Goran Dragic Defends Giannis from Gilbert Arenas Criticism: 'He Can’t Talk'

Giannis Antetokounmpo hasn't responded to Gilbert Arenas' criticism, but his fellow NBA players are jumping to the Milwaukee Bucks star's defense.

Goran Dragic called out Arenas in an interview with John Rammas of Eurohoops, saying Antetokounmpo has already accomplished more than Arenas did during his NBA career.

“Giannis is the MVP. Gilbert Arenas is not. Was he ever the MVP? I don’t think so," Dragic said. "So he can’t talk about Giannis. Giannis won the championship, won the MVP award. He has been the Defensive Player of the Year."

Antetokounmpo already has more MVPs, championships, All-Star appearances, All-NBA selections, All-Defensive team selections and Finals MVPs than Arenas had in his career. When it comes to objectively measuring the two careers, Antetokounmpo is already a better player and Hall of Famer at age 27.

None of that stopped Arenas from doing a recent media tour bashing Antetokounmpo, saying he "doesn't understand basketball."

"The media says he's the best player in the league. Not even close, just stop it!" Arenas recently said on the No Chill podcast. "I can look at his game and say he doesn't understand basketball yet. He plays the sport, he won a championship, cool. But he doesn't really understand how to be better, how to train his body."

There is, objectively, zero validity to Arenas' criticism. Antetokounmpo has developed into basketball's most dominant player after having never played basketball at any level higher than Greece's second division before arriving in the NBA. There may be no player in the league who has absorbed more basketball at a faster pace.

Criticisms of Antetokounmpo's training regimen border on absurd. His body transformation from the time he was a rookie to now is astounding. While the Bucks do tend to limit his regular-season minutes, that's long been coach Mike Budenholzer's modus operandi. Giannis showed no ill effects when Budenholzer leaned on him for more than 38 minutes per game during their 2021 championship run.

Dragic is 100 percent right to call out Arenas for his baseless criticism.