![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image.png?ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nNo less than seven Bucks’ in the top9 for the whole league! To put that in perspective the Nuggets dominating championship year they only had 4 players in the top9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if somebody wants to downplay the importance of plus minus look at how even the super dominant Celtics in their championship run only feature 3 players in the top 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Giannis Antetokounmpo hoisted the Larry O\u2019Brien Trophy in 2021, he didn\u2019t just celebrate a championship\u2014he seized the moment to craft a narrative that\u2019s since become gospel among his admirers. \u201cI could\u2019ve gone to a superteam,\u201d he famously declared, \u201cbut this is the hard way to do it, and we did it.\u201d The implication was clear: Giannis, the loyal superstar, stuck it out with the small-market Milwaukee Bucks, eschewing the easy path of joining forces with other elite players to chase a ring. It\u2019s a compelling story\u2014one of grit, perseverance, and doing things \u201cthe right way.\u201d But here\u2019s the inconvenient truth: the 2021 Bucks were<\/em> a superteam, and Giannis\u2019 repeated insistence otherwise not only undersells his teammates but smacks of ingratitude toward the exceptional roster that carried him to glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, let\u2019s clarify what a \u201csuperteam\u201d actually means in the modern NBA. The term typically evokes images of star-studded lineups like the Miami Heat\u2019s Big Three (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh) or the Golden State Warriors with Kevin Durant joining Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. These teams were built through high-profile free agency moves or trades, stacking multiple top-tier talents to dominate the league. But the essence of a superteam isn\u2019t just about how<\/em> it\u2019s assembled\u2014it\u2019s about the quality<\/em> of the roster. A superteam is a squad with elite talent at multiple positions, capable of overwhelming opponents through sheer firepower and versatility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By that standard, the 2021 Milwaukee Bucks absolutely qualify. Giannis, a two-time MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, was the cornerstone, no question. But he wasn\u2019t alone. Khris Middleton, a perennial All-Star, was a clutch shot-maker and secondary creator who averaged 23.6 points per game in the Finals, often keeping the Bucks afloat when Giannis couldn\u2019t. Jrue Holiday, another All-Star, brought elite two-way play\u2014his defense on Chris Paul in the Finals was a masterclass, and his 27-point, 13-assist Game 5 performance was pivotal. Add in Brook Lopez, a former All-Star and one of the league\u2019s best rim protectors, and you\u2019ve got a starting lineup with three All-Stars and a near-All-Star big man. That\u2019s not a scrappy underdog story\u2014that\u2019s a superteam, plain and simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Critics might argue that the Bucks didn\u2019t feel<\/em> like a superteam because they weren\u2019t a glamorous, big-market juggernaut assembled via blockbuster trades or free-agent coups. Fair enough\u2014Milwaukee didn\u2019t lure Giannis to South Beach or pair him with LeBron in LA. But the Bucks\u2019 front office didn\u2019t exactly sit on their hands, either. They traded for Jrue Holiday in November 2020, giving up a haul of picks and players to land a proven star who\u2019d made All-Defensive teams and had playoff pedigree. Middleton had already blossomed into a borderline top-20 player by then, and Lopez\u2019s transformation into a stretch-five anchor solidified the roster\u2019s balance. This wasn\u2019t a ragtag group of role players elevating Giannis\u2014it was a carefully constructed, top-heavy team designed to win a title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compare that to true \u201cnon-superteam\u201d champions. The 2004 Detroit Pistons, often cited as the gold standard for doing it \u201cthe hard way,\u201d had no MVP-caliber star and relied on a balanced attack led by Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace. The 2011 Dallas Mavericks leaned heavily on Dirk Nowitzki, but their supporting cast\u2014Jason Terry, Tyson Chandler, Jason Kidd\u2014wasn\u2019t loaded with All-Stars in their prime. The Bucks, by contrast, had three players who\u2019d been All-Stars within the prior three years, plus a former All-Star in Lopez. That\u2019s not \u201cthe hard way\u201d\u2014that\u2019s a roster most teams would kill for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So why does Giannis keep pushing this \u201cno superteam\u201d line? It\u2019s possible he genuinely believes it, viewing superteams as only