The way Jabari Parker played to start this game, I thought that he was going to score 50 for sure. If not more. 25 points in the first half, and I honestly believed that he was going to accelerate that scoring pace in the second half. He knew that he could get whatever he wanted, and he was going to continue getting it. By the end of the third quarter, I had revised my estimate down to 40 or maybe 45. By the end of the game, my final revision was that he was going to finish with 33. A far cry from 50, and a disappointment considering his strong start, but still a lot of points, definitely enough for his performance to qualify as a REVENGE GAME.
The best part of his REVENGE GAME was saved for the end: an emphatic leaping rejection on one of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s stupid mini-jumpers (that was probably going to airball just as bad whether or not Parker actually touched it). That was his way of saying “I was supposed to be the hero of Milwaukee, the one to save the franchise, and I’m going to show you why”.
By the way, I hope to HECK that those boos I heard after some of Parker’s buckets were meant for the Bucks, because if they were booing Parker (who didn’t really do anything majorly wrong in Milwaukee besides not play defense at all), I’m going to renounce my Bucks fandom and become a general NBA fan. That’s how serious I am about this. Parker may not have worked out for the Bucks, but even in the worst of times he was a class act. Mostly.