Giannis Antetokounmpo made one of the most incredible plays you’ll ever see on a basketball court in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
Devin Booker was coming off of a pick set by Deandre Ayton with the ball. He’d been scoring at will all night. Antetkounmpo stepped up to stop him from getting a layup.
Booker recognized it and threw an alley-oop to a wide open Deandre Ayton who was on his way to the rim.
Or, at least we thought it was wide open, anyway. Turns out when Giannis is around nothing is wide open. Because this might just happen.
CLUTCH BLOCK BY GIANNIS 😱 pic.twitter.com/jwB0b75o65
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 15, 2021
That’s just an epic play. An all-time play. Something we may not see matched again for years. There aren’t many players in NBA history who could make a block like that and Giannis did it.
So after doing something like that, one would think that this is something he’d marvel over. Something he’d sit on for at least a night.
Nope. Apparently not. He hadn’t seen the block until the Bucks’ film session on Friday.
Giannis says today was the first time he’s seen the replay of his block on Deandre Ayton, and it only happened during the team’s film session.
“When you talk about the past, that’s your ego talking.”
— Rohan Nadkarni (@RohanNadkarni) July 16, 2021
As far as why, he said it’s because he doesn’t like talking about the past. He told reporters about it yesterday when asked about how he compartmentalized the play and what his mindset was.
“When you focus on the past, that’s your ego.” pic.twitter.com/XKiRMA8Ux2
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) July 17, 2021
“Usually when, from my experience, right? When I think about ‘Oh, yeah I did this. I’m so great’…or whatever the case might be. Because you’re going to think about that, ‘Oh, we won this. We won that.’ Usually the next day, you’re going to suck. You know, simple as that. Like the next few days, you’re going to be terrible. And I figured out a mindset to have that..”
What’s he mean by that? He explained.
“When you focus on the past, that’s your ego. ‘I did this.’ You know. ‘We were able to beat this team 4-0, I did this in the past, I won that in the past.’ And when I focus on the future, it’s my pride. ‘Yeah, next game, game 5. I do this and this and this. I’m going to dominate.’ That’s your pride talking…I kind of try to focus, you know, in the moment. In the present. And that’s humility. That’s being humble. That’s not setting no expectations. That’s going out there, enjoying the game and competing at the highest level…That’s a skill that I’ve been trying to…perfect it. Yeah, master it. And it’s been working so far. So I’m not going to stop.”
Just incredibly wise words from a 26-year-old who has lived a lot of life. Great stuff.
