What’s different about Giannis Antetokounmpo situation this offseason?
What’s different about the Giannis Antetokounmpo situation this offseason? Jim Owczarski discusses next moves for the Milwaukee Bucks.
- ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith says Giannis Antetokounmpo is an “underachiever” if he has only one NBA championship on his résumé when he retires.
- Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Milwaukee Bucks to an NBA title in 2021 and has established himself as one of the greatest players in NBA history.
- But Smith says for someone as dominant as Antetokounmpo the Bucks should have more championships and cites the team’s early playoff exits in recent years.
For nearly everyone, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s basketball career is described with terms like excellence, historic and inspirational.
You won’t find many people use the term “underachiever.”
But if the Milwaukee Bucks superstar retires tomorrow and doesn’t add any more NBA championships to his résumé, that’s how ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said he’d describe Antetokounmpo’s career.
Asked on “First Take” June 13 for one word to describe Antetokounmpo’s career if he doesn’t win another title, Smith without hesitation said “underachiever.” Then he said it again for anyone who didn’t hear the boisterous host the first time.
Smith sure knows how to get on Bucks fans’ bad side. Remember, he once called Milwaukee a “terrible city” during the Bucks’ run to the championship in 2021.
The longtime NBA reporter and ESPN personality then rattled off some of Antetokounmpo’s accomplishments.
You know the nine All-NBA selections, nine All-Star appearances and nine top 10 finishes in MVP voting, which includes another third place this season. While he didn’t mention it, Antetokounmpo won the MVP award twice.
“He’s one of the greatest players to ever play the game,” Smith acknowledged.
Antetokounmpo, of course, went from an unknown 18-year-old draft pick from Greece who grew up poor in the streets of Athens trying to help his family make ends meet to an NBA champion, an Olympian, a member of the NBA’s top 75 team, a Defensive Player of the Year winner, and is the Bucks’ all-time leader in points, rebounds, assists and blocks.
And at 30 years old and still in his prime, there’s plenty of time to win more.
But …
Antetokounmpo “has more of that” — meaning regular-season stats and awards — than postseason series wins in the last four years, according to Smith, who shares his takes on ESPN’s shows as well as in its NBA Finals broadcast.
“That’s unacceptable,” Smith said.
Yes, it’s true that the Bucks haven’t made it past the second round of the playoffs since Milwaukee won the NBA championship in 2021 and have lost in the first round of the playoffs in each of the past three seasons.
While Antetokounmpo was healthy in 2025 for the Bucks’ five-game postseason loss to the eventual Eastern Conference champion Indiana Pacers, it’s also true that he missed the team’s entire first-round series loss to the Pacers in 2024 with a calf injury and missed about half of Milwaukee’s first-round exit to the Miami Heat in 2023 with a back injury.
The year after the Bucks won the NBA title, they fell to the Boston Celtics in 2022 in the Eastern Conference semifinals in a seven-game series. But in those seven games, Antetokounmpo became the first player to record 200 points, 100 rebounds and 50 assists in a single playoff series.
“It’s not his fault; I’m not in any way pointing to him for what he’s not doing,” Smith recognized.
So what is he saying?
“I’m saying, you don’t look at someone that dominant, that fantastic, with that kind of fire in his belly, that competes on a night-in and night-out basis and all you have is one championship to show for it,” Smith said.
Antetokounmpo’s stated goal is to be on a team that can compete for championships. And winning a second title would further cement Antetokounmpo’s legacy. But are the goalposts continuing to move for Antetokounmpo and not others?
“He’s got one postseason series in the last four years,” he said. “It ain’t his fault. He’s been hurt a couple times. But to know Giannis, his career his accomplishments, his cache and to say one championship, nah, nah, you definitely expect more than that.”
It’s no surprise that Antetokounmpo was a focus of Smith’s show.
Antetokounmpo’s future has been a talking point as the NBA playoffs have continued without him and the Bucks as many speculated whether he would request a trade.
Best NBA players with one ring
In addition to Antetokounmpo, there are plenty of Hall of Famers or future Hall of Famers who have only one title. Are any of these players “underachievers”?
They include the likes of Jerry West (“The Logo”), Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Oscar Robertson, Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Nikola Jokic.
Best players to never win an NBA championship
Then there are some of the greatest players in NBA history who never reached the NBA mountaintop. They include the likes of Elgin Baylor, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Reggie Miller, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Chris Paul and many more.
