How Giannis Antetokounmpo learned to get over himself to play the best basketball of his career
Giannis Antetokounmpo was in a good mood as he straightened his overcoat and got ready to address the media in the visitor's locker room of the United Center. The Milwaukee Bucks had just won their fifth straight game on March 2 in Chicago and, for the first time in a long time, things were clicking on the court.
He was asked if he felt more confidence in his jump shot and his passing and, as he answered those questions, he took a slight detour by adding, “I feel like I’m just over myself. I have an all-time great teammate (in Damian Lillard) that I have to pick my spots. I cannot be all over the place anymore. It’s not just me out there. I have a guy that can score at will, anytime he wants.”
In the moment, it appeared as a brief aside. But it meant much, much more.
To know why is to go back to March 2020 when basketball was suddenly gone. A new father, Antetokounmpo faced his professional mortality at just 25 years old. What else can I do? It sparked what is now a burgeoning multimillion-dollar business portfolio under Ante, Inc.
When basketball returned, it was quarantined in an Orlando “bubble.” The Bucks, who were steamrolling their way to one of the best seasons in league history before the shutdown, lost in the second round of the playoffs. The whole process was unfulfilling for Antetokounmpo.
Yet, he became the first player since Hakeem Olajuwon in 1994 — and the third ever — to claim the league’s most valuable player and defensive player of the year awards in the same season. He was the 12th player to win consecutive MVPs. All-NBA and all-star appearances were beginning to pile up. Ultimate team success, however, remained painfully out of reach.
What else can I do?
He signed the largest contract in NBA history in December 2020. And he was ready to leave basketball. It was around this time he began speaking with a sports psychologist. He was learning how to “be OK with myself.” Part of that included a breakthrough on the court: I’m over myself.
The player who fans believe bellowed “I’m the (expletive) MVP!” to a frothy Fiserv Forum crowd during his first MVP campaign, the one who did the “king me” celebration against LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers in his next, had to be left behind to some degree.
This was such a crucial time for Antetokounmpo, off and on the court. It feels like the distant past, yet it has everything to do with the present — because it led him to a championship, and set him up for the best basketball he’s ever played.
When Giannis got over himself
Make no mistake, Antetokounmpo always had the desire to be one of the greatest. He wanted to be an MVP, to win a scoring title, to be the best. He seethed when his minutes were limited. He felt invincible. He believed barreling through the Toronto “wall” in the 2019 Eastern Conference finals gave the Bucks their best chance to win. That he was the best chance, no matter the situation.
Once basketball began again in an empty TD Garden on Dec. 23, 2020, however, Antetokounmpo was ready to embark on this private mission. Some knew of the work he had put in on himself, how his mindset was evolving. But he would not say the phrase “I’m over myself” in public until nearly a year later.
Antetokounmpo, 29, spoke with the Journal Sentinel on this topic in a series of interviews over the last three seasons, recognizing that arriving to that place took time, that putting it into practice required a long runway — and that it will always be a work in progress.
But it doesn’t mean he’s “over” winning more MVPs or being recognized for his play.
“No. No. It’s just maturity,” he allowed. “Like, I know what I’m capable of, I know who I am and I know what makes me tick.”
Antetokounmpo further explained what it means to him.
“I know that sometimes I’m going to get to my spots, sometimes I’m not going to get to my spot, sometimes I’m going to have a good game, not a good game,” he said. “Sometimes I’m going to play well, sometimes I’m not going to play well.
“Like I don’t try always to be this perfect guy. You cannot be perfect. Especially when you play the game. You cannot always be perfect. It’s human performance. Human performance means that you’re gonna make mistakes! Nobody; you cannot be perfect. You’re going to miss free throws, you’re gonna air ball free throws.
"But like, can you be OK? How can you be OK with yourself? And I think I’ve got to a level where I’m just OK with myself, you know? But that doesn’t mean that I’m not competitive. That doesn’t mean there’s no pressure. You want to win. I want to win. I play to win. But, if this guy (next to me) has 35 points in the fourth quarter and I have zero, I’m OK with it, because at the end of the day the goal is to win.”
Interestingly — and perhaps not coincidentally — his first season operating on the court with that mentality saw the Bucks reach the pinnacle, an NBA championship.
Of course, in 2020-21, the team had improved. All-star point guard Jrue Holiday was added in the offseason, and defensive firecracker P.J. Tucker was acquired for the stretch run. Antetokounmpo tied a career high in averaging 5.9 assists per game. His scoring and shot attempts decreased from the year before and he set a career high in triple-doubles.
“It has probably allowed him to read the game a little more clearly and understand that sometimes, like from a basketball IQ standpoint, knowing what a team is gonna try to do,” Bucks guard Pat Connaughton told the Journal Sentinel. “I’m sure in the past he’s been like his best way to have an effect on the game is 'I’m gonna score the basketball.' Now I think he’s growing and maturing in a way where I think he’s reading the game, he’s understanding how teams are guarding him, he’s understanding how different players are guarding him and now he’s understanding how to beat teams without just scoring the basketball.”
And more than that, Antetokounmpo had to watch his team advance to the NBA Finals without him. Injured for the final two games of the Eastern Conference finals, the Bucks carried him. He was truly a part of something bigger.
The rest, of course, is history. The Block. The lob. Fifty-points in Game 6.
