Crossover World

  MILWAUKEE -- When CBS Sports' annual NBA Top 100 list was released earlier this month, Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo stood alone at No. 1. Such lists are more for the fans and media rather than the players, but at Milwaukee's media day on Sunday, Giannis weighed in with his own thoughts.  To little surprise, he downplayed his own standing and declared Steph Curry the best player in the world after leading the Golden State Warriors to the title last season.  "Do I believe that I'm one of the best players in the league in the way I help my team be great and win games? "Yeah I do," Giannis said. "I'm mature enough, I'm old enough to understand that. Do I believe I'm the best in the world? No. I think the best player in the world is the person that is the last one standing, the person that takes his team to the finish line and helps them win games and become champion. "Two years ago when we did that, yeah, when I was slee...

  Another day, another jaw-dropping performance from two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. This time, it came against Ukraine in the EuroBasket tournament, as he dropped 41 points en route to a 99-79 win for Greece. Antetokounmpo's 41 points were the most in a single EuroBasket game since Dirk Nowitzki dropped 43 points in the same tournament back in 2001 for Germany, putting Giannis in impressive company.  It's just the latest standout performance from Giannis in what's been an impressive tournament so far for him and Greece, whose win over Ukraine clinched the top spot in Group C. From the start of the game, Antetokounmpo made his presence known, going on a 7-0 run of his own to open the contest. After sitting out Greece's previous win against Great Britain, the NBA champion came out well rested and asserted his size and strength in the paint. It was clear Ukraine was ill-equipped in matching up against Antetokounmpo, and he made sure to expose that every time he dr...

  The 2021-22 All-NBA teams were officially announced by the league on Tuesday. Reigning two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets was named to the First Team, along with Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Dončić, Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker and Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum. Antetokounmpo was the only player to receive All-NBA First Team votes on all 100 ballots.  All of the players that were named to the First Team are 27 years old or younger, which marks the first time that has happened since the 1954-55 season, per the league. Based on that stat, it seems safe to say that the future of the league is in good hands. With his selection, Dončić became the fourth player in league history to be named to the First Team at least three times before turning 24. The other three players were Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant and Max Zaslofsky.   The Second Team is headlined by Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, who led t...

  Caesars Sportsbook currently gives Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo a 10 percent chance to win the 2021-22 NBA MVP award. Those are the odds implied by the +900 line they've currently set for that outcome. You can quibble with the exact figure if you'd like, but broadly, it represents the general tone of this race. The past several months have largely been spent debating the merits of Joel Embiid vs. Nikola Jokic. Embiid and Jokic -- currently the two MVP favorites (Embiid has -150 odds; Jokic is listed at +135) -- faced off head-to-head earlier in March in a game largely billed as a showdown for the award. Jokic won the award a year ago. Embiid was the 2020-21 betting favorite before a mid-season injury. When ESPN's Tim Bontemps took a straw poll of likely voters for the 2022 award in February, the two of them gobbled up 88 of the possible 100 possible first-place votes. Antetokounmpo scored just nine. Regardless of whether or not Giannis actually deserves...

  The NBA's 2021-22 MVP race is likely down to three candidates: Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo. You can make a case for any of them to win, but to me, one stands above the other two. Whether that's how the voting will shake out, it's hard to say. There's still just about a month to go. Things could still change. It's an extremely close race. As of Tuesday, March 15, this is a breakdown of the top three with five names at the bottom who will be fighting for top-five voting status.  1. Nikola Jokic How many times can we cite the advanced metrics? It's almost a joke. The Denver Nuggets big man is No. 1 in PER, VORP, BPM, DBPM, OBPM, WS/48, WS, OWS, RAPTOR WAR, Total RAPTOR, Offensive RAPTOR, and he's second in DWS and Defensive RAPTOR. Dismiss all these silly-sounding acronyms if you like, but in doing so you'll be turning away from what has clearly been the best player in the league this season.  Jokic should win MVP. His second strai...

