Giannis Antetokounmpo Postgame Press Conference | 03.21.24

Giannis Antetokounmpo Postgame Press Conference | 03.21.24

We’ll start there just what was you know I guess going back to like that warmup with with Phoenix he didn’t quite feel it to play so just kind of how did you manage the the hamstring and missing some games and then getting a point here where you where you could

Play you know um you know try to take care of my body as much as I can um you know try to control what you can control things like this going to pop up you know now and then um kind of unexpected but um at the end of the

Day this is the cards you you’ve been dealt and you you just have to keep on figuring it out keep on playing through you know playing through pain playing through adversity uh at the end of day I know that I’m I’m doing I’m do whatever I can

You know to be healthy and to be able to help my team I know you had said you wanted to play a lot this year after having the surgery in the summer and not playing um you hit the 65 game number I don’t know if that matters to you you’re

Sort of eligible now for all of the awards and teams at the end of the year was was I don’t know was that a goal to get to 65 plus and to play more games I’ll go play 82 I’ll go play 82 but at the end of the

Day um you have you have a first goal second goal third goal fourth goal and when one falls apart you got to fall back to the second one and so that I think that’s a bigger bigger goal here to uh capture and uh you have to think about the bigger picture and

Obviously I could um you know play through a little bit of pain through the couple of games play through play through a lot of pain against Philly I didn’t see the reason why I couldn’t play against Phoenix but at the end of the day um it’s not smart it’s not smart

For the long run uh but at the end of day I cannot think about the long run you know the training staff you know fysio all the people in the in the train can think about that my my job is to think about now how can I be healthy

Now how can I improve now and help my team now be better we’ve talked about over the years all the conversations you’ve had with coaches butd initially telling you like hey you’re not going to play stuff like that this year docy kind of said like I needed to talk to yis and

Let him know like hey we need heroes in June not March um just to have a coach that has that conversation with you has that dialogue with you what does that kind of meant in Doc uh it’s uh it means a lot I think he he understands he played the game coached

The game he’s been out on the game for a long time he kind of understands he had the same kind of thing in last two years in the league so he knows how it feels you know how painful it is what if he’s not painful if I’m uh

Bsing he can tell so it’s good to have a coach like that do you feel like there’s been growth in yourself this season whether it’s on the quarter off and if so in what areas uh no I Che uh no for sure I I I do I do believe I

Do believe um I think my myself my stubborn self will probably have played the game and uh played the next game too and did not care about what happened in the end you know like you got to you got to be smart you know you got to be smart there’s going

To be days that you know you’re going to be pull out and you might want to play the game you might have a goal in your head but again you got to think about the biggest picture you got to be okay with that you got to be mature to understand that

That’s the best decision for you right now even though it hurts you even though you cannot sleep at night though even though he um um you want to play it doesn’t matter this is the best decision for you right now to you know kind of take care of

Yourself and address the issue that you’re having uh you get that and one in the fourth quarter it’s off of the steal from Dame and we’re talking to Dame and typically Dame is pretty stealy faed he’s not going to really have a big emotional reaction after that he kind of

Yelled he was excited and he said the reason why was because he got the steal and saw all of you guys running sprinting even though you guys had tired legs and stuff like that just to have plays like that to have Dane make a steal like that and then everyone kind

Of finish the play what do those plays mean for you guys mean a lot you know obviously having a leader of our team um getting not just that still he got he got like two possession after that he got another steal and be able to throw the ball ahead and thrust his uh

Teammate that’s going to go make the right play uh it means a lot and obviously when when we make the right play uh he also get that to in hit you know because he trusted us that we going to make the right play for for the team so but at

The end of they all start with Dame like if Dame doesn’t get the that stop or he doesn’t get the stop after that we don’t get no baskets you know uh so it’s all starts from there it’s not often that we see you not that you’re not emotional

But get maybe a little angry uh what what happened with Dennis there and this way you jumped up to sort of and then obviously then they get a technical be honest I don’t really remember I don’t really remember but uh usually when I react like that there’s

Always um a reason but I don’t remember the reason looking ahead to Sunday the Thunder they’re fast they play well together obviously they’ve got a great record but I want to ask you what’s it like to play against teams like that that grew up watching you and were fans

Of you and now are competing against you similar to you competing against Kobe Watching Me Maybe Maybe Dame or Brooke or Chris um that got too maybe Patrick but uh it’s going to be a good game to play to play fast they play well they’re all aggressive you know um play with a

Lot of energy to play hard defensively uh so it’s going to be a tough one do you think I’m sorry Med uh do you think that today was uh one of the toughest games to come back after being injured and playing this physicality this game um I’ll say

Um yeah it it was tough because um from what I understand I haven’t been watching basketball for in social media but from what I heard in the bench guys saying that they change the rules and guys can um there was a thing that they’re letting more physicality I assume to in

The NBA so yeah so uh yeah it was kind it was kind of hard because when you come back from injury you know you’re not so much your off balance you try to figure out your your Rhythm your fit your space so I feel like that kind of made it harder

For me but now you just got to adjust with it got to hit the weight room get stronger and if they’re going to allow the physicality that’s when you come to my it’s my game yeah yeah I uh we’ve seen this is a there’s a lot of

Phenomenal with this all every time with you you know coming back from injuries coming back fast uh and you said before that you know it’s one of those things that you got to be smart but uh would you say that you know just you the stubbornness gave you the gave you the

Ability to play in the finals as well like you being stubborn and coming back to play F that was like three years ago um but you were still injured yes yeah I was injured um yeah for sure I think I think a lot of times he’ve got me in the

In a position to be successful but but also you had me in a position to not be Su successful but I think my my biggest uh strength as as a person and the thing that allows me to be who I am is my my stubbornness but also that’s my biggest

Weakness you know is the same thing I had this conversation with um with Kobe 20 2018 and he said he said my biggest strength is that I’m my biggest weakness is that I’m so some sometimes like your strength if you’re able to your weakness if you’re able to

Challenge the right way and be mature about it and know yourself it can allow you to be successful so at that time I knew that if I had played game uh six probably I would have been in trouble against Atlanta you know so the team went out game five game six they played

Well and then I knew that gave me six or seven days to be able to get myself ready and uh be able to play in game one thank you thank and give one last question uh tomorrow you you’re going to be in the in the first live podcast and

Uh what can we expect from you I uh yeah it’s it’s going to be fun I I think I’ve done I’ve done one podcast in the past for uh Russ yes 48 hour yeah my my close friend and uh been I’ve been invited to a lot of show talk shows interviews

Podcast a lot of stuff like that but I never do it but uh I’m excited to with analysis I think uh it’s going to be fun there’s going to be fans there too right yeah yeah it’s live uh so so I’m excited to see how it goes um and I’m excited

For the fans to learn things about us and um hopefully it goes well sure

Giannis speaks with media following Thursday’s game.

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