Giannis Antetokounmpo: “I’m only at 60%”

Newly minted NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo is keeping both feet firmly on the ground following a season of unprecedented success. 

Giannis Antetokounmpo won the award after a personal best season where he helped the Bucks reach the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Milwaukee Bucks ultimately lost four straight games to the Toronto Raptors. However, Giannis Antetokounmpo won MVP as his Bucks team won an NBA-best 60 regular season games. 

Over the 72-game season, he averaged 27.7 points, 12.5 rebounds, 5.9 asissts, 1.5 blocks and 1.3 steals. All of those figures are career-highs for Giannis. 

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Despite all of that, he believes that he still has so much further to go in his career. 

“A lot of people say, ‘You are the MVP, you are one of the best players in the league, you are so dominant,'” Giannis told ESPN. 

“But I think I can get better. I think I am at 60 percent of my potential, as good as I can be. I just want to be better. If I am in the same situation again [in the East finals], react better, play the game better, play better, execute better.”

Before their loss to the Raptors, the Bucks couldn’t have been doing much better. Milwaukee started the playoffs 10 – 1, falling only to the eventual champions. 

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Giannis even had eyes on a rematch with Toronto this year. Although, it will be a different Raptors team now that Kawhi Leonard plays in the West with the LA Clippers. 

“For me personally, I would [have loved] for Kawhi to stay in the East and stay in Toronto because I would love to go through the series [with them] again,” Antetokounmpo said.

“But unfortunately, this is the NBA we are talking about. Moves happen. People change teams. But we got an opportunity right now. We got to take advantage of it, and hopefully we can seize the opportunity and make big things happen.”