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Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo took a major leap forward in his career after claiming his first NBA title and being named as the Finals MVP last month. A 50-point performance in the clinching game of the 2021 NBA Finals opened the eyes of fans and critics as to how good Antetokounmpo has become.
After eight seasons, Giannis Antetokounmpo stands atop the NBA with two of the most prestigious trophies in hand, the Larry O’Brien Trophy and the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award. Add these to his list of accomplishments and you have a player who could end up as one of the top 5 NBA players of all time.
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s accomplishments
Before we assess what Giannis Antetokounmpo has to do to become one of the five best players ever, let’s look at what he has accomplished so far in his career.
1x NBA champion
1x Finals MVP
1x Defensive Player of the Year
1x Most Improved Player
1x All-Star MVP
2x MVP
5x All-Star
5x All-NBA
4x All-Defensive team
2013-14 All-Rookie team
These awards and accomplishments are quite impressive. Very few players in the league have many of these on their resume and none of the top 10 NBA players of all time have a Most Improved Player Award like the Greek Freak does.
But to be a top five player of all time, Giannis Antetokounmpo has much to do. Just for purposes of this discussion, let’s consider who the top five players of all time are. In the opinion of most basketball pundits, these are the five players mentioned most often:
Michael Jordan
LeBron James
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Wilt Chamberlain
Bill Russell
Honorable mention: Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Tim Duncan
What do these players have that Giannis doesn’t? That’s what we aim to find out. Forget about making his jump shots or making his free throws because Chamberlain and Russell had neither, and they’re in the top five anyway.
3. He should break several records
For Giannis Antetokounmpo to be a true candidate for top five status, he has to break several records before his career ends. By breaking records, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he is atop the leaderboard in the major statistical categories career-wise, but he should at least be in the top 10 in a few of them.
However, Giannis Antetokounmpo will need to be a record-breaker when it comes to his season-long trek through the league. He’s already accomplished more than a few of these including the aforementioned 50 points he scored in Game 6 of the 2021 NBA Finals. In doing so, he became the seventh player in league annals to record 50 points in the Finals and the first to have that many points with 10 rebounds, and five blocks in a Finals match.
These types of records and more will make Giannis Antetokounmpo foremost in the minds of critics, basketball pundits and the most knowledgeable fans in the game. If he does something remarkable and record-breaking or record-tying every season, he will have a career worth remembering.
2. Win multiple championships
Giannis Antetokounmpo just won his first title but he has to be hungry for more.
One thing common about the greatest players of all time is how many championships they won. Of the top eight players, Chamberlain has the least with two. The rest have at least three (Larry Bird) with Russell lording it over everyone with 11.
If Giannis Antetokounmpo wants to be known as a top five player of all time, he may have to win at least four. The only reason why Chamberlain is in the top five despite only winning two championships is because of how insanely unreachable some of his records are.
Chamberlain reached mythical levels of achievement that may never be attained by anyone. His 100-point game still stands as the greatest scoring achievement, and it was six decades ago when he accomplished that. It’s doubtful that anyone in the modern era will be able to replicate, let alone surpass, any of Chamberlain’s scoring and rebounding records that are still left standing.
That’s why Giannis Antetokounmpo must win multiple titles. Aside from records that he needs to break, he will have to win four or five titles and be the top player in the Finals in at least four of them. Doing so will put him in the conversation for top five of all time.
1. Giannis Antetokounmpo should win multiple MVP Awards and take home several awards
Giannis Antetokounmpo won back-to-back MVP awards from 2018-19 to 2019-20, and won the Defensive Player of the Year Award during that second season as well. These are vital to the Greek Freak’s case.
What distinguished the top five players of all time is how many MVPs each of them won. Consider that Jordan won five, James has four, Abdul-Jabbar had six, Chamberlain had four and Russell had five.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is halfway through James’ and Chamberlain’s total. Winning multiple MVPs shows your dominance and how you owned the league during your career. If an NBA player can’t be an alpha dog and own the narrative throughout a season several times during one’s career, then he’s not fit to join the most elite group in the league.
Breaking into the top five has to be hard because we're talking about the best of the best. Multiple MVPs isn’t a suggestion, it’s a must.
Of course, Giannis Antetokounmpo also has to be named for several other awards, too. Being a multiple-time All-Star, All-NBA and All-Defensive team member would go a long way into his case. Getting into the All-Defensive team is important because not every great player is a great defensive player.
Giannis Antetokounmpo could have a leg up on some of the other members of the top five by getting named to multiple All-League teams. Of course, the All-Defensive teams weren’t in place until 1969 so Chamberlain and Russell are at a disadvantage. But the fact is, it’s in place now and so Antetokounmpo must ensure that he is among these elite groups as often as he can. He’s already named to three First Team All-Defensive and two Second Teams, so he’s well on his way.
It’s tough to crack the top five players of all-time in the NBA, but if there’s anything that Giannis Antetokounmpo has done in his career, it’s that he has exceeded everyone’s expectations of him.
Also Read: Ranking the top 5 teams that LeBron James has faced in the NBA Finals
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