“That was one of the most iconic Finals that you could put together,” said Candace Parker, a two-time WNBA MVP and three-time champion. “So, I just think when you reach that stage where you’ve crossed over that mountain, then it turns into something else. It turns into chasing titles and winning basketball games and I think you trust yourself.
“Before that, you want to listen to what everybody else is saying but, after that, you get to a point where you trust yourself. That’s a unique and amazing spot to be in for him.”
And how Antetokounmpo carried himself didn’t go unnoticed by those who were with him as he ascended to such mountaintops.
“It helps him be his best version of himself when all he’s focused on is winning, and he is,” former Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer told the Journal Sentinel of that season. “He’s always been that way, but I think it’s grown. I’m sure the individual things just help his confidence grow, help his belief in himself grow, but he’s just gone to where winning is all that matters, which makes us our best and we were able to win a championship.”
More: Bucks' personal touch made Milwaukee the right place and the right time for Giannis Antetokounmpo
LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant recognize Giannis’ mentality
During all-star weekend after championship season, Antetokounmpo was recognized by the NBA as one of the Top 75 players in its history. Giants of the game, including Michael Jordan, arrived in Cleveland to be together.
Antetokounmpo was one of 11 active players on the team. LeBron James was there. So was Stephen Curry. And Kevin Durant.
They all knew exactly what Antetokounmpo had been seeking, and the change in mindset that it often takes.
“We all want love, we all want people to see who we are, we all want to be established in this league — we all want some fame,” Durant told the Journal Sentinel. “We all come from humble beginnings, nobody knew who we were, grinding on the low. Now we’re on this huge platform. Yeah, look and see what I’m doing. It’s all right.
“But once you got older and you’re still that way …"
He shook his head.
“… you gotta continue to keep growing as a human being and as a player and honestly the best way to go is to get over yourself.
“A lot of great players have understood that. And when you win a championship, I think that’s when you understand that. That I can be great, I can score 50 and we still lose. I can score 22 and win by 20. The game is crazy is like that. At the end of the day, it’s about all of us in this room and we’re all experiencing this amazing experience as NBA players together. It shouldn’t just be about me all the time since I’m the best player. We’re all going to have our moments when we get to shine out there. That’s the beauty of the game.”
By the start of the 2021-22 season, Antetokounmpo had joined their club. The regular season MVPs. He added a Finals MVP. A ring.
Now, quite literally, he had done it all.
The question of “what else can I do?” has different answers.
“It’s the game within the game,” Stephen Curry told the Journal Sentinel. “Focusing on what matters. Again, you’re not going to prove anything to anybody — you’re trying to live up to your own expectations.”
For Antetokounmpo, “It means that if I score six or if I score 30, it doesn’t matter. I know what I’m capable of, you know? I know what I can give to the team every single night.”
LeBron James smiled when he heard this.
“It’s easy to be able to just go out and play the game that you love and play it for the main thing, and the main thing is to win and to make an impact,” he said. “How can you impact the game while you’re on the floor, not only for your teammates but for the franchise that you’re with.
“It’s very cool to hear that about Giannis because when you put in the work, the basketball gods will take care of you.”
Giannis has played at an MVP level
In the two seasons after the Bucks won the championship, Antetokounmpo’s game blossomed further — even if injuries to him and Khris Middleton derailed the team mission. Last year, Antetokounmpo finally cracked the 30-point per game average, rarefied air even in a league bending toward offense.
“I think this is the most mature I’ve ever been,” he said. “Like, I’m over myself. I’m able to get to my spot better and execute. And if the ball doesn’t go in, I’m OK with it.
“I think it’s called abundance mentality. I know what I’ve done in the past and that gives me like, confidence, and I’m able to go out there and execute without thinking, not having self-doubts about myself or think I’m not good enough. Kind of like being OK with me. So, that allows me to play good basketball. Mentally, I’m in a very good place.”
This season, he’s again averaging over 30 points per game but also a career-high 6.3 assists. Of his 58 games with 10 or more assists, 11 have come this season and 32 have come in the last four years.
Antetokounmpo admits he’s continued to grow in this mindset, that he’s a more willing passer than ever before, even as he continues to score at an incredibly high and efficient rate.
“There’s not anything anybody can say about your game that influences how you think about it — it’s just, you understand it’s about winning,” Curry said. “It’s about understanding what getting better really means. It’s not so much you’re adding anything to your game at this point. You’ve pretty shown who you are as a player. But sustaining that is the nuance of, for me, being in year (15) doing what I’m doing, for him getting back to a championship-type level.”
Getting back to that championship-level season brought with it perhaps the heaviest external expectations of Antetokounmpo’s career, because one of those Top 75 players who walked out onto the court with him in Cleveland is on his team in point guard Damian Lillard.
Lillard’s arrival has been perhaps the singular greatest test of being over himself Antetokounmpo has met.
He acknowledged the journey he’s been on has set him up to better handle having a teammate that could, on any given night — or playoff series — supersede anything he’s doing.
“I’m here to win. I don’t care,” he said, emphatically hitting each syllable. “We don’t make the rules in winning. We don’t create the best circumstances in winning. Sometimes you win in a way that you might not like, you know, but it doesn’t matter. I’m here to win.
“And if a guy like Dame can help us be successful and help us win — which I think he’s going to help us to do that — I’m OK with myself, man.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo got over himself to play best basketball
