Mario to Giannis: Nothing personal
Giannis Antetokounmpo apologized to the children, just not to Mario Hezonja’s future children.
Two days after threatening to assault Hezonja’s testicles, Antetokounmpo said he stands behind the message – if not the delivery.
“What I said, I meant it. I don’t take words back,” Antetokounmpo told reporters in Milwaukee. “I wasn’t mad or frustrated after the game. It was more the right thing. But I know I have to choose better words. Sometimes it’s tough because I’m not from here, I’m from overseas. So it comes off as harsh. But I know I’m a role model for a lot of kids and seeing kids in the road saying, yeah, punch him in the thing. It’s not a good thing. I felt terrible about that. But as a person, I meant what I said. Just better words.”
Hezonja, meanwhile, said he meant no disrespect by stepping over Giannis Antetokounmpo, even after hearing about the ‘Greek Freak’s’ low-blow threat.
“I wasn’t even worried about it or who it was, I didn’t see to be honest,” Hezonja said. “It was just great to get the crowd going.”
In Hezonja’s defense, he couldn’t have known, as it was happening, that it was Antetokounmpo who contested the dunk from behind Saturday at the Garden. But Hezonja certainly got a good look at the MVP candidate as he lay on the court.
Hezonja then stared down at his opponent and stepped over him, a move that clearly offended and incensed Antetokounmpo.
“I’m going to punch him in the nuts next time,” he said.
The Knicks next play the Bucks on Christmas, but Hezonja said he was not concerned with being treated to a personal rendition of the Nutcracker Suite.
“I’m not worried about that,” he said. “We play Washington (Monday night) and my whole focus is on that game.”
As Draymond Green and many of the Warriors argued during the 2016 NBA finals, stepping over a player is among the more disrespectful things to do in the NBA, just a notch below spitting. It led to Green flicking LeBron James’ groin in those Finals, and ultimately changed the course of that series because Green was suspended.
More famously, Tyronn Lue endured years of ridicule because Allen Iverson stepped over him during the 2001 Finals.
Knicks coach David Fizdale brought a different perspective to the discussion, evoking his upbringing in gang territory in L.A. – where his grandfather was murdered on his front porch.
“I don’t know (if stepping over another player is disrespectful). I don’t get into all that,” he said. “I grew up in a place where real disrespectful things happened and real things happened. So that’s what I’m saying this whole thing about toughness and scrapping and hitting and ehhh. I’m not getting into that because that’s not real to me. What’s real to me is South Central L.A. So the rest of it is nonsense to me.”