Last night, Giannis Antetokounmpo fulfilled his promise to the city of Milwaukee. 50 years after the last Bucks’ team to win the NBA Finals, Giannis scored 50 points to help the Bucks finish off the Phoenix Suns in six games. As most assumed, Giannis was named the NBA Finals MVP. With the award and the title, he joins a very elite (and short) list of players to achieve all the things he has in his career. Which begs the question: at 26 years old, is Giannis already a Hall of Famer?
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Players With MVP, DPoY, and a Finals MVP
Giannis Antetokounmpo won his first MVP Award in the 2018-2019 season. The following year, he was again named MVP while also winning the Defensive Player of the Year Award. With these awards in hand, Giannis was already in elite company. He is just one of five players to have won both awards at some point in their careers. The others are Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, and Kevin Garnett.
Winning MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season made the list even smaller. Of all the five players mentioned above, only Giannis, Michael Jordan, and Hakeem Olajuwon won both in the same year. With his Finals MVP, Giannis joined the Jordan and Olajuwon as the only three players in NBA history to have a MVP, DPoY, and Finals MVP.
If one wants to narrow the list down to players with multiple regular season MVP’s, a DPoY, and Finals MVP, the list gets even smaller. That would be just Giannis and Jordan.
Only NBA players to win multiple regular season MVPs, DPOY, and a finals MVP.
Michael Jordan
Giannis AntetokounmpoGiannis is 26.
— Sam Kuffel (@SamKuffelWx) July 21, 2021
Other Accolades
As far as individual awards and recognitions go, Giannis has already built quite the resume.
Giannis Antetokounmpo resume:
1x NBA Champ
1x Finals MVP
2x MVP
1x DPOY
5x All-NBA
5x All-Star
4x All-Defense
1x All-Star MVP
1x Most ImprovedHall of Famer at 26 years old. pic.twitter.com/CQM52MwIFU
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) July 21, 2021
The fact that Giannis is just 26 years old is amazing. He has a good decade (or longer) of basketball left to be played and has already cemented himself as one of the game’s legends. If he were to retire today, there is no doubt he would be in the Hall of Fame. Of course, he won’t retire any time soon. Thankfully, Milwaukee has the opportunity to watch this figure out of Greek mythology dazzle on the courts of years to come. Who knows? This could be the first of many titles he takes home for the Bucks.
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