BEHOLD GIANNIS, THE HUMBLE GOD THAT SPORTS IN AMERICA NEEDED

The Greek Freak has won his first title and conquered the NBA at 26, doing so with a refreshing perspective that defies the egotism of American stars — and a dominance already in an all-time pantheon

     If you don’t applaud him, embrace him and even adore him as the newest and most enchanting of sports sensations, it’s your loss. It should bother no one in America that Giannis Antetokounmpo reigns as the Greek Freak, hailing not from our shores but the streets of impoverished Athens. He has conquered basketball, no longer our exclusive national domain anyway, with an NBA Finals knockout masterpiece as definitive and resounding as any other.

     There is nothing to dislike about him, and everything to treasure.

     ‘‘This is for my mom,’’ he said, finally losing a grip on his emotions after leading the Bucks of Milwaukee — previously known as the home of Arthur Fonzarelli, Bud Selig, bratwurst and beer — to their first title in 50 years. ‘‘She works extremely hard every day for me to be in this position, and she never pressured me to do other things. This is for my dad. He's watching from above, and he can see it. This is for my significant other. Every day, she helps me be a better person. She lets me do what I'm supposed to do, takes care of my son. And for my brothers.

     ‘‘I can be stubborn sometimes. I can disconnect myself from the world because I want this so bad. And I was able to get it, that's why I am tearing up. But, like, people helped me be in this position. I didn't do this by myself. Every freaking day people helped me. I want to thank everyone."

     Please do not be apathetic or, amid the current loathing, xenophobic. Simply, appreciate a humble colossus who is just what a teetering league needed, a transcendent icon who has broken the championship model without having to pick fights on social media, form a loathed superteam, star in his own animated movie or load up on TV commercials. Perhaps you are tired of LeBron James, Kevin Durant and the superego brigade.

     Meet Giannis, a beautiful human being and a champion, a pleasant man who’d rather discuss changing diapers at home than dwell on himself and his craft. He is proof that the American dream can exist in 2021, swooping into our intense sports culture as a 15th-pick project and spending eight years growing up before our eyes. Now, still just 26, he is what all young athletes should aspire to be — the antithesis of the NBA megalomaniac — having remained in a small Midwestern market when he could have fled to Los Angeles or New York or Miami in the latest scheme. He preferred to stay in the Deer District, where 65,000 screaming celebrants ignored COVID-19 and the variants — really, Adam Silver? — to pack inside a city block beside a gleaming arena and remind the world that their city exists.

      This is what Giannis envisioned, winning a championship for the people who allowed him to mature in his timeframe. ‘‘Coming back, I was like, ‘This is my city. They trust me. They believe in me. They believe in us,’ ’’ he said of his decision last winter, when Wisconsin is traditionally immersed in the Green Bay Packers. ‘‘Obviously, I wanted to get the job done. But that's my stubborn side. It's easy to go somewhere and go win a championship with somebody else. It's easy. ... I could go to a super team and just do my part and win a championship. But this is the hard way to do it, and this is the way to do it, and we did it. We f—ing did it."

     You can call him a novelty, a one-year fad made possible by a pandemic-disrupted season, but I doubt it. Antetokounmpo is the first player in NBA history to win a league title, multiple MVP awards, a Finals MVP trophy and Defensive Player of the Year honors before his 27th birthday. There is no reason, with Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday magically melding with him during a six-game triumph over the Phoenix Suns, that he can’t win more Larry O’Brien hardware and enter victorious press conferences with more cigars and champagne bottles. And to think it was only three weeks ago that a wicked fall to the floor, followed by shouts of pain, appeared to end his season. Remarkably, after his teammates rallied without him to beat the Atlanta Hawks, he returned from a hyperextended left knee to produce the greatest performances of his career. His stat line Tuesday night should be in a Hall of Fame display case as you read this: 50 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks on 16-of-25 shooting, his point total the most in a closeout game since the NBA/ABA merger. When Michael Jordan pushed off Bryon Russell, hit the jumper and held suspended a flexed wrist win the 1998 Finals, the golden bucket gave him 45 points. Only Bob Pettit, back in 1958, had as many as 50 in a winning finale.

     And to think only the shrewdest of international scouts would have predicted this ending when Giannis, the son of Nigerian parents, was discovered playing for the youth teams of Filathlitikos. LeBron thinks ‘‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’’ is a movie. No, THIS is a movie.

