Refreshing response to a question from the media was unlike much of the discourse surrounding elite professional sport
Almost certainly fed up while facing the press in the media centre of Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum last Wednesday night, Giannis Antetokounmpo made no attempt to disguise his utter contempt for the query he had just been asked to field. The Bucks basketball legend had fronted up before the ladies and gentlemen of the fourth estate after his team’s elimination by the lowly ranked Miami Heat after a five-game series, arguably one of the most seismic upsets in NBA playoff history. Antetokounmpo’s gaze was caught by Eric Nehm, the man from the Athletic on the Bucks beat, who kept his question fairly short and to the point. He had already asked it of Antetokounmpo’s coach and now wished to hear the player’s considered opinion. “Do you view this season as a failure?”
A protracted sigh from the top table was followed by an audible groan of “Oh my God”, as Antetokounmpo wearily rubbed his hands up his face and through his hair, in the manner of a man who can’t quite believe the absolute inanity of the question he’s just been asked. Countering with several of his own, rhetorical questions regarding the successes or failures his inquisitor might have enjoyed or endured in his professional life over the past 12 months, he proceeded to expound on his own idea of what constitutes failure, or if there’s even any such thing. “Michael Jordan played 15 years,” he said. “Won six championships. The other nine years was a failure? That’s what you’re telling me? I’m asking you a question, yes or no?”