NBA news: Haters gotta hate. This is an age-old saying that Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo has learned to cope with through the years. The same is the case for NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, who now plays the role of the head coach for the University of Colorado. What you can say about the 56-year-old right now is that he hasn’t lost one ounce of the fire he had when he once dominated the football field.
NBA News: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Shares Epic Deion Sanders Tirade
As it turns out, Giannis is a fan of Coach Prime. The Bucks star, who himself has had his fair share of criticism over the course of his career, recently took to Instagram to share an epic Deion Sanders tirade addressed to his haters:
Giannis agreed with Deion Sanders’ brutal take on criticism. pic.twitter.com/xwcpSsOmug
— What are NBA Celebs Upto? (@NBACelebsUpdate) August 10, 2023
Sanders’ message clearly struck a chord with Antetokounmpo. So much so, that the former NBA MVP just had to post the speech on his IG Stories. In the tirade, the two-time Super Bowl champ delivered a passionate message that he also hopes will inspire the next generation of young athletes:
“What about me would make you think that I care about your opinion of me?” Sanders said. “Your opinion of me is not the opinion I have for myself. You ain’t make me, so you can’t break me. You didn’t build me, so you can’t kill me. You know what? God established me, so you ain’t nothing you can do to me.”
“I’ve been ‘him.’ I’ve been a difference-maker, a game-changer. I’ve been that guy. So what would change? Not a darn thing.
“… I love it, but I don’t care. And I wish the world thought like that. Youngsters, if you out there right now, do not give a darn what opinion people have of you, (as) long as that opinion is not consistent of that of yourself. You be you.”
EPIC.
NBA News: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Contentious Take on Failure
Giannis has been hated on many times in the past. However, there is no doubt that one of his most contentious moments came after the end of the previous season when he delivered an intense speech about failure:
“There’s no failure in sports,” Antetokounmpo said (h/t James Dator of SB Nation). “There’s good days, bad days, so days you are able to be successful — some days you’re not. Some days it’s your turn, some days it’s not your turn. That’s what sports is about. You don’t always win — so other people are going to win, simple as that. We’re going to come back next year, try to be better, try to build good habits , try to play better. Not having 10 days straight of playing bad basketball, and hopefully we can win a championship. So 50 years from 1970-2021 that we didn’t win a championship, it was 50 years of failure? No, it was not. It was steps to it. We were able to win one, hopefully we’re able to win another one.”
This rather controversial take took a life of its own and it garnered all sorts of negative and positive reactions from fans and experts alike. Amid all the criticism, however, Giannis has stood firm. He hasn’t let the haters bring him down in the past, and he’s clearly not going to let that happen anytime soon.
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