In an interview with The Athletic’s Sam Amick, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks said that he’s “desperate” to win another championship and blessed to be in the Most Valuable Player conversation again. He also described himself as “the most competitive guy who ever lived” and said he’s not clear about the criteria for MVP.
“The thing that I don’t get about the MVP criteria is it changes,” Antetokounmpo told The Athletic.
He continued: “So what is the MVP? Is it the guy who scores the most points? Is it the guy who’s the most efficient? Is it the guy who is the most dominant? Is it the guy who is the most valuable? Sometimes, the best player isn’t the most valuable player on the team. Like, I feel like (Bucks center) Brook (Lopez) is such a valuable player for our team. Like (the MVP criteria) just f—ing — sorry for my language — it just changes. As I said again, I can’t control that. I can control only how I prepare for the game and try to be ready for the game.”
Antetokounmpo won the MVP award in 2019 and 2020, then finished fourth in voting in 2021 and third in 2022. He is in the mix again now; with about three-and-a-half weeks left in the regular season, it’s effectively a three-man race between Antetokounmpo, the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic and the Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid.
Since Antetokounmpo did not elaborate further about his issue with the award, we don’t know what he thinks the criteria should be. He is far from the first, however, to gripe about the NBA’s stance on the matter. The league has always left it up to individual voters to determine what “most valuable” means to them.
Antetokounmpo said that he’s “a guy that stays in my lane and talks about things that I can control. I can’t control the MVP.” He said he will discuss it privately, with “the people I really are about,” but will not make his case for the award, even if he would like to win it:
But my opinion does not matter, you know? And I don’t want to be that guy who says something to influence people. I try to control what I can…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/bucks-giannis-antetokounmpo-says-mvp-criteria-changes-calls-himself-most-competitive-guy-who-ever-lived/
Author : James Herbert
Publish date : 2023-03-16 18:58:47
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