I will say, I appreciate Giannis’s tempered response and perspective here.
GeoDim
Super eloquent (especially in his 2nd language) and thoughtful response from Giannis here, but it’s still a failure. Failing is just part of the journey and there’s no reason to deny it. I don’t think a reporter expects to get a promotion every year, so that’s a bad analogy. I think Giannis’ response had more to do with the bitchy context of the question being asked, especially the same question after consecutive seasons.
It’s about reaching your potential. I don’t think the Celtics season last year was a failure, because they still had a lot of success and breaking into the finals was a major hurdle for this group. And regardless of what happens with Miami this playoffs, I wouldn’t say their season is a failure either. It’s not just about winning or losing the finals that determines success – only 1/30 teams can do that. If the Celtics lost this series to the Hawks (never mind in 5 games) that would have been a major failure after going to the finals in the prior year. It’s ok to recognize that.
raylui34
i respect that answer and his maturity handling that situation.
s_D088z
I respect Giannis’ temperament and the way he laid out his answer. And I respect the answer too. It’s good to not dwell on the highs or the lows. But their season was a failure. Failure is tied to expectations and nobody can convince anyone else the Bucks were not aiming to be legitimate championship contenders.
Tap617
If it was a 3rd round or final lost, yes.
CertifiedCapArtist
Bullshit. Glad he believes it but doesn’t change it being a failure
Outistoo
The post-game panel had a long discussion on this last night with Shaq basically saying it was a failure but there’s nothing wrong with failure— it teaches you lots of things— and the others mostly agreeing with Giannis, that doing everything you can and falling short isn’t failure.
help1slip
It’s clearly a great answer but also a lie… The team with the most wins bows out in the first round, and only wins ONE game… Big time F
bourgewonsie
Of course Giannis knows that on an objective level that the Bucks season was a “failure” because they didn’t win a championship. But this is a bad question and really kicking him while he’s down and I really admire him for coming up with such an eloquent answer with a really good perspective even though he was clearly very emotional and angry. It’s true, it’s the NBA, these things happen once every blue moon but they happen especially given the parity in the league these days.
SerfTint
I hated this answer. We’re already telling the fans “the regular season doesn’t really matter–maybe we’ll try tonight, maybe we’ll rest everyone.” This is predicated on the belief that the playoffs are all that matters, that this is finally the payoff for 6 months of watching the team slowly round itself into shape.
Here is a case where not only did MIL try very hard to get the #1 overall seed, this was a big public mantra from them. They specifically recognized that they had suffered by slotting themselves into the lower seed in 2022. So for Giannis to now imply “these playoffs don’t really matter that much EITHER, because they were a step in some kind of direction–forward, backward, whatever” really means that nobody should EVER care if their team wins or loses, since “maybe this loss today was a step toward the team gleaning information so that they can perhaps win in some amorphous future season. So maybe the loss was actually a blessing to celebrate.”
Sports are supposed to be entertainment, and so if this was a rec league, where the point is not particularly to win, but to get exercise, have fun, hang out with other interesting people, etc., Giannis’ speech would have been fine. Winning doesn’t have to be everything, and of course things are always an ongoing process. But he is a professional athlete–he is getting paid to galvanize the hopes and excitement of the fanbase, and bringing them quantifiable success, and if he weren’t (if he were just Damian Lillard entertaining fans on a bad team), then this would be totally inconsistent with the Bucks trying that hard to win the 1-seed.
supersickx3
Their season was definitely a failure. If the bucks were an up and coming young team, first playoff appearance scenario then he would be right. But the Bucks are former champs that had very high expectations. Him downplaying their elimination is just talk. He knows the season was a massive failure.
TH3_ZucC
I mean he’s wrong, but if that’s his way of coping with failure it’s fine. It must suck to get asked these questions that are supposed to draw a negative reaction when you’re in an emotional situation.
JaylenBrownFlow
tatum would be roasted if he answered like this
most pampered superstar
danorcs
Failure is too loaded a term
The journo should have used “disappointment” instead. Giannis would have then probably admitted given how disappointing it was to crash out of the first round
There are only 500 people in the world who can play in the NBA, and everyone there is a winner to be able to earn big bucks doing something they love
And Cs fans would know that remember how the team crashed and burned against Giannis in the second round after sky high expectations reaching game 7 ECF with brown and rookie Tatum?
