Sam Mitchell blasted Giannis Antetokounmpo for putting pressure on the Milwaukee Bucks front office after he lost in the second round of the NBA playoffs to the Miami Heat. Here’s Mitchell in a talk with Brian Geltzeiler of Sirius XM NBA Radio:
“This is the second time in a playoff loss that people are questioning why you wasn’t guarding the other team’s best player. And you sit here with the same answer: The coach didn’t put me on him. But yet you can come to the press conference and say if this don’t happen….Well what about in the series, when you could’ve done something about the game. When you could’ve said, ‘Hey coach, I got Jimmy.’ I’m tired of these guys pretending to be superstars.”
Damn. Tell us how you really feel Coach Mitchell. This is definitely not NBA TV Sam Mitchell. This is NBA Radio Sam Mitchell.
One point he’s right on is that Giannis can demand to switch onto Jimmy Butler, as the greats have done in the past. Many signature moments are of players taking on that challenge and slowing down the other team’s best player.
However, Giannis was also coming back from injury, which slowed him down.
Giannis is always working to improve his game. It’s only right that he demands the same from the Bucks organization. Most teams tend to be as satisfied as their stars are.
Take Sam Mitchell’s comment as motivation to take the game to another level.
