The Milwaukee Bucks could only laugh in disbelief after seeing Kendrick Perkins’ All-NBA team that excluded Giannis Antetokounmpo.
With the NBA going away from the traditional format and now allowing voters to choose their five best players regardless of position for the All-NBA teams, Perkins took advantage of it and picked up his top superstars for 2023-24. Sure enough, it has some notable exclusions.
Kendrick Perkins Snubs Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo
On X (formerly Twitter), Perkins named Nikola Jokic, Jayson Tatum, Jalen Brunson, Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as his First Team All-NBA picks.
While the Jokic, Doncic and SGA picks are not surprising, putting Tatum and Brunson ahead of Antetokounmpo is definitely quite shocking. For one, Antetokounmpo has been a Top 5 MVP candidate throughout the season. Despite his recent calf injury that forced him to miss their last three match-ups to end the regular season, it’s worth noting that he still played 73 games this campaign.
Tatum and Brunson are both great, but putting them over Giannis is just disrespectful and more like recency bias (at least for Brunson’s part).
It’s also worth noting that Antetokounmpo had a really historic season, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the highest field goal percentage for a 30-point game season. The Bucks star finished the year with 30.4 points on 61.1 percent shooting. The previous record was Kareem’s 31.7 points on 57.7 percent shooting, back in 1970-71 when he also won MVP.
And here’s Perkins saying that Antetokounmpo didn’t have a First Team All-NBA Season after achieving such ridiculous feat? He’s been so good for the Bucks, but it seems many are forgetting and overlooking his consistent greatness simply because they have been used to it.
Milwaukee Bucks React To Kendrick Perkins’ Disrespect of Giannis Antetokounmpo
After seeing Kendrick Perkins’ take, the Milwaukee Bucks (at least their social media team) made sure to let their feelings known by responding to it.
On X, the Bucks only wrote “lol” to Perkins’ picks.
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) April 16, 2024
Bucks fans also rallied behind the team’s post and slammed Perkins for his choice.
“I agree Giannis not being first team would be crazy,” a fan wrote. Another one said, “What has perk done in his NBA career or media career that has warranted the ability to vote on these awards? It’s laughable.”
A third commenter shared, “They don’t even try to hide the bias anymore.”
Another supporter said, “When even the admin think your take is trash. It’s probably time to reevaluate said take.”
Hopefully, Giannis Antetokounmpo will get the respect he deserves come voting time.
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