Giannis Antetokounmpo Gets Emotional Watching Milwaukee Bucks’ 2021 NBA Title Tribute

The Milwaukee Bucks have had a generational talent on their hands over the past 12 years or so. Giannis Antetokounmpo has engineered a sea change in the outlook of the Midwest franchise. The team has been in the doldrums and out of the general public’s eye for a long time in the past couple of decades. But the advent of Giannis has brought them back to relevance and consistent contention in the past few years.

The Milwaukee Bucks have had a bright outlook ever since the Greek Freak put together his first All-Star season in the 2016-17 NBA season. He won Most Improved Player honors and was instrumental in helping the team to the No. 6 seed that year. Despite a regression in their output the following year, the team was destined to become contenders when they changed head coach Jason Kidd for Mike Budenholzer.

The Bucks took the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference in back-to-back seasons in 2018-19 and 2019-20. However, they had a playoff failure in both years, losing to the Raptors in 2019 and the Miami Heat in the NBA bubble. After a down regular season in 2020-21, the team had a grim outlook in the playoffs. But injuries to the Brooklyn Nets paved the way for them to come from behind and take the series that year.

They didn’t look back for the rest of the run, despite an injury to Giannis Antetokounmpo in the Conference Finals against the Atlanta Hawks. The two-time MVP came back for the Finals despite his hyperextended knee injury and had a series for the ages. Giannis put an exclamation point on his playoff run with a whopping 50 point outing in Game 6, in which he knocked down 17 of his 19 free throws and made his impact felt.

Giannis found a promotional video of this season doing the rounds on NBA Twitter, and jumped in to say how he had been looking for the clip that poetically describes how the Bucks won their first NBA championship in 50 years while reiterating his loyalty to the team:

I’ve been looking for this video for three years. It always brings tears to my eyes. These are my guys for life.