Wisconsin is known for a number of things. Cheese curds are among them – a love of football (for both their Badgers and Packers) as well – perhaps even That 70s Show. It is a blue-collar, Midwestern snowscape – dominated by Milwaukee and Madison, but with life up to the border with Canada. Besides for the Packers, it’s not known for its extremely successful professional sports legacy. Yet, Wisconsin is the only state in the country to have MVPs in the three biggest American Sports (NBA, MLB, and NFL). Not California, with its multiple urban areas and many franchises, nor Texas, nor Florida nor New York. Gritty Wisconsin has Aaron Rodgers and Christian Yelich, but most unlikely of all, Giannis Antetokounmpo. Across the world from his two homelands, Giannis carves out a third home in the sleepy state full of sports stars.
While Giannis’ story is obviously the most shocking of the three, the two California-bred MVPs have their own underdog stories befitting Wisconsin. Rodgers may now be known for his State Farm commercials and grumpy looks, as well as his two MVPs – but he nearly never even played Division 1 football. In fact, as Tim Keown pointed out in a 2010 ESPN article, he was recruited by DIII powerhouses like my alma mater Claremont McKenna (Go Stags!) before going to junior college and being noticed by Cal coach Jeff Tedford. The rest was history – succeeding Brett Favre in Green Bay, winning a Super Bowl over my beloved Steelers, and the multiple MVPs – as will be the bust waiting at the Hall of Fame in Canton.
Meanwhile, Christian Yelich was merely the third best outfielder on mediocre mid-decade Marlins teams, behind Giancarlo Stanton and Marcell Ozuna. While an All-Star in 2016, Yelich’s career took off last season in Milwaukee – where he won the batting title and narrowly missed the Triple Crown, getting all but one vote for NL MVP. This year, he has been even better, already surpassing his 2018 home run total, and making a run at another MVP – not bad for a player who before last season was best known for looking like Pete Davidson.
However, their stories pale before Giannis’ – perhaps the most unlikely in sports history. Much ink has been spilled about the Nigerian parents who left their eldest son home to move to Greece and had three more children – where Greek jus sanguinis (literally right of blood) law meant that Giannis was stateless for the first 18 years of his life. The future MVP grew up hawking sunglasses on the streets of Athens before starting to play basketball at age 13. The long, athletic teen was noticed by a local Athens team, and by the age of 17, he was on their senior squad. A season and a half later, he would enter the draft, being selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 15th pick. The long, limber kid would have to get used to the 50+ inches of snow each year on Lake Michigan.
Giannis came in young and gangly, and improved every single year. His athletic gifts allowed him to be all over the floor on defense, and he improved his basketball IQ every single year. Even more impressively, Giannis was one of the most focused and hard-working players in the entire game. Whether it was the way he grew from skin and bones to one of the most ripped players in the game, or his view about practicing with other NBA stars during the summer – “I can’t work out with you in the summer and then play you in a few months,” Antetokounmpo told The Athletic. “It feels weird. It doesn’t feel right with me. Like other players, it’s cool for other players, but I don’t. I don’t want to. Other guys do it.”, Giannis has become his own type of throwback to an older NBA mentality.
Tragedy has also hit Giannis many times, most notably with his father’s death in 2017. This difficult upbringing and constant hard work has also meant Giannis is delighted by the little things.
This innocence has made him beloved, even when the innocence is slightly more vulgar, as in the famous blowjob button video after last Valentine’s Day.
These belie how hard he works – the broken English from the smoothie tweet back in 2014 no longer exists, and the blowjob video is also a tongue-in-cheek joke at other NBA players who are frequently out at the club. In fact, the best thing about Giannis is he isn’t a huge trash talker – unlike many in the NBA, he lets his game do the talking. His statement that he doesn’t want to be called MVP until he wins again this year is a sign of a player who cares far more about basketball than any related accolades. This mentality helped propel the Bucks to the best record in the NBA last season and has made them favorites to repeat that this year.
It is not only Giannis’ mentality, but also his style of game which makes him so unique in the modern NBA. In a league which has begun to further emphasize the three-pointer, Giannis’ game looks anachronistic. His volume and efficiency at the rim last season doesn’t compare to anyone in the last 20 years except Shaquille O’Neal, perhaps the most singularly dominant offensive big man in the history of basketball – except that Giannis averaged 5.9 assists per game, 2.1 better than Shaq in his best passing season. He also shot about 73% from the free-throw line, far better than Shaq ever did. Finally, he finished second in the defensive player of the year race, as only one of two (with Andre Drummond) to have at least 90 steals and 90 blocks last season. Had he edged out Rudy Gobert for DPOY, he would have joined Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olujawon as the only two players to win MVP and DPOY in the same season. Basically, he’s as dominant inside as peak Shaq, while being one of the best defensive players in the league AND being the primary ball handler for a 60-win team. A Freak indeed.
This game fits perfectly in the Bucks system, as Mike Budenholzer has built an offense around his prodigious superstar. With Brook Lopez playing center, Milwaukee can utilize a 4-out offense, with Giannis as the ball-handler. If Giannis drives and none of the other defenders helps off a shooter, Giannis can score 1-on-1 in the paint over almost any defender. If a defender cheats off to double Giannis, he can pass the ball to that defender’s matchup, either creating an open 3 or causing the defense to rotate, which can lead for easy cuts to the basketball. Either way, the defense is put in an impossible position – having to decide between two bad choices.
The terrifying thing is that Giannis himself only thinks he has reached 60% of his potential. While he shot just 25% on three pointers this past season, over the last two months of the regular season, he shot both more and more efficiently, with a 31.5% success rate on 4 threes a game. Any increase in efficiency from deep (and his shot mechanics aren’t the problem) will force defenders to respect that shot, making it even simpler for Giannis to drive past them. Giannis with even an average 3-point shot would break down even the best NBA defenses.
Despite his old-fashioned inside game, Giannis is also one of the leaders of the international wave that has washed over the NBA. When he became the fifth international player to win MVP (Olajuwon, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki), three of the other four major player awards were also won by international players (Gobert, along with Rookie of the Year Luka Doncic and Most Improved Player Pascal Siakam). Other international stars like Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic contended and led some of the top teams in the league. Yet the league focused mostly on a player in sleepy Wisconsin.
The story that most reflects that of Giannis is likely not that of Rodgers nor Yelich – it is instead another MVP that began as the ultimate NBA outsider. Like Giannis, Steve Nash grew up playing soccer long before basketball. His nation was obsessed with hockey, like Greece with soccer, and the floppy haired white guy looked as unready for the NBA as the long, spindly Greek. He went to tiny Santa Clara University, and was drafted with the 15th pick – perhaps just another crazy coincidence. When Giannis won MVP last season, he joined Nash as the lowest picked MVP. Nash also looked forward and back, whipping passes like point guards who wore short shorts, but being the fulcrum of the 7 seconds or less style that birthed modern offense in the NBA.
Like Nash, Giannis is a reflection of the past and the future. In fact, befitting both his devout Christianity and his Greek heritage, it may be proper to say that he is the alpha and the omega of the NBA. An unlikely star will continue to bring the national media to Wisconsin in February, and live up to his original family name. After all, it means “the crown has returned from overseas” – a fitting moniker for Giannis’ NBA story.
Please note that Marquette University ( Big East) in Milwaukee is a major college basketball 🏀 power and a national champion in 1976. Players like Dwayne Wade, Dean “the Dream” Meminger, and current All American Markus Howard are a few of the Golden Eagles ( Warriors) star. Also Marquette played in the first Cotton Bowl. Now you have the whole Wisconsin sports scene.