There's some room for poignant feelings when a season ends, but Giannis Antetokounmpo offered perspective instead. Indeed, only one team gets to end every playoff run with a win and 15 other teams have to go home and move on with their lives. Giannis, whose third language is English, said that in a more eloquent way while fielding questions from a reporter after their loss to the Miami Heat.
“Michael Jordan played 15 years, won 6 championships. The other 9 years were a failure?"
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 27, 2023
-Giannis' passionate response to if he considers the Bucks' season a failure pic.twitter.com/G5VtwnGXYq
It is hard to look back on the Milwaukee Bucks season and call it a failure. Just because Game of Thrones ended the series with a hot pile of garbage that is seasons six to eight, doesn't mean the show didn’t have its merits. The same goes for the Bucks this season. Basketball history has memorialized greatness, but it hasn't given enough shine to those who didn’t quite become all-time greats.
We’ll most likely remember the Bucks becoming the sixth No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 8 seed in league history. The replays are going to show the Jimmy Butler sizzle reel – from his epic 56-point outburst in Game 4 to his late-game heroics in Game 5.
JIMMY BUTLER SENDS GAME 5 TO OT 😱
— NBA (@NBA) April 27, 2023
HE'S GOT 40 PTS. UNBELIEVABLE.
📺: NBA TV pic.twitter.com/x9AGDSlxpC
The highlight reel will show the epic shot that sent Game 5 to OT. It’s also going to contain all of Mike Budenhozer’s questionable coaching decisions – taking Brook Lopez out of the lineup to defend Jimmy Butler’s shot, the missed timeouts, and not having Giannis play cornerback on Butler’s shot. He’s going to take a beating over the next few weeks and might even lose his job.
We’re probably never going to hear about how much adversity the Bucks overcame this season. Giannis, Jrue Holiday, and Khris Middleton all spent significant time on the injured list, yet Milwaukee clinched the top seed in a highly-competitive Eastern Conference. No one’s going to bring up the 17-game winning streak late in the season that propelled the Bucks to the top seed, Brook Lopez’s resurgence into a runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year, or their top-tier defensive season.
Crucially, everyone’s going to conveniently forget that the Bucks didn't have Giannis for two and a half games of this series after injuring his back in the first half of Game 1. That Giannis somehow came back for Game 4 and looked 80 percent of his MVP form should be considered a miracle. Yet all this nuance is going to be blurred in the rush of hot takes.
It's hard not to feel bad for Milwaukee. All season, your team gets slept on by the national media, only for them to start paying attention when you’re at your lowest. For those who have followed this team closely the entire year, the magnitude of this loss should be clear to you. This could be a franchise-altering loss that could mean big personnel changes. For a team that’s as grounded in its culture as the Bucks, any small tweak will feel like a swerve.
But going back to Giannis’ press conference, we just need a touch of perspective. After all the pain and bad luck, the Bucks still have Giannis to pin their hopes on. That’s not such a bad deal.
