It was a slight that won’t be ignored. Kevin Garnettl, the NBA legend, rated Giannis Antetokounmpo as the fourth best player in the Eastern Conference. Emmet Ryan writes that all of basketball is going to be put on notice by the Milwaukee Bucks star as the Greek Freak has extra motivation for the coming season. KG’s going to hear about this.
Who doesn’t love a bit of off-season spicy drama? Kevin Garnett rarely disappoints in that regard. After Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics won the NBA championship, a first since KG’s days in Boston, and Joel Embiid won his first MVP award two years ago, Garnett has knocked Giannis Antetokounmpo down the rankings in his eyes. The Greek Freak tends to let his play do most of the talking. It’s going to be loud.
A touch of context
Ranking Giannis Antetokounmpo as fourth best player in the East (KG oddly didn’t say who he had third) is low. Still, let’s put a little bit of context on why that’s not quite the burn Kevin Garnett might think it is.
There are 225 players on NBA rosters in the East alone at any one time. That means there’s over 220 other guys who would love to be the fourth best player in the conference. That’s a lot of very good basketball players.
Fourth in the East is still a starting All Star. It’s still a certified lock to make an All-NBA team. Even if he was just the fourth best player in the East, the Greek Freak would still be amongst the very best players alive. He’d be in every awards discussion for at least part of the season. There’s around a dozen fanbases in the East alone that wish they had the fourth best player in the conference. But, of course…
It’s still ridiculous
The numbers simply don’t lie. Even going with the three most basic stats, before getting to the advanced stuff, it’s pretty evident that Giannis Antetokounmpo remains the best player in the conference and in the very narrow discussion for best basketball player alive.
Even in a season where the Milwaukee Bucks will have been disappointed with their team performance, he put up big numbers. The Greek Freak had a career best year in assists, at 6.5 per game. It was his second straight season scoring over 30 points per game, with 30.4 on average. That, out of interest, also saw him become the first NBA player ever to score that much while also averaging above 60 per cent shooting. His rebounding average, 11.5 per game, was, along with his points and assists, above his averages in…
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