https://youtu.be/-H_nAL1TYuc
Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s presence in the NBA is one of the most blatant instances of nepotism in the NBA today. Another, more blatant, example is the presence of Keljin Blevins on the Blazers’ roster, but we’re not here to talk about Damian Lillard’s unskilled cousin, we’re here to talk about Giannis Antetokounmpo’s slightly less unskilled brother.
Thanasis takes the concept of “hustle player” and multiplies it by 9000. No one can dispute the fact that he gives maximum effort at all times. On defense, he plays like he can lock down any player that shows up in front of him, and on offense, he jumps like he can get any offensive rebound and he dribbles like he can blow by anybody. The problem is, every time he’s successful at one of these things, it looks like an accident. It’s a surprise whenever he scores. You can tell because the Bucks’ bench gets ironically hyped whenever one of his out-of-control layups goes in.
We all know that Thanasis is only on the Bucks to make Giannis happy, and I don’t even blame the Bucks for it. Manipulating your star player’s emotions in order to trick him into signing a big new contract was priority # 1 for them, and I wouldn’t even call it “manipulation” since they were so blatant about it. They just straight up said to Giannis “hey, we want to pander to you so much that we went out and wasted a roster spot on your brother even though he’s not NBA-caliber”, and Giannis apparently approved of it.
I guess it made sense for the Bucks to sign Thanasis just so other teams that were supposedly in the Giannis sweepstakes couldn’t go out and sign him instead. For example, the Raptors and the Heat are definitely savvy enough to pull off a move like that, knowing that using a roster spot on Thanasis is worth the chance of getting Giannis to sign with them. That doesn’t mean I have to pretend to be happy whenever Thanasis checks into the game, a living, breathing reminder that success in the NBA isn’t always about merit.