National Basketball Association

Giannis Antetokounmpo takes another jab at superteams in Instagram post

Updated Jul. 29, 2021 3:24 p.m. ET

The champ is at it again.

After eight years of battling with the Milwaukee Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo finally got to call himself an NBA champion after winning the Finals just more than a week ago.

And the 26-year-old has made no bones about how he accomplished that feat ⁠— getting it done with the team that drafted him with the 15th overall pick in 2013.

Antetokounmpo was sensational in the Finals, winning the series MVP award after averaging 35.2 points, 13.2 rebounds and 5.0 assists in six games against the Phoenix Suns.

During his postgame news conference, victory cigar in hand and sandwiched between the Finals MVP and Larry O'Brien trophy, Antetokounmpo spelled out why winning with Milwaukee was so important to him.

"But that's my stubborn side," he said. "It’s easy to go somewhere and go win a championship with somebody else. It’s easy … I could go to a superteam and just do my part and win a championship. … But this is the hard way to do it and this is the way to do it and we did it, f------ did it. We did it, man."

In December 2020, Antetokounmpo signed a supermax extension to remain with the Bucks for five more years.

Had he not put pen to paper, he could have been a free agent at this very moment, and would have had suitors throughout the league lined up around the block. Needless to say, he could have latched on elsewhere with another superstar or orchestrated the formation of a superteam wherever he desired.

Instead, the two-time MVP chose to stick it out with the Bucks, despite failing the reach the Finals with Milwaukee in his first seven years as a pro.

Earlier this week, Antetokounmpo doubled down on the "sticking it out" narrative, taking to Instagram to pay tribute to some NBA greats who won championships in the city where they started their careers.

Antetokounmpo's post included pictures of Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat), Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks), Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston Rockets) and Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers) with a caption that read: "Mood."

The story then concluded with a black frame and text that said: "Let's have a great off season .. WORK"

In reiterating his stance on the value of, shall we say, "homegrown" championships, is Antetokounmpo also taking a swipe at some of his competitors?

That was a topic of discussion on "First Things First," where Chris Broussard and Kevin Wildes weighed in on the IG story.

Broussard bought in on what Antetokounmpo posted on Instagram. His only quibble was the omission of some other NBA legends who also won homegrown titles.

But Broussard said he enjoyed the drama, particularly as it pertains to players such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant and James Harden ⁠— players who went elsewhere to form a superteam to either win a title or, in Harden's case, make an attempt at one.

Wildes posed the question again to Broussard, asking the following:

"If you were another star player who hopped around, would you feel some kind of way about Giannis saying this ⁠— not once after the postgame press conference, this is the second mention ⁠— do you feel like it would be a shot at you?"

And Broussard responded with, "Honestly, I would. … How else can you take it?" Broussard pondered if the apparent slight could make for some tasty on-court beef, but also mentioned the narrative could potentially work as a deterrent for some players.

Take Damian Lillard, for example. The 31-year-old guard has long been a proponent of trying to win a title with the Portland Trail Blazers, but that stance noticeably softened after the Blazers crashed out of the playoffs.

Now, rumors about Lillard's future are flying around the league.

"I think it could go two ways: It could upset some guys, which is great," Broussard said, "or it could lead to some guys not wanting to do the superteam thing, which could be good as well."

Colin Cowherd of "The Herd" also weighed in, defending a selection of players who are oft-criticized for moving around.

To Cowherd, it doesn't make sense to knock players such as LeBron or Durant for wanting to better a situation that seemed otherwise bleak.

"None of these guys are taking the easy route," Cowherd said. " … That's where I overwhelmingly side with athletes. Mobility out of necessity."

The NBA has been out-of-season for a week and some change, and already we can't wait to see its superstars – and superteams – back on the court, looking to knock Giannis off his newfound perch.

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