Giannis Antetokounmpo Reportedly Makes History, Winning Second MVP Award & Defensive Player Of The Year
Milwaukee Bucks standout, Giannis Antetokounmpo, has reportedly won the NBA MVP award for the second season in a row, according to sources given to ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski.
Antetokounmpo is the first athlete since Golden State Warrior guard Steph Curry, who did so in 2015 and 2016, to win MVP in two consecutive periods.
LeBron James, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Moses Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and Bill Russell welcome Antetokounmpo as the league’s only members to earn back-to-back MVP trophies.
Earlier, the 25-year-old was also awarded the Defensive Player of the Year for the first time in his career, according to CBS Sports.
Winning both the Defensive Player of the Year and the MVP awards makes Antetokounmpo the third person in history to win both accolades in the same season. The only other athletes to do so were Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon.
Despite Milwaukee being eliminated in the second round of the playoffs, much earlier than most expected, Antetokounmpo was still able to beat out Houston Rockets’ James Harden and Lakers superstar LeBron James for the award.
“Please, after this day don’t call me MVP until I win it again next year,” Antetokounmpo said last July after receiving his first MVP award.
The Bucks star averaged 29.5 points, 13.6 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game this season, while maintaining the league’s highest player efficiency rating.
Although Bucks fans are certainly proud of Antetokounmpo being honored with such an elite milestone, others took to Twitter to express their disagreement with the decision.
In various tweets, NBA fans disagreed with Antetokounmpo’s latest accomplishment because his team no longer has an opportunity at a championship.
“The real MVP is playing tonight @KingJames,” one Lakers fan commented.
“Is he the only two time mvp not to play in an nba finals?” another user stated.
“He didn’t deserve the DMVP and definitely doesn’t deserve the MVP. This is embarrassing, NBA,” one person remarked.
“Hopefully we can learn from this and get better as a team and come back and hopefully we can build a culture in Milwaukee for many years, that we can come out here and compete every single year for a championship,” Antetokounmpo said in an interview after the season-ending Game 5 loss to the Miami Heat.
The league has not officially confirmed that Antetokounmpo is in fact the MVP and is expected to make an official announcement at 2 p.m. Eastern today.
