Nickel: Giannis will give everything to the Vegas games, but it's no dice when it comes to gambling

Nickel: Giannis will give everything to the Vegas games, but it’s no dice when it comes to gambling

Posted by Admin December 12, 2024 Gambling

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The Bucks are going to Las Vegas for the Emirates NBA Cup and everyone seemed excited about this Tuesday night in Milwaukee. Getting out of the Midwest for a few days and staring at the water fountain show at the Bellagio. Or swinging the golf clubs at Shadow Creek. Or joining Bobby Portis Jr. at the blackjack table.

The High Roller Ferris Wheel. The MSG Sphere. The desert city that never sleeps. And doing all the other stuff people do in Vegas…

Very Michael Jordan Bulls-era cool. Very Ocean’s Eleven.

But count Giannis Antetokounmpo out – for the gambling and the alcohol parts of Vegas, anyway. He doesn’t plan on it.

“I don’t gamble because I believe I have a competition problem,” the Bucks superstar said Tuesday night after Milwaukee won its quarterfinal NBA Cup game against the Orlando Magic.

“I try to stay away from gambling, because whatever I do, I do 100%.

“I don’t drink. I don’t gamble. I don’t do none of that because I know if I got myself into that, it’s going to be hard for me to get out.”

It was an interesting, although not surprising, little revelation from the recently turned 30-year-old we know so much about already.

Antetokounmpo has in recent years worked on his mental health – and subsequently his hyper competitiveness – a great deal. He’s given us fantastic insights in to those self-discoveries of perfectionism and all-or-nothing mentality.

It’s hard to stand out for extreme competitiveness among the elite level of players in the NBA. But Antetokounmpo has no rivals here.

So Vegas will mean a lot of different things to a lot of different Bucks this week. For Doc Rivers, a first in his lengthy coaching career. For young players, an opportunity to experience more intense basketball games. For veteran players, fun and a welcome change of scene.

For others, stories that surely will remain in the team group chat only.

For Antetokounmpo? Basketball. It’s about this moment and this team right now, even with a big-picture vision for where the Bucks want to be at the end of the year.

The NBA Cup is another stage on which to compete.

“I’m in, I’m in. The way I play. I’m always in,” Antetokounmpo said. “I don’t care if it’s a regular-season game, in-season tournament game, playoff game, I play the same.

“When I mean I play the same, I don’t mean I always play well. Some days I play well, Some days I play bad, blah blah blah. But my energy, my focus, my approach to the game, my winning mentality: It’s always the same. It doesn’t shift. I cannot turn it off.

“This is who I am. It doesn’t matter if I play against my …in the scrimmage game, like this year the scrimmage game, Doc Rivers was telling me, slow down.”

It was just a scrimmage to Rivers. It was a game to Giannis.

“I’m going to try to compete,” Antetokounmpo said. “I don’t care if it’s an in-season tournament game, final four, regular-season game, playoff game, final game, it’s the same to me. It’s a game. So try to win.”

Milwaukee was the first team to clinch a spot in the semifinals of the NBA Cup. Antetokounmpo scored 37 points in the win against Orlando for his third straight game with 30-plus points and league-high 15th 30-point game of the season.

Antetokounmpo shot 62.5% from the field (15 of 24), marking his 22nd consecutive game with 20-plus points on 50% shooting. It’s the third-longest such streak in NBA history behind Shaquille O’Neal (25, Jan. 7-March 15, 2001) and Zion Williamson (25, Feb. 6-April 6, 2021).