those formed by stars jumping ship to join forces elsewhere. He stayed loyal to Milwaukee, signing a supermax extension in 2020 when he could\u2019ve chased rings with, say, the Heat or Mavericks. That loyalty is admirable, and it\u2019s true he didn\u2019t take the LeBron-to-Miami or KD-to-Golden-State route. But loyalty doesn\u2019t erase the fact that the Bucks built a powerhouse around him\u2014one he didn\u2019t have to leave to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More troubling, though, is how his rhetoric diminishes the contributions of Middleton, Holiday, and Lopez. When Giannis says he did it \u201cwithout a superteam,\u201d he\u2019s implicitly suggesting his teammates weren\u2019t on that elite level\u2014like he carried a bunch of scrubs to the promised land. That\u2019s not just inaccurate; it\u2019s ungrateful. Middleton\u2019s Game 4 heroics (40 points) and Holiday\u2019s lockdown defense were as critical to the title as Giannis\u2019 50-point closeout in Game 6. Stephen Jackson, a former NBA champ himself, called this out in 2021, arguing that Giannis \u201cdiminished\u201d his teammates by rejecting the superteam label. \u201cYou have a superteam\u2014you might not have super names, but don\u2019t diminish your teammates,\u201d Jackson said. He had a point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Giannis\u2019 \u201cright way\u201d mantra also carries a whiff of moral superiority, as if winning with a homegrown core is inherently nobler than joining forces elsewhere. It\u2019s a romantic notion, but it\u2019s not like he turned down a barren roster to tough it out in Milwaukee. The Bucks gave him a championship-caliber supporting cast\u2014something stars like Damian Lillard in Portland never got. Giannis didn\u2019t do it \u201cthe hard way\u201d out of some selfless crusade; he did it because the Bucks made it possible. Contrast that with players like Charles Barkley or Karl Malone, who toiled on good-but-not-great teams and never won. That\u2019s the hard way. Giannis had it better than he lets on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2021 Milwaukee Bucks were a superteam\u2014not in the flashy, headline-grabbing sense, but in the cold, hard reality of their talent and execution. Giannis was the engine, no doubt, but Middleton, Holiday, and Lopez were the gears that made it run. His insistence on framing it as a solo triumph \u201cwithout a superteam\u201d isn\u2019t just a mischaracterization\u2014it\u2019s a disservice to the teammates who helped him climb the mountain. Loyalty is a virtue, and Giannis deserves praise for sticking with Milwaukee. But let\u2019s not pretend he did it alone or \u201cthe right way\u201d out of some unique hardship. He had a damn good team\u2014a superteam\u2014and it\u2019s time he owned that instead of rewriting the story to fit a humble-brag narrative. Gratitude, not just greatness, is what champions are made of.That was a super dominant team Giannis had helping him. A super team. They shot the lights out from three breaking multiple records in the NBA. They all put their egos aside to get Giannis to the Finals which were actually an easier game than what they had got through until there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And just for a second maybe sit and think how his team mates felt hearing him Giannis say again and again that he did it “the right way” “without a superteam”…<\/p>\n\n\n\n NOTE ON SOURCES FOR THE STATS ON THIS POST: <\/p>\n\n\n\n ALL FROM STATMUSE.COM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Giannis won the chip he kept saying he “won it the right way” implying he was not on a superteam. I found this rather insulting to his team mates. After all they had got him to the Finals. They were losing to the Hawks with Giannis in the rotation and they got past them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[40,56,83,101,124,135],"class_list":["post-614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-team","tag-dominance","tag-giannis","tag-minus","tag-plus","tag-superteam","tag-ungrateful"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bucks-plus-minus-superteam.jpg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":961,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions\/961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-2.png?ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greekinter.net\/giannis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-1.png?ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDefining a Superteam<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The Bucks\u2019 Talent Stacking<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Giannis\u2019 Narrative: Ungrateful or Just Naive?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The Right Way or Just His<\/em> Way?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Give Credit Where It\u2019s Due<\/h4>\n\n\n\n