Our modern relationship with the concept of greatness is a strange thing. Certainly in NBA basketball, but even more broadly, we like to hold greatness up to its lack. Less readily do we accept greatness at face value, or allow for greatness to simply stand on its own. It needs a backdrop of failure, and maybe because of that, it is failure we’ve become better at discussing. When greatness persists, or proves to have staying power, it feels almost dull. We want greatness to come with persistent conflict, and we want our greats to prove it, again and again.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is a prime modern example.
Over the weekend, Antetokounmpo made history. He became the NBA athlete to record the most 30-point games in a decade, beating out the obvious candidates of Steph Curry and LeBron James. That’s over 262 games with 30-plus-points. So far this season, he’s been averaging 32.4 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 6.4 assists per game, and shooting field goals at a 60.8% accurate clip. These numbers are staggering and yet, at a glance around discussion on the season, you’d think they were hum-drum.
Truth be told, conversation about the Bucks and Antetokounmpo seemed more engaged when both struggled early in the season. Those favourite, swirling questions of will-he-or-won’t-he be traded, or force a trade, rose with aplomb. A championship calibre team doing badly is always news, sure, but when its championship calibre superstar pushes through the struggles to virtually carry the team, we tend to turn our attention elsewhere.
Maybe it’s because the thing that’s given Antetokounmpo another gear this season — rediscovering the mid-range — is a part of the floor not as exciting as the three-point range teams like the Celtics are bombing from, but the bump has been drastic. Last season Antetokounmpo shot 35.1% from the mid-range and thus far this season he’s converting 47.8% of his mid-range attempts (of which he’s doubled, 2.4 to 4.3).
Antetokounmpo acknowledged the shift, saying earlier this month that he worked on the shot all summer with head coach of the Greek national team, Vassilis Spanoulis.
“I was watching film from last year of how I got myself in trouble, because I wasn’t trusting my mid-range shots as much,” Antetokounmpo said.
The way he’s shooting has changed too — it’s faster. His release, which traditionally came at the height of his jumper or pull-up, now tends to come a second sooner. He’s taking less time to set himself up and as a result, letting more fly. All this has obvious offensive implications for the Bucks in terms of volume, but because so much of Antetokounmpo’s traditional scoring comes from the restricted area that’s where defenders tend to hunker down and wait. Because of that, there’s a lot more space in the mid-range and beyond for Antetokounmpo and his teammates to move in. Plus, as defenders catch on his mid-range trend and start to move out to counter him, shooting and passing lanes open up, creating opportunities for quick cuts, close scoring, and better movement.
Antetokounmpo being third in the league for his mid-range field goal attempts on its own is impressive. That he’s added another way to score, as an athlete already at the very peak of competitive performance and in his 12th season, even more so. In terms of greatness, Antetokounmpo could stand on what he was already doing and remain the very best. His ability to improve upon greatness, add another gear to it, should get the same attention as a temporarily falling team. The former will last forever, the latter is only a blip.
