Giannis wins MVP, joins elite group
MIAMI (AFP) — Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said he would treasure his second straight NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award and redouble his efforts to capture a league crown.
The 25-year-old from Greece became just the third player in history to earn MVP and Defensive Player of the Year honors in the same season after Michael Jordan in 1988 and Hakeem Olajuwon in 1994.
“Michael Jordan, one of the best players who had ever done it, if not the best,” Antetokounmpo said, speaking from a rooftop in Athens during the televised announcement of the award.
“Hakeem, a guy that I look up to, he came from where I’m from, Nigeria, where I have roots.”
“Just being in the same sentence with them, that means a lot to me.”
The player dubbed the “Greek Freak” became the 12th player to win back-to-back MVP, joining Jordan, Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Moses Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell.
Just being in the same sentence with them, that means a lot to me.
But, once again, the MVP award carries a bittersweet tinge after the top-seeded Bucks fell in five games to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference semifinals in the quarantine bubble in Orlando, Florida.
Last year, Antetokounmpo won the MVP only for eventual champion Toronto to oust the Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals.
“Obviously, I would love to be still in the bubble playing games, fighting,” Antetokounmpo said.
“But at the end of the day I won the award. I’m extremely blessed.”
“It’s been a long journey,” Antetokounmpo added.
“The people that know me, the people that know my story, you can never take these moments for granted.”
Antetokounmpo won in a landslide, receiving 85 first-place votes from a global panel of sports reporters and broadcasters, the league announced on Friday.
Los Angeles Lakers star James received 16 first-place votes and the third finalist, James Harden of the Houston Rockets, did not receive any first-place votes.