are rolling, even though the level of expectation is greater now.
"What do you call a cow on the floor? Ground beef!"
All the clowning ceases when it is time to take to the court. Antetokounmpo showed his ferocity last season, asserting his control during a Game 6 of the Finals against the Phoenix Suns – a 50-point epic that sealed the Bucks’ first title in 50 years.
And he has the look again now, calm and poised, yet seemingly ready to erupt, sitting at ease with the idea that nothing other than another championship will be considered good enough this year.
With Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday firing beside him and the return of big man Brook Lopez from a season-long back injury, Milwaukee looks good. Assuming they can get past the floundering Bulls, who topped the Eastern Conference at the turn of the year but then went into a tailspin, the winner of the Nets-Celtics series awaits. Early evidence suggests those two teams are tightly-matched enough that whoever emerges will do so bruised and bloodied.
For a game that wasn’t one of his best, Sunday’s performance for Antetokounmpo was still pretty darn good. A haul of 27 points and 16 rebounds is the kind of quiet night only a few are good enough to pull off. Antetokounmpo is at a stage now where the basketball public has raised its bar for his "wow" factor. In short, he’s made outrageously difficult things look normal.
He’s an established superstar now, part of the furniture in the NBA’s most elite green room. So much so, in fact, that he’s now accused of getting some favorable calls from the officials based on name recognition alone, a true indicator that he’s breathing rare air.
The Bulls complained that Antetokounmpo reached over Patrick Williams late in the game and should have fouled out. Truthfully, they may have a point. But the Bucks, and their leading light, have momentum behind them and things are falling their way at just the right time.
Antetokounmpo’s jokes are still horrible and don’t figure to improve. But at every other part of his game the NBA’s smiling assassin is firmly on target.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.