  One of the more nauseating side effects of giving former athletes prime speaking platforms is having to listen to them spew their "back in my day" garbage. Old NBA heads are the worst.  There are certainly worthwhile, compare-and-contrast conversations to be had about different eras. But if you're one of these guys who try to claim the likes of LeBron James or Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant couldn't have hacked it in the big bad 1980s and '90s, please, for everyone's sake, just put down the microphone. Half the dudes in the '80s had trouble dribbling with their off hand.  The latest utterly asinine old-head slight on today's stars comes to us courtesy of Charles Oakley, who recently said on the "No Pump Fakes" podcast that 6-foot-11, 250-pound, two-time-MVP, NBA-champion and absolute freak-of-an-athlete Giannis Antetokounmpo "wouldn't have been a force back in the day" and, in fact, would have "come off the bench."  ...

  Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks are currently 4th in the Eastern Conference. MILWAUKEE (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo and the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks are coming out of the All-Star break knowing they’ve got work ahead just to earn home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Such is life in the Eastern Conference, where only 5 1/2 games separate the top seven teams. “I just feel like if you lose one game, you go from third to fifth,” Bucks forward Bobby Portis said Friday. “If you win two games, you go from fifth to second. Just try to string together four or five good games and hopefully put ourselves in good position to be right where we want to be.” The Bucks (36-24) entered the weekend fourth in the East, only three games behind the conference-leading Chicago Bulls but just 2 ½ games ahead of the seventh-place Toronto Raptors. The Bucks play their first game since the All-Star break Saturday when they host the Brooklyn Nets. Milwaukee understands that...

  Giannis Antetokounmpo is an absolutely unstoppable force on the basketball court. As a 6x All-Star, 2x MVP, and NBA Champion he has more than proved himself in the league. Unfortunately, his greatness does not make him immune from the wrath of NBA Twitter. During Saturday night's skills challenge, Giannis and his brothers formed a three-man crew that looked to pass a test of passing, dribbling, and shooting. The trio ended up doing so bad (they were the first team eliminated) that they got clowned by fans on Twitter. The Harden reference some fans Tweeted dates back a few years now. Back in 2020, Harden threw some shade at the Greek Freak by saying his game requires "no skill." "I wish I could just be 7 feet and run and dunk. That takes no skill at all," he told ESPN's Rachel Nichols. "I actually have to learn how to play basketball and have skill. I'll take that any day." While it might be a stretch to say Giannis' game requires no skill...

  Giannis Antetokounmpo treated the NBA Skills Challenge like it was the NBA Finals, Cole Anthony dunked in Timberlands and more takeaways from Saturday's festivities. While they did not get the outcome they wanted, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Cole Anthony put on a show in Cleveland. Here are the biggest winners of the night.  1. Giannis Antetokounmpo Nobody has ever approached the Skills Challenge like Giannis Antetokounmpo, a reigning Finals MVP who really had no business participating and behaved like his life depended on the outcome. Giannis only finished with eight points in the Team Shooting portion, but what’s more significant than that score (which isn’t very good) is how this man treated a meaningless event he’s immeasurably overqualified for like it was the NBA Finals. Giannis sprinted through the exercise after opening it up by drilling a 5-pointer. When the Antetokounmpo Brothers were victorious in the passing round, Giannis acted like the Bucks just advanced in the ...

  Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo dominated the Indiana Pacers to the tune of 50 points on a ridiculous 17-of-21 from the field in a 128-119 victory on Tuesday night. The 21 shots marked the fourth-fewest attempts in a 50-point game in NBA history (he went 14-of-18 from the foul line), and The Greek Freak also became the third player in history to record at least 50 points and 10 rebounds while hitting 80% from the field (Wilt Chamberlain and Karl Malone). After the game, the Bucks star was happy with his individual accomplishment, but he stayed focused on his ultimate goal: winning. The Bucks stud also took to social media with a simple message: As Giannis said, the Bucks have one more game before the All-Star break. It’s a high-profile affair against the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night, though new Sixers star James Harden will still not be playing yet as he recovers from a hamstring injury. After his 50-point night, The Greek Freak is now leading the NBA in s...