«In sport there is no failure»- Corriere.it

The culture of defeat, the one that according to a historical maxim of Julius Velasco in sport you always have to have, and the desire to find a «smart» answer to a question that he hasn’t quite digested. There was all this in the exit with which Giannis Antetokounmpo hit the mark on the media level, watering down or even erasing the memory of the elimination of his parents Milwaukee Bucks by the Miami Heat in the fifth game of the quarterfinals of the Eastern Conference playoffs. «There is no failure in sport» is the synthesis of the thought of the Greek-Nigerian, who gracefully but at the same time decisively cornered a journalist, such Eric from The Athleticwho had tried to simplify the exit of the number 1 seed in this year’s NBA playoffs to a minimum.

Milwaukee out of the playoffs, the reasons

It was a cursed series for the Bucks, champions in 2021 (50 years after the previous and up to that point only title) and eager to take back the scepter. On the surprising misstep – without taking anything away from the Miami enterprise, in decisive growth after entering the title challenges with the last useful opportunity, the play-in play-off with Chicago – the back injury that hit Giannis in game 1 weighs heavily, forcing him to miss two matches before a problematic return (the extent of the ailment, among other things, will still have to be properly focused). Despite 38 points and 20 rebounds in game 5 (finished 126-128 in overtime, after Milwaukee had squandered a 16-point lead in the fourth half), for example, the many errors from the line weighed on the elimination (10 out of 23 the statistic ) of the Greek.

“Failure season?” Antetokoumpo’s response went viral

In the post-match press conference, the reporter asked the provocative question: «It is a bankruptcy season?”. Antetokounmpo snorted and then replied harshly: “Eric, you asked me the same question last year” (when the Bucks were dethroned by Boston in the Eastern Conference semifinal) he declared addressing The Athletic reporter.

«Do you happen to get a promotion every year at your job? I don’t think so, so you consider your work a failure whenever it doesn’t happen? I would say no. You work hard to achieve other results, to take care of your family, buy a house and many other things. It’s not a failure, but it’s a necessary step in trying to win. Michael Jordan spent 15 years in the NBA and won six titles: were the other nine years a failure? Are you really telling me that?”

But he didn’t finish here, there was precisely the synthesis of the reasoning: «Why are you asking me this question? You have to understand that in sport there is no logic of failure. There are good days and bad days, sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t. There are moments when you understand that it’s your turn and others when you have to step aside: it’s the basic logic of sport, you can’t always win”. An exit to applause, also because it comes from a player who is competitive at the highest level: think that, when he was named regular season Mvp for two years (2019 and 2020), he was not happy because he had not reached the title.

Where will he play in the future?

This disappointment could mark the end of a Bucks cycle and the pretext for a renewal. We talk about the farewell of coach Mike Budenholzer and of the possible passage of Khris Middleton in Washingtonbut also
The Greek Freak
he is not excluded from gossip, despite having signed in 2020 a five-year deal worth $228 million in total. But while acknowledging that Milwaukee, which has adopted him and seen him grow, is his home, in unsuspecting times Antetokounmpo admitted that one day he could change his destination and think about a team in a more important place with greater media visibility. Has this moment come? Bettors have already activated: Giannis’ odds in Miami are 3-1; at the Golden State Warriors it is 7-2 and at the Los Angeles Lakers it is 4-1. If they are roses, they will flourish: all that remains is to wait for the echoes of a post-season that the Bucks hoped would be very different.