The scariest thing in the world: Yannis took the monkey off his back and sent a message to the NBA - Walla! sport

2021-07-21T12:05:20.205Z

Quality, status, protection and dominance. Yannis Antocompo gave a mesmerizing performance, and the thought that he might get better should scare the whole league. Assaf Ravitz sums up the final, wondering if we saw the greatest game of a basketball player ever, and explains how Chris Paul proved his greatness even in the loss

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After 50 years: Milwaukee has won the NBA Championship

The scariest thing in the world: Yannis took the monkey off his back and sent a message to the NBA

Quality, status, protection and dominance.

Yannis Antocompo gave a mesmerizing performance, and the thought that he might get better should scare the whole league.

Assaf Ravitz sums up the final, wondering if we saw the greatest game of a basketball player ever, and explains how Chris Paul proved his greatness even in the loss

Yannis

We may have seen tonight the greatest basketball player game ever. I write this passionately the moment after the game, before the proportions come in, before the historians of the game do it in an orderly fashion. But considering the quality of the show and the size of the class, I believe this game belongs in this discussion.

Yannis Antocompo was the most unstoppable in the big moment I can remember, the least human of all the natural phenomena circulating in the league, while also providing a breathtaking defensive display. He does not strike from the outside, no more than a reasonable morality, his style does not have the perfection that usually accompanies pompous statements of this kind, but his physical dominance is of the kind that could not be imagined until he arrived. Tonight we saw a Greek who brings to fruition his dominance, reaching the limit of his ability, until he barely stood on his feet. It was mesmerizing.

And we're sure we've seen one of the greatest personal series in NBA history in the last two weeks.

Not just in the final, at all.

Aside from the 50-point game tonight, Yannis had two games of more than 40 points, and in two of the three in which he was more relaxed he provided two iconic moments: the block in the fourth game and the dunk in the fifth game.

The Greek god appeared in all his glory in the final, and now the rest of the league has to digest that he is 26 years old and is already after the process of maturing and taking the monkeys off his back.

Yannis Antocompo's Exciting MVP Speech: "I Made People Around the World Dream"

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The Greek god appeared in all his glory in the final.

Yannis Antocompo (Photo: Reuters)

Milwaukee

There is no such thing as a mediocre champion in the NBA. To win four series of the best of the seven requires a combination of quality and mental resilience at a very high level. There will always be bumps in the road, rivals that reveal weaknesses, internal processes that need to crystallize. And to take a championship, there must also be the moment when everything connects. Milwaukee tonight completed a three-year process in which a quality regular season team became a champion.

Yannis matured to be the star who takes a team to the end, Chris Mildton matured to be the ideal sub-star alongside him, a scorer who knows how to take control of big moments, Jero Holiday gave the added value that was missing, each of the seven rotation players in the final had their big moments. The team that disbanded after two losses in the last two years has learned to come out behind in series, twice overcoming a 2-0 deficit against strong rivals.

The moment everything connected for Milwaukee as a team was Game 5, the only away win in the final.

Facing another wonderful offensive day for Phoenix, the three stars appeared together for a spectacular purposeful display at a critical moment.

The most important minutes of the final were the first minutes of the second quarter of Game 5. Milwaukee came up behind them 16 and without Yannis getting a rest, in what could easily have turned into minutes ending the game.

But the Bucks had already won crucial playoff games without Yannis, when he was injured against Atlanta, and that was the moment those games paid off.

Milwaukee turned to Pick N. Roll between Holiday and Brooke Lopez who worked so well against Atlanta, and it was precisely without her star that she entered a zone that lasted two and a half quarters.

It was the game in which Milwaukee became a very deserving champion, even if it was not remembered as a historic champion (unless it was the beginning of a streak).

With a historic performance by Yannis: Milwaukee won its first championship after 50 years

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Knows how to capture great moments.

Chris Middleton (Photo: GettyImages, Justin Casterline)

John Horst

The Milwaukee general manager has made excellent decisions over the years, along with a few mistakes that threatened to prevent the team he built from taking the extra step. Also last summer he missed the signing of Bogdan Bogdanovic, who could have made the Bucks' track much easier (certainly when Donta Divicenzo, the player who was supposed to pass for him, was injured in the playoffs), but Horst's two other decisions proved themselves hugely .

He decided to continue betting on Mike Bodenholzer despite the criticisms of his lack of flexibility and management of his series. Coach Bud has demonstrated the ability to learn and accept criticism. He assimilated an automatic exchange defense that became very important in the final, and most importantly he became a flexible coach who knows how to move between teams and methods and find the right team for each series and every game. Milwaukee was the more flexible team in the final, that's one of the reasons for its victory and it's a sentence that a year ago was hard to believe would be written.

Horst's second big decision was to bring Jero Holliday at the price of a senior superstar. On paper, Holiday is not worth a package that includes three first-round picks and the option to swap two more, he is not Anthony Davis, James Harden or Paul George, but Horst has taken a bet that for Milwaukee he will be the difference between almost and truly. The Holiday trade helped persuade Yannis to stay and helped bring Milwaukee a championship, making it a huge success. But one should not judge it only by the bottom line.

