As a prospect, a lot of scouts didn’t know what to make of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Sure, he was a 6’9″ point forward, and that was something to get excited about. But he looked like a stiff wind would knock him over and had an inconsistent jump shot. He wasn’t facing the best competition either, suiting up for Filathlitikos of the Greek A2 League, the second division of Greek professional basketball. He was compared to Thabo Sefolosha and Nicolas Batum pre-draft, and rightfully so as he didn’t hit top-20 mock draft status until the day of the 2013 NBA Draft where he was predicted to go 17th via DraftExpress.
Instead, the Greek Freak went two places higher as he was selected 15th by the Milwaukee Bucks. Many were surprised by the pick and called it a gamble by the Bucks organization as safer picks were apparently available in the form of Shane Larkin and Sergey Karasev.
Fast forward to today, Larkin and Karasev are both out of the NBA while the Greek Freak is less than two weeks away from being the first Greek player to ever play in the NBA All-Star game. You could say the gamble paid off.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was a gamble that Bucks GM John Hammond needed to take. The organization was cemented in mediocrity and always incapable of grabbing a superstar. The 15th pick in the draft isn’t one where you usually find a superstar. You usually don’t have a wide eyed and bushy tailed, 6 9, Greek point forward with the body of Kevin Durant in the draft either. The stars aligned for Hammond, just like they did for Don Nelson in the 1998 draft when he traded sixth pick Robert Taylor to the Bucks for Pat Garrity and an incredibly skilled German big man named Dirk Nowitzki (Nelson swapped Garrity for Steve Nash that same day).
Nowitzki struggled his rookie season and had to deal with a fair amount of culture shock. In his second season, he truly started to show what he was capable of. Dirk nearly won the Most Improved Player award, and after his sophomore season, Nowitzki continued to improve. He made the playoffs for the first time in his third season and beat the Jazz in five games in the first round. Then they lost to the Spurs in five games in the next round. The next season Dirk played in his first All-Star game.
Dirk became a superstar, and in the ensuing years, he did everything he could to try and bring the city of Dallas an NBA championship. In 2003 he made the Conference Finals for the first time but fell in six games to the San Antonio Spurs. Dirk and the Mavs didn’t reach these heights again until the 2006 post-season where they played arguably the greatest playoff series of all-time against the San Antonio Spurs and won a truly memorable Game 7 in San Antonio where Dirk completed this clutch three-point play to force overtime. After defeating the Spurs, the Mavs beat the Phoenix Suns in six games in the conference finals and went on to face the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
The Mavericks took a 2-0 lead and led by 15 in Game 3. The Heat stormed back, carried by Dwyane Wade, not only did they win Game 3, but they never lost again and won the series 4-2 and took the Finals trophy to Miami.
Dirk took the league by storm the following season and won MVP. The Mavericks were the number one seed in the west and looked ready to return to the Finals, but they didn’t even come close. They lost in the first round to the eight-seeded Golden State Warriors, an embarrassing finish to the season. The Mavericks struggled in the post-season for the next four seasons as they only managed to win one playoff series. That all changed in 2011.
In 2011, Dirk finally returned to the NBA Finals and against a similar foe, Wade, and the Miami Heat. The Heat had more than Wade this time around. The previous off-season they added reigning MVP LeBron James and All-Star power forward Chris Bosh. The Miami Heat were dubbed the favorites, but Dirk and his crew had different ideas. The Mavs went down twice in the series, losing games one and three but pulling level in games two and four. They went on to win games five and six and the Mavericks, led by Dirk, won their first ever NBA Championship.
Nowitzki finished the series with 62 total fourth quarter points, the same amount as James and Wade combined. In one series he defeated the man who previously defeated him, and arguably the best player in the league at the time. Dirk officially become the only international player ever, who inarguably led his team to a championship.
Over the past few seasons, the Mavericks and Dirk have fallen from the heights they previously achieved. They are yet to win a playoff series since winning the Finals. Dirk underwent surgery on his knee in 2012 and has missed significant time due to strain in both his Achilles tendons so far this season. The Mavericks have been terrible this season, so terrible that Head Coach Rick Carlisle assessed his team by saying, “we’re a sh*t team, but we’re an underrated sh*t team,” after beating the Cleveland Cavaliers on January 30th.
As the Mavs and Dirk have fallen off, so have other international stars in the league. Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Pau Gasol are all shadows of the players they once were. Marc Gasol is the only international star that remains. This move was undoubtedly a concern for Commissioner Adam Silver. Silver wants the game to continue to grow overseas, for that to happen you need stars from abroad so the young players over there have someone to look up to.
Not only did Hammond select his savior on June 27th, 2013 but he selected Silver’s savior as well.
Giannis, similar to Dirk, struggled early on in his career. Some may argue the highlights of his rookie season were tweeting about tasting a smoothie for the first time and a story that after wiring money to his family in Greece; he didn’t leave enough for himself to get a cab to take him to the arena for that night’s game, so he started sprinting over before a couple was kind enough to pick him up and bring him.
After finishing his rookie season with a small stat line of 6.8 points per game, 4.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 0.8 steal, 0.8 blocks and being informed by his agent that an assistant coach believed he wasn’t working hard enough, Giannis broke into hysterics. That same season some of his best friends within the organization, including teammate Nate Wolters, all left. Giannis couldn’t believe just how hard the league was and just like Dirk, his on court problems and off-court issues were a lot to bear for someone his age.
After improving marginally in his second season and even making the playoffs, the disappointment for the Bucks came in his third season. In late February, the playoffs looked completely out of the picture and had moved point guard Michael Carter-Williams to the bench. Disappointment meant that the opportunity for experimentation had opened up, it was time to experiment with Point Giannis.
Jason Kidd was like Victor Frankenstein, a mad scientist trying to create an unusual but sapient creature. The experiment proved to be a success, and Giannis closed out the season playing like a superstar.
In the offseason, the Bucks acquired Matthew Dellavedova, and though he was the starting point guard according to the depth chart, the offense belonged to The Greek Freak; the beast was alive.
Now that Giannis Antetokounmpo was himself, Silver realized that he had his hero. The NBA finally had an international player, who like Dirk Nowitzki, would one day be capable of leading a team to a championship. Giannis is currently posting a stat line of 23.1 points per game, 8.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.8 steal and two blocks. Compare that to Dirk Nowitzki’s stat line from his fourth season of 23.4 points per game, 9.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.1 steals and 1 block and Giannis’s superstar potential really begins to shine.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is a superior athlete to Dirk as well; featuring a combination of physique and athleticism that we’ve only seen on one superstar before, Kevin Durant. He has lit up highlight reels all season with blocks, dunks, passes and coast to coast’s. He’s doing all this while only shooting 29 percent from three point land. Teammate Jason Terry told Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated, “when I’m coaching he’ll be unguardable.” Giannis’s three point shot will have developed by then, and with opponents having to step all the way out to the perimeter to guard him he’ll just step right around them like they weren’t even there.
When Giannis Antetokounmpo reaches that point as a player, he will begin to arrive at the levels that Dirk Nowitzki reached in his prime. Defeating all the American superstars in front of him, like Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Anthony Davis and any others who come along as he storms his way to a championship. Giannis and Dirk will be in a class of their own, and one day both will be in the Hall of Fame, recognized as the two best international players of all time.
