Giannis Antetokounmpo refused to be hard on himself on his team in 2023 when the Milwaukee Bucks were eliminated by the eighth seed Miami Heat.
The Greek Freak, who played just 2.5 games in that series after battling ankle injury, refused to call their season a failure even if they were toppled as the no. 1 team in the East and the no. 1 overall team after the regular season.
He probably had that view since he already won title with the Bucks (in 2021) and bagged several individual awards.
Two years after, he is changing his mind about the chase for another ring.
The Bucks will start their 2025 title chase on Saturday against the Indiana Pacers. This time, they are no longer the first seed as the fell to no. 5 in the standings, their worst finish since 2018.
Giannis Antetokounmpo badly wants a second ring
One ring is not enough anymore. That’s the mindset Giannis has right now.
He is no longer satisfied.
“I love the championship that we won. I love the run, I love the people, the people that we won it with. I love how it played out,” he said during a guesting in his brother’s podcast ‘The Thanalysis Show’
“Down 2-0, me getting hurt, Khris going crazy, Jrue doing his thing…but that’s in the past…Me not having a second championship, I look back at my career and everybody can say ‘Oh, incredible career, active Hall of Famer, first ballot, whatever. But me, my personal goal, if I am not able to help my team win a second ring, I’m letting myself down.”
The difference this time is that he will arrive in the playoffs healthy although he still won’t have his number 2 unlike in the 2021 run.
The Greek Freak was barely healthy in 2023 and did not play at all in 2024 (also against the Pacers).
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