Milwaukee Bucks: Gilbert Arenas Shades Small-Market Teams That Win NBA Championships – 'We Don’t Talk About the Bucks-Giannis Championship'

Arenas feels that the achievements of small-market teams like Milwaukee or the Toronto Raptors, who won the title in 2019, quickly fade from memory and are not talked about by fans. The former Washington Wizards player stated that such teams do not leave any legacy in the annals of NBA history.

The comments came after the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers in a pivotal Game 7 to hoist their first NBA championship. Arenas felt the takeaways from the exciting, high-level series were simple: “Nothing. We won’t remember it.”

Is Gilbert Arenas Right? Does History Forget Small-Market Teams Winning the NBA Finals?

After a series that featured the league MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, one of the league’s most clutch players in Tyrese Haliburton, two supporting casts of All-NBA-caliber players, and two brilliant coaches, Arenas confidently said that the series will not leave a lasting memory. He diminished teams like Milwaukee and Toronto as also being forgettable. Is he right?

It is true that the 2021 NBA Finals between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns was the second-least-watched NBA Finals of the 2020s, only behind the 2020 Finals, which occurred during the “Bubble” season as the world was rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the accomplishment of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, Jrue Holiday, and more have not faded away. There are extremely memorable plays from that Finals, including Antetokounmpo’s spectacular block on DeAndre Ayton and Jrue Holiday’s steal and lob to Giannis to all but seal the championship.

The Toronto championship is also one of the most landmark moments in modern NBA history. As the Golden State Warriors looked to win their third-straight title, a tremendous Raptors team got the best of them in six games. Notably, the Warriors lost two star players, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant , to injury in the series, giving Kawhi Leonard and company an easier chance to claim the franchise’s first title. This year, one of the bench players from the 2019 team, Pascal Siakam, would likely have been Finals MVP if the Pacers had pulled out a win in Game 7.

The discussion about whether or not Toronto would have won the series with Thompson and Durant still healthy will never die. It is one of the most common NBA “what-ifs” and a constant debate between fans and experts alike. That series leaves a massive legacy in fan discussion and also altered the course of league history. After his Finals MVP, Leonard would leave Toronto to join the Los Angeles Clippers. Durant would leave Golden State for Brooklyn, and Steph Curry’s Warriors would fade from contention for multiple years.

This year’s 2025 Thunder are the youngest squad to lift the Larry O’Brien in decades. In all likelihood, this year’s championship is the first of a few for Oklahoma City. A core of excellent young players led by a historically good MVP and backed by unbelievable draft assets seems like a recipe for a dynasty.

What is Legacy in the NBA?

A different team has won the NBA championship for each of the last 7 years. As the league continues a strong run of parody in the sport, this era is not defined by one player, or one dynasty. It is remembered for the efforts of multiple teams that all earned their place in history. Some of the league’s greatest stars reached the pinnacle of the sport during the last several years and led smaller franchises to NBA glory. All-time greats like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

When Arenas says that nobody will remember small-market teams who win, he refers to the fact that the NBA gets more money when the Los Angeles Lakers do well, or the Boston Celtics, or the New York Knicks. That is inarguably true, but Arenas is wrong that NBA fans don’t remember the small teams who win. They matter just as much in shaping the careers of the best players, and even more to fans who are loyal to their teams.

One final point of evidence against Arenas is the 2016 Finals. After his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers won the championship, LeBron James, arguably the greatest basketball player of all-time, gave his now-iconic “Cleveland! This is for you!” Even though James left for Los Angeles a few years after, to join arguably the biggest market in the league, the Cleveland championship will always mean more to him than any other. Why? Because he did it for his hometown.

Stuff like this is why the NBA is mesmerizing. There are magnificent stories in every team that wins, not just for the teams that have the most celebrities sitting courtside. After all, what could be more memorable than a kid from Akron bringing his city an NBA Championship? Or a kid, raised in Greece by Nigerian parents, who came to call Milwaukee home and delivered his city their first title in 50 years?

For basketball fans, 2025 will be remembered as the coronation for one of the league’s brightest stars, a landmark moment for Oklahoma City, and, despite coming up short, an at times unbelievable run from one of the NBA’s most historic franchises.

It will be remembered for the past and present of the franchises being united, as Pacers royalty of the past watched the heroics of Tyrese Haliburton, Aaron Nesmith, and Andrew Nembhard.

It will be remembered for the excitement of an Oklahoma City fanbase that has championed their team since 2008, just as the dormant NBA fans in the great city of Seattle continue to mourn and anxiously await the return of their Supersonics.

It will be remembered for the representation of basketball’s rise to being a truly global game, with the entire nation of Canada celebrating their hero, and fans from Cameroon and Germany watched players from their country do some truly special things.

Every year, the NBA delivers memorable and special moments. They need not be diminished by former players who are more memorable for off-the-court incidents than anything that they accomplished on it. Instead they should be celebrated by the millions who watch, support, and breathe live into the great game of basketball.