Behind the trained grimace there is a real frown. He is quick to laugh, but also quick to anger. When he came into the league, there was speculation that maybe he should play point guard, and he still has that instinct as a point guard that includes his teammates. But he had to do a lot on his own.
As a rookie, he completed nineteen unassisted dunks; five years later he had more than a hundred. This year he is averaging over twenty points in the paint while playing just over thirty minutes per game. He makes nearly eighty percent of his shots from within five feet of the rim. Many of them, amazingly, dunk. He is his own team. On Friday night against the Chicago Bulls, he scored forty-one points with fifteen rebounds, nine assists, two steals and two blocks. No one has more influence on the court right now than Antetokounmpo.
The Bucks have been playing with the math for a long time, trying to exploit Antetokounmpo's efficiency. But since winning that title in 2021, the team has yet to return to the Eastern Conference Finals, let alone the Finals. The Bucks have been eliminated from the playoffs in the first round three years in a row. Antetokounmpo, once criticized for poor shooting, has shot over sixty percent from the field in consecutive seasons. But the team's front office had difficulty finding the right people to surround him, and coaches struggled to make room on the floor so he could move.
This past offseason was a strange one for the Bucks. After a quick exit from the playoffs, there were rumors that Antetokounmpo would be the latest NBA star to request a trade. As training camp began, the rumors became more specific, with people claiming he was considering the New York Knicks as a possible destination. When asked about this, he was frank: “I've said it many times: I want to be in a situation where I can win,” he told the press. He added: “I'm locked into what's in front of me. Now, if in six or seven months I change my mind, I think that's also human.”
The right to change your mind is not a favor often granted to professional athletes, or to any of us for that matter. The public record is what it is, and the commitments are framed as an all-or-nothing proposition. But Antetokounmpo entered this season with a display of strength and dominance that astounds even him. During the offseason, the Bucks released high-priced All-Star Damian Lillard and shifted some of that money to Turner, while also bringing in a pair of guards: second-year draft pick Ryan Rollins in the second round, and Cole Anthony, a talented player whose progress with his previous team, the Orlando Magic, seemed to have stalled. Rollins was a tremendous defender and the Bucks' second leading scorer, and Anthony showed a knack for getting the ball to the right spot. Turner, a 6-foot-11 center who can shoot 3s, floats around to create space, and the sharp-shooting AJ Green complements Antetokounmpo's drawing game by staying outside the 3-point arc. Each player has a goal. But that only works with Antetokounmpo. When he's on the floor, the Bucks have one of the best offenses in the league. When he's not on set, they stink.
The same can be said about many stars: that is what makes them stars. The Denver Nuggets are nothing without Nikola Jokic; LeBron James has been his own team for decades. But Antetokounmpo's burden seems different. He feels a loneliness that he cannot or does not want to get rid of. His two brothers are now his teammates, and he protects the rest of the Bucks players as if they were his brothers too. After the game against the Pacers, he attributed his reaction to the crowd's jeers as an act of generosity toward Turner, who was an important part of the team that knocked the Bucks out of the playoffs just months earlier. “I was just trying to show some camaraderie and support for my teammate,” Antetokounmpo said. “Which, come to think of it, four or five months ago he was the one who blocked my kick and pushed me to the floor.” He added: “I respect him when I played against him and now that he's my teammate I have a lot of love for him.” Maybe so. And yet, as I watched the other Bucks recoil from Antetokounmpo after that buzzer—as he stared off into the distance, barely paying attention to teammates grabbing his shoulders, fingers to their lips as the whistles rained down—I couldn't help but think he still looked like a man, except for him. ♦