     ‘‘Eight and a half years ago, before I came into the league, I didn't know where my next meal would come from," Antetokounmpo said. ‘‘My mom was selling stuff in the street. And now I'm here, sitting at the top of the top. I’m extremely blessed. Even if I never have the chance to sit on this table ever again, I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. I hope this can give everybody around the world hope and allow them to believe in their dreams.

     ‘‘Obviously I represent both countries, Nigeria and Greece. A lot of kids from there, from the whole of Africa and whole of Europe — I know that I'm a role model. This should make every person, every kid, anybody around the world to believe in their dreams. No matter, whatever you feel, when you feel down, when things don't look like it's going to happen for you, you might not make it in your career — might be basketball, might be anything. Just believe in what you're doing. Keep working. Don't let nobody tell you what you can't be and what you cannot do."

     It should be lost on no one that the series-turning interval, in Game 5, came at the expense of Chris Paul. As Giannis soars in the sports universe, we’re left to wonder if Paul lost his best chance to finally win a title after 16 seasons. The NBA hype machine will replay the sequence for years: Holiday ripping the ball from Devin Booker, taking four dribbles and heaving an alley-oop to Antetokounmpo, who threw down the dunk that made Milwaukee famous. Symbolically, it was Paul who shoved the airborne Giannis with both arms, trying in vain to prevent the slam. He was posterized for life, the latest heartbreak in a series of postseason failures that could leave the legendary Point God without a title.

     He doesn’t think that way, of course. The Suns, like the Bucks, could return to the Finals with young, breathtaking players in Booker and big man Deandre Ayton. Paul, going on 37, already is imagining the possibilities. ‘‘It will take a while to process this or whatnot, but it's same mentality," he said after the 105-98 loss. ‘‘Get back to work. I ain't retiring, if that's what you're asking. That's out. So, back to work.

     ‘‘Everybody in that locker room knows we had enough, but it wasn't enough So we got to figure it out. I think for me, I just look at myself and figure out how can I get better, what I could have done more and make sure I come back next season ready to do it again."

     As James knows, Durant knows and everyone from Luka Doncic to Nikola Jokic knows, getting through Giannis will be daunting. The glaring bugaboo in his game — free-throw shooting — was a godsend in the clincher. Stunningly, he made 17 of 19 from the line, capping a series in which he averaged 35.2 points, 13.2 rebounds, 5 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.8 blocks while shooting 61.8 percent. So much for the dissing from Paul, who said after Game 5, ‘‘Everybody is anticipating him to miss, even him.’’ Discussing his improved free-throw prowess, and how he quieted enemy fans who obnoxiously counted down the dribbles during his pre-shot routine, Antetokounmpo revealed his secret to getting better: leaving his ego at the arena door.

     ‘‘I think I’ll say life,’’ he said. ‘‘Usually, from my experience, when I think, ‘Oh, yeah, I did this, I’m so great, I had 30, I had 25-10-10, we won, this and that’ … usually, the next day, you’re going to suck. Simple as that. The next few days, you’re going to be terrible.

     ‘‘I figured out a mindset to have. When you focus on the past, that’s your ego. When I focus on the future, it’s my pride. I try to focus on the moment, in the present. That’s humility. That’s being humble. That’s not setting expectations. That’s going out there, enjoying the game, competing at a high level. I think I’ve had people in my life that helped me with that. But that is a skill that I’ve tried to, like, kind of — how do you say, perfect it.’’

     That’s how we say it. That’s how the world says it. If Giannis Sina Ugo Antetokounmpo isn’t perfect, his story is. ‘‘I started playing basketball just to help my family. Tried to get them out of the struggle, the challenges we were facing when we were kids,’’ he said. ‘‘But I never thought I'm going to be 26 years old, with my team in the NBA Finals. Just playing — like, I was happy just being, like not even winning, just being part of this journey.’’

     He looked at the two shiny trophies beside him. ‘‘I never thought I would be sitting here with this right here and this right here," he said, an infectious smile glowing in the night. ‘‘We’ve come a long way.’’

     It is our pleasure to accommodate him. That is the essence of America, after all, and what America still can be if we only let it.

     Jay Mariotti, called ‘‘the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes sports columns for Substack and a Wednesday media column for Barrett Sports Media while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts in production today. He’s an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and radio talk host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects. Compensation for this column is donated to the Chicago Sun-Times Charity Trust.