National Basketball Association

Giannis Antetokounmpo says winning titles with team that drafted you 'means more'

Updated Jul. 30, 2021 8:12 a.m. ET

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Winning the NBA Finals is the ultimate goal for every player every season.

However, only one team out of the 30 in the NBA accomplishes the goal of lifting the Larry O'Brien Trophy each year. 

And this year, it's down to either the Phoenix Suns or the Milwaukee Bucks, the latter of which find themselves down 0-1 after Game 1 of the series.

But are some titles more meaningful than others?

Ahead of Game 2, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said he believes that's the case.

"You know, obviously, you see a lot of people have different routes," Antetokounmpo said. "You can never judge anybody for the way he wins a championship, that he chooses to win a championship. But at the end of the day, doing it with the team that you started [with], I feel like it means more. … Doing it [with] the team that drafted you, in the city that embraced you, the organization that helped you, it means a lot."

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The Bucks selected Antetokounmpo in the 2013 NBA Draft with the 15th overall pick.

In his seven years in the league, the Athens, Greece-born Antetokounmpo has won back-to-back MVP awards, a Defensive Player of the Year award, made five All-NBA teams, five All-Star teams, and four All-Defensive teams. 

Essentially, all that's missing from the 26-year-old's résumé is a championship.

And as he mentioned, he believes winning it with the team that drafted him would mean more than winning it elsewhere. Is he onto something? 

On "First Things First," Chris Broussard explained why Antetokounmpo's line of thinking makes perfect sense.

"When a team drafts a player, right? The team, the organization, the fan base, they have one hope above everything else," Broussard said. "It is that that player can help us win a championship. … It is one thing that means a little more, to me, when you've won it with the team that drafted you. It doesn't trump everything else, necessarily. But it is, I think, more impressive to win it with the team that drafted you because you didn't leave any unfinished business."

Broussard used LeBron James' departure from the Cleveland Cavaliers after the 2017-18 season ⁠— his second split with the team that drafted him ⁠— as an example of why winning a title with your original team makes a world of difference.

When James first left Cleveland after five ringless years, the animosity was palpable following "The Decision" to go to the Miami Heat. But after winning two rings in four seasons there, James returned home and delivered a title to Cleveland in 2015-16.

When he bailed for the second time and joined the Los Angeles Lakers, the vitriol wasn't as prevalent ⁠— largely because he did right by the Cavs and brought them a highly sought championship.

That title topped Nick Wright's list of the most meaningful NBA championships of the past decade, with Dirk Nowitzki's 2010-11 title with the Dallas Mavericks and Stephen Curry's 2014-15 championship with the Golden State Warriors coming in second and third, respectively.

If Antetokounmpo could bring it home for the Bucks, Wright said he could see that title bumping Curry's championship out of the top three.

"If Giannis and the Bucks win this title, it wedges itself right between Dirk and Steph," Wright said. "It's certainly in the top four. I think it would become third. Some would argue it could become second. … I think it absolutely would matter more than, for example, [Kevin] Durant's first title in Golden State or LeBron's title with the Lakers. To me, that's unquestionable."

Staying and playing for a championship with the team that drafted you isn't always up to the player, however.

Players are bound to play for a team based on the contract they've signed, but the team is under no obligation to keep that player around. Unless a player has a no-trade clause, they can be moved at the organization's will.

That is a distinction Stephen Jackson, who played for eight teams in his 14-year career, called attention to on "First Things First."

"These organizations, once you're not giving them what they need or once they're ready to move on, they move on," Jackson said. "It ain't no more loyalty. So, sometimes we're loyal to a fault. But it could get to that point where you realize you was loyal for nothing if you end your career without a championship and you had opportunities to go somewhere else to get one." 

Of course, there's not even of a whiff of a suggestion that the Bucks would be interested in offloading Antetokounmpo, but Jackson's point about loyalty is a fair one.

If Antetokounmpo and the Bucks can't deliver this season, would he be faulted for considering a different venue to try and contend?

That kind of thinking is a long way off, and it could be rendered moot if Antetokounmpo achieves the dream he said would mean so much to him.

Getting there starts with a bounce back in Game 2, which tips Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET.

For more up-to-date news on all things NBA, click here to register for alerts on the FOX Sports app! 

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National Basketball Association

Milwaukee Bucks

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Chris Broussard

Nick Wright

First Things First