Udonis Haslem excludes Giannis Antetokounmpo from his Top 5: "I haven't seen him come back with something that I didn't see a year before"
Now in his 11th season in the NBA, Giannis Antetokounmpo has maintained his case as one of the best players in the world. The Greek Freak continues to pace the Milwaukee Bucks in another strong season and bolster its ongoing championship hunt.
Yet despite the marvelous leadership and individual season he is demonstrating, Giannis is still intriguingly excluded from Udonis Haslem's current list of Top 5 players in the NBA.
Giannis is not in the TUD's of UD’s list
In the latest episode of his The OGs Show, UD released a wild proclamation in which he took the 39-year-old LeBron James over the prime and now 29-year-old Giannis. While he drew plenty of questions from his fellow hosts and guests in the podcast, including ex-Buck and 2021 title member Jeff Teague, Haslem dropped his reason for picking picking his former Miami Heat teammate.
"This is not knocking anything that Giannis does man," said Haslem. "But what I'm saying is I'm going with the skillset, I'm going off of what I see. I watched after we lost that playoff series against Dallas in the playoffs, I watched 'Bron get in the MF lab and come back next summer the next year with sh** that I never seen him do. I have not watched Giannis come back yet with sh** I ain't seen. I'm still waiting."
No new extraordinary things have been presented yet
Haslem further argued that while Giannis is an exceptional talent, the Bucks star won't be able to sustain his one-sided bully ball specialty once he continues aging. Although the subject is in the present context, UD stands convinced of what he saw around LeBron during their time in Miami.
"I don't mind Giannis' game," added Haslem. "I think he can win if you put the right pieces around him. But what I'm saying is all the greats that I've played with, I watch them every year get better and better and better. They didn't say it was about him, they didn't say it was about the coach, they got in the lab, and they came back better, that's all I'm saying. This is not a knock but I watched the greats get better every year. I have not seen him come back with something that I didn't see the year before. That's all I'm waiting for."
And now, as a way to bounce back from last year's collapse against the Heat, he raised his game to the next level by registering 30.7 points, 11.2 boards, 6.2 assists, on 61.8 percent shooting — on pace to become the first player in league history to average 30+ PPG, 11+ RPG, 6+ APG and 60% FG in a single season.
While Giannis might be one-dimensional in the eyes of the majority, including Haslem, this doesn’t take away the fact that his bread-and-butter skill will continue to carry him to doesn't.
