Legacy Check, Part 1
FRANCIS TIOPIANCO
The Finals define legacies.
That's why Tim Duncan
is the greatest power forward of all-time, not Karl Malone.
As Chris
Paul himself said, “At the end of the day, no one cares about your story unless
you win.” After taking a couple of days to let everything sink in—you have to lest
you become a prisoner of the moment and be just another run-of-the-mill Twitter
or FS1 dupe—now’s a good time to do a postmortem legacy check of 4 men who
played crucial roles in the Finals:
1. Giannis
Antetokounmpo
I have to
admit, he’s the main reason why I needed to take some time off before writing
this piece. Watching him go for 50 points (14 in the 4th, 17/19 FTs),
14 boards and 5 blocks in a closeout game left such an imprint that I was still
in awe 24 hours later. ESPN was quick to point out that it was first 50-point
closeout game since Bob Pettit. But I obviously never watched Bob Pettit play
so knowing that didn’t really help me appreciate the magnitude. It was a “take
us home” game that we typically see in earlier rounds—CP3 pulled it off twice
this postseason against the Clippers and the Nuggets—but rarely when the stakes
are this high.
The two
greatest Finals closeout games I’ve seen in my lifetime were MJ’s Last
Shot in 1998 (45 points, 16 in the fourth, 52% of the Bulls’ total output) and Tim
Duncan’s Near-Quadruple-Double in 2003 (21 points/20 rebounds/10 assists/8 blocks).
The Giannis 50-piece, which I’ll refer to as the “Homer”© because he literally
took the Bucks home and as a homage to the Greek 50 drachmae coin featuring Homer, probably slots in between the two. It rates higher than the NQD because
of the sheer offensive output, plus Duncan had more help when Stephen Jackson got
hot in the 4th to put the Nets away. The Homer is statistically more
efficient than the Last Shot, but the Last Shot is, well, the Last Shot. Bulls
played from behind the entire game, Pippen could hardly play… you just have to
watch it to appreciate.
Other
notable post-1993 Finals closeouts that the Homer trumped:
• 2017, Game 5: KD drops 39 on a 70-63-100
shooting split. But Steph also had it going that game with 34 points.
• 2013, Game 7: LeBron finishes off the Spurs with 37 points and 12 boards. This was the game after the Ray Allen shot, so it tends to be forgotten.
• 2006, Game 6: Wade completes his ascent to superstardom with 36 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, 3 blocks… and 21 free throw attempts.
• 2000, Game 6: Shaq’s 41-point, 13-rebound tour de force, but Shaq couldn’t make his free throws that game (3/12) and didn’t touch the ball in the last 2 minutes.
• 1997, Game 6: First time MJ closed out the Jazz, he had 39 points, 11 boards, and 4 assists—the last one to Steve Kerr.
It wasn’t just a one-off though. Giannis also had back-to-back 40-10 games in Games 2 and 3, and averaged 35.2 points, 13.2 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.2 steals while shooting 61.8 percent from the field for the entire series. According to basketball-reference, it was the highest Game Score in the Finals, ahead of Shaq’s 38.0 points, 16.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 2.7 blocks on 61.1% shooting in 2000. The Shaq comparison is very apt—given how dominant Giannis was against the Suns. The similarity in terms of numbers is so uncanny that it fits right next to Shaq’s 2001 (33.0/15.8/4.8) and 2002 (36.3/12.3/3.8) Finals MVP seasons.
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| The Alley-Oop That Launched A Thousand Ships |
Beyond the
stats, the Greek Freak also had two signature moments: the “Alley-Block” and
the “Alley-Oop” (the “Freaky-Oop”? Just throwing it out there. We're open to suggestions.) Players, fans,
and the media all live for these moments—the “Spectacular Move,” “The Shrug,” the
“Forgotten Double-Nickel” (it's so forgotten, nobody remembers), the “Flu Game,” and the “Last Shot.” That’s why “The Block” probably meant as much for LeBron as Cleveland actually
winning the title. And let’s not forget, Giannis did all these only weeks after
suffering a gruesome-looking knee injury. While it wasn’t quite Willis Reed in
terms of the singularity of the moment (Bucks actually lost the first 2 games),
it underscores Giannis’s heart and proves that he is indeed a freak.
Was it the greatest individual Finals series performance
ever? Maybe not, but it’s right up there with other A-Class efforts in the
last 30 years: 2017 KD; 2016 LeBron; 2006 Wade; 2003 Duncan; 2000 and 2002 Shaq;
91, 92, and 97 MJ. When you consider the following context:
• He chose to stay in Milwaukee instead of joining a superteam
• The Bucks had no other superstar
• The Bucks had not won a title in 50 years
• The Bucks had to come back from 0-2 down and win without needing
a Game 7
• The knee injury
then it stacks up pretty well, particularly compared to those
that came in the superteam era. I personally would rate it below MJ’s S-Class
level runs in 1993 (41.0/8.5/6.3 vs. peak Barkley) and 1998 (only 33.5/4.0/2.3
but with a severely limited Pippen and a WCW-preoccupied Rodman in a series
where the Bulls never reached 100 points), but that’s just me nitpicking.
To top it all off, Giannis adds NBA Champion and Finals MVP
to his resume that already includes: 2x regular season MVP; DPOY; All-Star Game
MVP; 3x All-NBA First Team; 5x All-Star; 3x All-Defensive First Team; and Most
Improved Player. He joins MJ and Olajuwon as the only players with an MVP, a
DPOY, and a Finals MVP.
Everything considered, Giannis made the jump from being a borderline
top-50 elite superstar player to a top-25 transcendent guy, ahead of Malone and Barkley (no rings), and KG (1 ring)—leapfrogging the legends tier (guys like AI, Nash, CP3, Robinson) in between.
***
2. Mike Budenholzer: This was his Andy Reid moment. He was KD’s foot away from being fired, and the Atlanta series made you question whether the Bucks should move on from him even if they reached the Finals.
But two things happened in the Finals which allowed Bud to take
control of the chessboard: the injury to Saric in Game 1, leaving Ayton as the
only Suns big who has consistently seen minutes this postseason; and Giannis unlocking
the gates to Mount Olympus. Perhaps the latter is the consequence of the
former, but Bud deserves credit for exploiting the Suns’ misfortune.
Giving Bobby Portis Brynn Forbes’ minutes was a masterstroke,
and the Bucks’ big lineup killed the Suns on the offensive glass. Their defense
progressively improved throughout the series—they closed the gap on drop pick-and-roll coverages to kill the Suns’ midrange game and mixed in traps that
visibly made CP3 uncomfortable and turnover-prone. They goaded the Suns into
letting Booker play hero ball by putting a single defender on him (even seemingly inviting the Suns to hunt Connaughton), knowing that it likely would not be enough for the
Suns to win a game, much less the series. Then in Game 6, Bud put on the finishing touches by putting
Holiday on Booker and occasionally throwing Giannis on CP3, which utterly flummoxed the Suns.
Finally, Bud is a champion head coach. Eight years
after he left the comforts of San Antonio, where he won 4 titles as Pop’s
assistant, he can finally escape his mentor's shadow. He was a 2-time
Coach of the Year and his teams have always done well in the regular season, but
the criticism is that he wasn’t a playoff coach. But winning cures everything.
All the shortcomings are forgotten and he can live rent-free in Milwaukee for
the next 10 years (just ask Rick Carlisle) or be employed by any contender until
he retires (what's up, Doc?)
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