Giannis Antetokounmpo’s career is astounding when you examine it under a microscope. He began his career as a point-forward. In 2016, he split his minutes 60-40 between point guard and shooting guard, won a pair of MVPs playing 25 percent of his minutes at center, got named to five First Team All-Defensive Team selections, and was voted Defensive Player of the Year award leading a unit that allowed eight more points per 100 possessions with him off the floor and has since transitioned into his final form as an interior excavator.
His versatility is unrivaled, his intensity is nonpareil, he’s as automatic under the rim as Jalen Hurts from the 1 when he locks in, and he doles out as much punishment as he takes inside the paint. However, several signature games define his Milwaukee Bucks career. Here’s a compilation of just five of those moments.
Dec. 13, 2023: Giannis’ Hulks out for 64 points
Giannis Antetokoumpo and the Indiana Pacers partook in some epic battles throughout the 2023-24 season. While the Pacers got the last laugh by dispatching a depleted Bucks team in six games, Antetokounmpo’s 64-point output is still his career-high and the acme of his regular season scoring prowess. In that same matchup, Antetokounmpo swished a single-game career-high 24 free throws on 32 attempts. The more Indiana clawed at Antetokounmpo, the more he seemed to power up. Once the final whistle sounded, he continued to Hulk out. The Pacers trolling him by absconding with the game ball, led to an irate Antetokounmpo chasing after it down the Pacers tunnel.
July 21, 2021: 41 points to avoid an 0-3 deficit in NBA Finals
Game 6 of the 2021 NBA Finals is where Giannis Antetokounmpo wrote his magnum opus, but if it weren’t for his 41 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists in Game 3. Trailing 2-0 heading back to Milwaukee, Antetokounmpo summoned every ounce of bum and vigor he had to avoid a virtually insurmountable 0-3 deficit. Antetokounmpo overwhelmed the Phoenix Suns inside as the Bucks rolled by 20. Antetokounmpo got Deandre Ayton in foul trouble early. Despite the final margin, Phoenix nearly made it a game multiple times, but Antetokounmpo repeatedly tranquilized the Suns in a victory that rescued the Bucks' title aspirations.
Dec. 19, 2023: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 16 helpers against San Antonio
A few nights after his 64-point outburst against the Pacers, Antetokounmpo scored just 11 points, his season-low, but set a career-high in assists against the San Antonio Spurs. More than half a decade after the peak Magic Giannis-on era when Antetokounmpo was the Bucks primary distributor, he rolled back the clock dishing out 16 assists in a 132-119 victory. Antetokounmpo eclipsed his previous career-high of 15 assists set three seasons earlier against the Spurs.
June 19, 2021: Edging out the Nets in Game 7
Sure, this list is heavy on 2021 moments, but Antetokounmpo’s four-week stretch of basketball throughout his mythical postseason was his zenith. In a Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals with your life on the line, Giannis Antetokounmpo is arguably second to LeBron James among active players you’d want on your side.
Milwaukee’s win was overshadowed by Kevin Durant’s toe on the line as time expired in regulation. Still, Antetokoumpo’s 40 points came at the hands of Brooklyn’s soft interior defense spearheaded by Kevin Durant, and Blake Griffin. Antetokounmpo gobbled them up on the inside, getting to the line 14 times, and converting eight of those attempts while also converting 15-of-24 attempts from the field. Antetokounmpo would score 40 or more four times, but this is the first time he proved he had the juice in a primetime playoff do-or-die playoff matchup.
July 20, 2021: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 50 points in the title-clinching Game 6
Antetokounmpo’s will to win was never more evident than his title-clinching performance against the Suns in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. From beginning to end, this is the game that will be memorialized at the head of his basketball epilogue. The Bucks needed every last point to avoid a Game 7 in Phoenix and he answered the call while galloping up and down the floor at 100 miles per hour.
Antetokounmpo, a career 69 percent free throw shooter, knocked down 17 of his 19 free throw attempts, to facilitate his 50-burger, and corralled another 14 boards. He set the tone early by stuffing Mikal Bridges at the rim for the first of five blocks, then received the ball in transition and drove the lane for an easy two points. He never took his foot off the pedal, knocking down middies off the dribble, flipping up floaters, backing down defenders, and patrolling the airspace around the rim. It’s one thing to reach the pinnacle of your sport, but for Antetokoumpo to deliver his career-scoring playoff high in such dramatic fashion only added to the legend.