The championship came with a lot of luck and the playoffs could have developed very differently very easily.

This trade is a success because it gave Milwaukee the chance to take the extra step, because Horst recognized the moment when he had to pawn the future to exhaust the special years of a special player.

I believe that quite a few managers will look for a similar move in the summer, for most of them it will not end in a ring, but a move that gives the team the chance to do so is always good.

Horst, on the other hand, is supposed to have a calm summer.

All of his important players have been signed for a few years and Divancenzo's return will resolve the relative sparsity in the guard positions.

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The centimeter

There were championships that could be said to have been decided on one shot that came in or not. In the first decade of the millennium it was almost the standard, usually around a shot by my parents Robert (usually he scored, but one he also missed). It seems to me that this is the first time we can talk about a championship that was decided by an inch or two. If Kevin Durant's fin had been a little shorter, he would have scored a three in Game 7 of the second round series against Milwaukee and won the series for Brooklyn. Then Yannis does not belong in the big leagues and again looks vulnerable in the playoffs, the trade on Holiday is bad and Bodenholzer is apparently fired. It is worth remembering this inch when we construct narratives, especially when deciding fates to the negative.

Before it started, many called that series between Brooklyn and Milwaukee the real finale.

It could very well have been true, although it's hard to know what the Hunts 'playoff sequel would have looked like with the Stars' injuries.

The victory in overtime in Game 7, an away win in a series that until then had no away wins, also seemed to me in real time as a defining moment for Milwaukee and especially Yannis, the moment he was released from the weight and from there onwards will no longer look back.

In many great athletes one can recognize such a moment when fate is coming towards them as a turning point, perhaps they need a sign that they are not cursed to allow themselves to be truly great.

It is worth remembering this inch when making fates.

Kevin Durant (Photo: Walla !, screenshot)

The injuries

It is impossible to sum up this final and playoff without talking about the blow of injuries that has affected almost every series. Luckily at least the final included injuries only in the periphery, but the road to it was lined with sucking moments. Milwaukee, as mentioned, barely defeated Brooklyn who played the entire series without one of the three stars and its final part with Kyrie Irving injured and James Harden playing on the walk. It seems the only question about the Nets is whether the Big Three can survive an entire healthy playoffs together.

Phoenix turned the series against the Lakers in the first round only after Anthony Davis was injured, then passed Denver without Jamal Marie and the Clippers without Kwai Leonard. It's not a star name on the championship or the finalists, that word should stay out of the lexicon, both of which have earned their place, but when we assess their historical status it will be impossible to ignore the multiplicity of injuries of senior players in this playoff.

The problem of injuries at key moments will not be completely solved, certainly when medicine allows players to extend their careers and return to peak ability after serious injuries. But the simple solution that can significantly reduce the problem is known to everyone: reducing the amount of games and the burden on players. The obstacle is also known: it means less revenue for the league and teams and less salary for players, at the moment no one is willing to sacrifice immediate money for health, interest and perhaps future income thanks to a more attractive league.

If there is one person who can be imagined leading such a move, it is LeBron James.

He has sharply criticized the game schedule this year and certainly knows that the problem does not end in the corona seasons.

If he leads a demand of the players to reduce the amount of games in the season, with a willingness to give up the relative share of the salary as a result, I believe he can create change.

We are in a time when players have a leader they listen to, and the league has a commissioner who is attentive to players.

This could be an opportunity to bring down the arbitrary and excessive number of games in the NBA season.

Despite this, at the moment it is still hard to believe that it will happen.

A huge playoff of a huge player.

Chris Paul (Photo: Reuters)

Phoenix

The loser in the final is a team that is built very strangely in a very significant way: it is based on a player for whom this might have been the last chance and on some players for whom it was the first chance. The media focus is on the veteran leader, but it should be remembered that for Devin Booker, 24-year-olds Diandra Eyton and Michelle Bridges, respectively, it was the first post-season in his career.

Each round I waited for the moment when the class would strike them, the inexperience would manifest. It does not make sense to be so good and stable in the first playoff, to continue like this four series, but those three did not stop. Also in the final they were excellent, maybe only in the sixth game they looked, for the first time, like new players in the class. Along with Cameron Johnson, who also had a great playoff run, the youngsters of Monty Williams have gained experience that puts them above the rest of the emerging young teams in the West.

The one who helped them gain this experience is Chris Paul.

I'm glad the championship was decided in a good CP3 game, which is not the story of the Suns' loss.

Paul finished tonight a huge playoff of a huge player, a playoff that greatly strengthens his historic status as one of the greatest coordinators in the history of the game.

The only complaints again about him in the final are that he is short and 36 years old.

In a broader view, one can talk about how it took Paul too many years to turn from a basketball genius to the true leader he has become in recent years, to a player that everyone is flourishing around.

But what he has done in the last two months will be remembered as a particularly quality and exciting playoff of a huge player in a small body.

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Source: walla

All sports articles on 2021-07-21