Giannis Says It's a 'Lie' He Doesn't Care About MVP; Priority is Winning NBA Title
Giannis Antetokounmpo wants to be named the NBA's MVP this season.
He just wants a title more.
"That's a lie," the Milwaukee Bucks star said of the idea he doesn't care about winning MVP, per Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. "I won't say I don't care. I want to compete. If you say I don't care, it's a lie. Do I think it's a priority for me? No. The priority for me is to get better, to help my team win a championship, to get that feeling again."
Antetokounmpo appears to be looking up at Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers and Nikola Jokić of the Denver Nuggets as the season hits the stretch run.
Tim Bontemps of ESPN released the latest version of his MVP straw poll Thursday, and Embiid was narrowly ahead of Jokić in total points even though the Nuggets big man received 42 first-place votes to the 76ers star's 40.
Antetokounmpo was third with 18 first-place votes.
While Jokić took home the last two MVPs, the Bucks star captured the award back-to-back times first in 2019 and 2020. If either of them wins it this season, they will join a list of some of the best players in NBA history as three-time winners.
Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird and Moses Malone are the three-time winners, underscoring the type of player one has to be to earn such a distinction.
Antetokounmpo is worthy of MVP consideration this season. He's averaging 31.2 points, 11.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game while shooting 55.3 percent from the field for a Bucks team that has the best record in the NBA at 55-21.
Embiid's 76ers are 50-26, while Jokić's Nuggets are 51-24 and No. 1 in the Western Conference.
The Bucks star is the best player on the league's best team, but even that might not be enough to take home the award in such a tightly contested race. Yet he has something the other two don't: a championship.
He's primarily focused on adding another one.