14 Comments
I will say, I appreciate Giannis’s tempered response and perspective here.
Super eloquent (especially in his 2nd language) and thoughtful response from Giannis here, but it’s still a failure. Failing is just part of the journey and there’s no reason to deny it. I don’t think a reporter expects to get a promotion every year, so that’s a bad analogy. I think Giannis’ response had more to do with the bitchy context of the question being asked, especially the same question after consecutive seasons.
It’s about reaching your potential. I don’t think the Celtics season last year was a failure, because they still had a lot of success and breaking into the finals was a major hurdle for this group. And regardless of what happens with Miami this playoffs, I wouldn’t say their season is a failure either. It’s not just about winning or losing the finals that determines success – only 1/30 teams can do that. If the Celtics lost this series to the Hawks (never mind in 5 games) that would have been a major failure after going to the finals in the prior year. It’s ok to recognize that.
i respect that answer and his maturity handling that situation.
I respect Giannis’ temperament and the way he laid out his answer. And I respect the answer too. It’s good to not dwell on the highs or the lows. But their season was a failure. Failure is tied to expectations and nobody can convince anyone else the Bucks were not aiming to be legitimate championship contenders.
If it was a 3rd round or final lost, yes.
Bullshit. Glad he believes it but doesn’t change it being a failure
The post-game panel had a long discussion on this last night with Shaq basically saying it was a failure but there’s nothing wrong with failure— it teaches you lots of things— and the others mostly agreeing with Giannis, that doing everything you can and falling short isn’t failure.
It’s clearly a great answer but also a lie… The team with the most wins bows out in the first round, and only wins ONE game… Big time F
Of course Giannis knows that on an objective level that the Bucks season was a “failure” because they didn’t win a championship. But this is a bad question and really kicking him while he’s down and I really admire him for coming up with such an eloquent answer with a really good perspective even though he was clearly very emotional and angry. It’s true, it’s the NBA, these things happen once every blue moon but they happen especially given the parity in the league these days.
I hated this answer. We’re already telling the fans “the regular season doesn’t really matter–maybe we’ll try tonight, maybe we’ll rest everyone.” This is predicated on the belief that the playoffs are all that matters, that this is finally the payoff for 6 months of watching the team slowly round itself into shape.
Here is a case where not only did MIL try very hard to get the #1 overall seed, this was a big public mantra from them. They specifically recognized that they had suffered by slotting themselves into the lower seed in 2022. So for Giannis to now imply “these playoffs don’t really matter that much EITHER, because they were a step in some kind of direction–forward, backward, whatever” really means that nobody should EVER care if their team wins or loses, since “maybe this loss today was a step toward the team gleaning information so that they can perhaps win in some amorphous future season. So maybe the loss was actually a blessing to celebrate.”
Sports are supposed to be entertainment, and so if this was a rec league, where the point is not particularly to win, but to get exercise, have fun, hang out with other interesting people, etc., Giannis’ speech would have been fine. Winning doesn’t have to be everything, and of course things are always an ongoing process. But he is a professional athlete–he is getting paid to galvanize the hopes and excitement of the fanbase, and bringing them quantifiable success, and if he weren’t (if he were just Damian Lillard entertaining fans on a bad team), then this would be totally inconsistent with the Bucks trying that hard to win the 1-seed.
Their season was definitely a failure. If the bucks were an up and coming young team, first playoff appearance scenario then he would be right. But the Bucks are former champs that had very high expectations. Him downplaying their elimination is just talk. He knows the season was a massive failure.
I mean he’s wrong, but if that’s his way of coping with failure it’s fine. It must suck to get asked these questions that are supposed to draw a negative reaction when you’re in an emotional situation.
tatum would be roasted if he answered like this
most pampered superstar
Failure is too loaded a term
The journo should have used “disappointment” instead. Giannis would have then probably admitted given how disappointing it was to crash out of the first round
There are only 500 people in the world who can play in the NBA, and everyone there is a winner to be able to earn big bucks doing something they love
And Cs fans would know that remember how the team crashed and burned against Giannis in the second round after sky high expectations reaching game 7 ECF with brown and rookie Tatum?