The Greek Freak is officially the NBA MVP.
Giannis Antetokounmpo won the award for the first time on Monday night, after putting together a remarkable 2018-19 season for the Milwaukee Bucks. Antetokounmpo, 24, averaged 27.7 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 5.9 assists, while putting together a Player Efficiency Rating (PER) of 30.95. He got 78-of-100 first-place votes, beating out the Houston Rockets’ James Harden.
The voting results for the 2018-19 Most Valuable Player award. #Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo picked up 78-of-100 first place votes. #Rockets' James Harden picked up the other 23. No one else got a 1st or 2nd place vote. #Thunder's Paul George received 38 3rd place votes. #MVP pic.twitter.com/ahtv9QJtkz
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) June 25, 2019
And Antetokounmpo teared up in a powerful acceptance speech at the NBA Awards in Santa Monica, CA.
Giannis got emotional as he paid tribute to his family while accepting the #KiaMVP trophy. 🙏#NBAAwards pic.twitter.com/T8p5XH73cZ
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) June 25, 2019
“Two, three years ago, I had the goal in my head, that goal to be the best player in the league. I’m gonna do whatever it takes to win and I’m going to win MVP. And every time I step on the floor, I think of my dad and that motivates me to play harder and move forward even when my body is sore, I don’t feel like playing, I’m always going to show up and I’m going to do the right thing.”
So that was an incredible moment, and the award was well-deserved.
But the Houston Rockets’ Twitter account disagreed with the decision, and decided to tweet out a thread about why Harden should’ve won the award instead.
“Congrats to the new MVP, but we respectfully disagree,” followed by a thread of stats making the case for Harden.
https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets/status/1143358248277499905
https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets/status/1143358470370070529
https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets/status/1143359091399692289
A simple “Congratulations to Giannis Antetokounmpo” — or nothing at all — would’ve worked just fine here.
