Giannis Rejects Lebron's Offer Of Friendship- Becomes This Blogger's Favorite Player
The calls started coming in over the past two springs as Giannis Antetokounmpo's talent began to come into focus. Trainers to some of the NBA's top-level superstars wanted Antetokounmpo to work out with their clients during the offseason. Among the suitors was LeBron James' camp -- the NBA's equivalent of being tapped for Skull and Bones, the society of the young NBA elite. Members of the Milwaukee Bucks' front office and coaching staff encouraged Antetokounmpo to take LeBron up on the invitation. What better way to hone one's game than training with the best player in the world? But Antetokounmpo would have none of it. Though he has a baller's appreciation of James and his place in the game, the Bucks' franchise player has no interest in following LeBron around like a puppy. Besides, why would he want to give his fiercest Eastern Conference rival a free look at his tendencies, vulnerabilities and anything he might be working on for the upcoming season?
Summer was for the Greek national team, for family and for grinding at the Bucks' training facility or wherever business took him. For Antetokounmpo, Bucks assistant Sean Sweeney -- and not LeBron or Kevin Durant or anyone else -- would be his preferred workout partner.
Antetokounmpo's thanks-but-no-thanks provides a small window into what kind of superstar he might be as he takes up residency in the NBA's pantheon. His response wasn't so much a tacit rejection of the NBA brotherhood, as James likes to call it, as it was a strong signal from Antetokounmpo that he plans to craft a superstar persona that's decidedly less social, less entrepreneurial and more introverted than the prevailing trends of the LeBron era.
Read the rest of this great article here.
Yes, Giannis, make room on that band wagon for one more. It’s not like I needed any more reason to love the driving, dunking, fade-away shooting, three point swishing seven footer from Greece, but this really is a cherry on top. This isn’t just anti-Lebron in the fact that he said no to his camp, but that he’s choosing to take a different path in almost every way. I love the fact that he doesn’t attend team dinners, not because I have anything against team dinners, but because it shows that he understands that team chemistry isn’t so easy as inviting everybody to a party. I love that he understands that it’s how a team responds to adversity on the court that brings it together, rather than reading the same book or coordinating pregame costumes.
He’s humble, extraordinarily hard working, taking a road that’s not often traveled in the NBA, and I respect the hell out of him for it. Now you could argue that being the “anti-Lebron” is a way of marketing in and of itself, and I think that’s something people have been craving more and more with the rise of super teams and rivals recruiting one another (yes this can apply to the Warriors as well as the Cavaliers, you haters).
That being said, inadvertent marketing or not, the league needs more players like Giannis. The league needs more guys who keep that intense competitiveness of the pros alive, that put the hours in the gym when nobody’s watching, and live and breathe basketball until they can’t. The league needs Giannis, and the best part is, he couldn’t care less.
P.S. My curse is that I'll hit "publish" on this blog, and Giannis will play with Lebron next year.
