There isn’t anything about Milwaukee Bucks rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo that won’t leave your heart warm and fuzzy inside.
Yes, this is me, writing sentimental mush, shamelessly enraptured by the charming man-child who is taking the NBA rookie class by storm. And I’m not sorry. Some players, you just appreciate. Some rookies are just different.
Antetokounmpo is both.
Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski penned a spectacular piece on the neophyte brimming with smile-inducing anecdotes. If you’re into simpering uncontrollably, you need to read it. The piece is that insightful.
One of my personal favorite stories pertains to the Playstation 4 Antetokounmpo purchased himself only to sell to Bucks assistant coach Nick Van Exel:
Yes, Giannis sold his PlayStation 4 to Bucks assistant coach Nick Van Exel for the retail price and waited the three months until, finally, his family arrived in the United States to indulge himself in a console again. There are reasons Giannis sets aside most of his $1.7 million rookie salary and tries to live on the $190 daily per diem – including the per diems his veteran teammates sympathetically pass his way. There are reasons those teammates furnished his apartment with hand-me-down furniture. Yes, there are reasons why Giannis, together with his 21-year-old brother, Thanasis, who plays for Delaware in the NBA Development League, sat paralyzed early this season in an upscale Philadelphia restaurant staring at the menus.
If I may say so: Wow.
Living off $190 a day is nothing for NBA players. Hell, I hail from New York and that’s nothing for most people in the city and on Long Island. You don’t hear about players with this much discipline nowadays. You don’t hear about players with this unparalleled humility.
Having never really experienced life with money—as Woj details—the 6’10” 19-year-old could be blowing through the majority of his nigh-$1.8 million salary. Instead, he’s scrapping and saving, feeling guilty over purchases many of us wouldn’t think twice about.
That’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Earlier this season he even took a cab to a Western Union to send as much of his pay check home to his family as he could. Including his cab fare to get from the Western Union to the arena for his game with the Bucks’ that evening. So what does he do? He takes the heel-toe express to the arena to play in an NBA game. Now that is special these days. Not a Lebron James Nike Commerical, but real life.
That’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Though his numbers are modest at best—6.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and two assists per game—they don’t do his ceiling justice. We’re bearing witness to what could be a 7’0″ shooting guard folks, who can serve as the primary scorer or playmaker, who could defend four, maybe all five of the positions on the floor.
Antetokounmpo is a raw talent, that’s for sure. But flashes of what happens when his athleticism and work ethic fuses with his improving acumen are seen more frequently, and they’re truly mesmerizing.
Dunk, defend, shoot, pass, score, block shots, force steals, run the floor— Antetokounmpo has the potential to do it all. The fact that he stringently budgets his spending and is inoculated against the cruel, perception-killing nature of elevated status makes him that much easier to like, that much easier to root for. He’s not other players or other prospects. He’s different.
Pleasantly, admirably, likably different.
That’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
