"It wasn't exactly the shot that Giannis Antetokounmpo wanted, but, then, all he really wanted was the last shot. Everyone knew this, Antetokounmpo most of all: when the game clock started to wind down, he would have the ball. And so, with fifteen seconds left in Monday night's game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Indiana Pacers, and the score tied, he backed down a Pacers defender, then spun into a fadeaway as the buzzer sounded."
"The crowd in Indianapolis, which had kicked off its booing early-during a video tribute to the former Pacer Myles Turner, who had left Indiana during the summer for a much bigger contract in Milwaukee-watched anxiously, as the shot went through the net. And Antetokounmpo, who had earlier booed back at the crowd after a thunderous dunk, put his fingers to his lips again, before giving the crowd an emphatic thumbs-down."
Giannis Antetokounmpo took the final shot with fifteen seconds left in a tied game against the Indiana Pacers, backing down a defender and spinning into a buzzer-beating fadeaway. The Indianapolis crowd booed him throughout, and Antetokounmpo silenced them with the made shot, then gestured with fingers to his lips and a thumbs-down. Early in his career he was seen as overly nice, small and bullied at the rim, and he practiced a scowl after his rookie season. He grew taller, added muscle, and became a dominant, relentless athlete. He hawked CDs and DVDs in Athens to help support his immigrant family.
Read at The New Yorker
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]