NBA

‘Greek Freak’ is the Bucks’ highlight-a-minute rookie

When Bucks rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo is asked before a recent home game in Milwaukee if he is trying to create highlight plays when he goes out onto the court, he smiles.

“That’s my game,” he said. “That’s my game. I’m not trying to do highlights. I just play, and whatever happens, you know?”

Whatever happens when Antetokounmpo steps onto the floor is people’s eyes are immediately drawn to him. The 6-foot-10 forward from Greece, who turned 19 last week, is all arms and legs and full of boundless athletic potential. A quick YouTube search will pull up all kinds of impressive plays he has pulled off in his first few weeks as an NBA player.

Perhaps the best example is from the Bucks’ 92-85 win over the Celtics in Milwaukee on Nov. 30. Antetokounmpo sprinted downcourt to block a Jordan Crawford layup at one end, then sprinted back to the other end, caught a pass and threw down a huge slam, sending the Bradley Center crowd into hysterics.

“I enjoy it,” Antetokounmpo said. “I love the people who love me, the people in Milwaukee who love me, the fans. I thank them because they give me confidence whenever I go out there, and it’s a very nice feeling when you feel like the guys want you here and love you here and cheer for you.”

Plays like that prompted ESPN’s Bill Simmons to suggest someone start a “Greek Freak Alert” Twitter account to let fans with NBA League Pass know when Antetokounmpo would be entering a game — the Bucks responded almost immediately by creating one — and leave Bucks coach Larry Drew shaking his head sometimes.

“I know at the very beginning and watching him, he seemed to be just thinking a lot, thinking about where to go and what to do,” Drew said. “Now he’s just reacting. … He isn’t putting a lot of thought behind it. I just told him to let your natural basketball instincts to take over, and he’s done that.

“I think, with his size and with his length, he’s one of the few players on our team … there’s things that he does that we have other guys that just can’t do them. He certainly brings something very unique to the table. He’s certainly one of our most athletic guys, and with his length and ability to pass the basketball, he’s one of the few guys on our team that if he doesn’t score, he can do other things to impact the game. And I’m very, very intrigued by that”

Coming out of the second division of Greek basketball – not exactly a hotbed for NBA talent – it was unclear exactly what Antetokounmpo’s ceiling would be entering the draft. But the Bucks took a chance on him with the 15th overall pick, and he’s been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise depressing season in Milwaukee.

With a season-ending injury to Carlos Delfino and a lengthy injury absence for Caron Butler, some minutes have opened up on the wings for the Bucks, and Drew chose to give Antetokounmpo a chance to play to accelerate his growth as a player.

Absorbing some wisdom from Bucks coach Larry DrewAP

“I’ve always said this kid will grow a lot faster out on that floor than he will sitting next to me,” Drew said. “The minutes he’s gotten, he’s made the most of them. Obviously I’m very intrigued by the fact that if he’s not scoring points, he does the other things that affect the game, whether it’s a rebound, whether it’s a blocked shot, whether it’s a good pass, he doesn’t have to score to be noticed out on the floor, and I see his confidence growing, as well.

“He’s getting into that mindset of knowing our league and knowing the level which he has to clear every night he steps on the floor. He’s learning every night. One of the things I was most concerned with bringing him on board was understanding of this game, and when we go through game plan, game strategy, is he really picking everything up? He’ll nod his head and say he is, but the truth is that he is. When he doesn’t know, he asks questions, but when he steps out on the floor you can just see he’s real bubbly, and he loves being out there and he’s having fun. That’s important.”

Antetokounmpo is averaging 5.5 points and 3.3 rebounds while shooting just over 50 percent from the field in 17 games, all of those numbers going up slightly in December in accordance with his bump in playing time.

Milwaukee is a long ways away from Athens – over 5,000 miles away, to be precise. But Antetokounmpo, whose brother, Thanasis, joined him in the U.S. and is playing for the Delaware 87ers in the D-League, says he already has grown accustomed to living here.

“My teammates and my team help me with many stuff, so I feel like I’m back home,” he said.

He even said playing in a small-market city like Milwaukee, as opposed to a bigger one like New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, has allowed him a better opportunity to get acclimated to life in the NBA.

“It’s very nice city,” he said. “It’s a city that doesn’t have many things to disturb you. It’s a city where you need to practice hard. I’m very happy I’m in Milwaukee.”

Antetokounmpo already has grown an inch In the few months since he was drafted and potentially could grow more, though he hopes he’s done growing, saying he 6-foot-10 is tall enough.

The Bucks hope Antetokounmpo, combined with a very high draft pick in the loaded 2014 draft, will give them a pair of young potential stars to build around. In the meantime, Antetokounmpo’s play has proven to Drew that his intriguing rookie is starting to feel like he belongs.

“It’s a huge hurdle, because you have guys who go through four years of college and get to this level and don’t pan out for whatever reason,” Drew said. “Guys who have stellar college careers who get to the NBA and aren’t able to get over that hump in the NBA. They fizzle out.

“This kid is 18 years old, and he’s doing things at 18 that a lot of guys who have been in this league two or three years haven’t been able to do. I think he’s shown everybody that he definitely belongs.”

Aldridge makes Blazers a must-see

LaMarcus Aldridge is playing as well as anyone in the NBA. Aldridge has 31 points and 25 rebounds as the Blazers beat the Rockets, 111-104, in Portland Thursday night, and outdueled Dwight Howard, who had 32 and 17.

The Blazers continue to roll along, in first place in the Western Conference with wins in 17 of their last 19 games after starting the season 2-2. It remains to be seen whether Portland can play enough defense (the Blazers currently rank 19th in the NBA in defensive efficiency, allowing 103.5 points per 100 possessions) to be true title contenders, but with the league’s best – and most beautiful – offense and Aldridge playing like a MVP candidate, they’re easily among the most fun teams to watch.

LaMarcus Aldridge put up 31 and 25 as the Blazers beat the Rockets.AP

Conference call: Keep them

The NBA’s deputy commissioner, Adam Silver, said earlier this week on the NBA’s new dedicated Sirius/XM channel the league’s competition committee will readdress the idea of divisions at some point in the near future, no doubt because of the pathetic play across the Eastern Conference this season. The Celtics are in first in the awful Atlantic Division at 10-14.

It’s hard to argue with eliminating divisions and just having the top eight teams in each conference get in the playoffs.

But this debate has led some to go one step further: Why not ban conferences entirely, making it one 30-team league with the top 16 making the playoffs?

Though it’s understandable why fans might rather see good teams in the West who won’t make it be rewarded with playoff berths instead of bad East teams, eliminating the conferences would be a dramatic over-correction. The NBA always has existed with two conferences, and with the champions from each conference playing in the Finals, and has a lot of glorious history with that setup, including all of the many Celtics-Lakers battles over the decades.

Throwing that out the window because of a short-term cycle would be a sad overreaction.

All-Star voters right on George

The first round of NBA All-Star voting result, which came out Thursday, offered a chance to look at how closely fans of the league are paying attention.

And having emerging Pacers superstar Paul George ahead of the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony in the Eastern Conference frontcourt voting is a credit to the public. George has become one of the league’s elite players.

Sure, there are things you could quibble with – Kevin Garnett having three times as many votes as Brook Lopez, for example, or Kobe Bryant with more votes than Stephen Curry or Chris Paul – but the game is about the fans, and fans want to see stars play, Kobe in particular. In the end, this first round of voting was a sign that fans are paying attention, and that can only be considered a good thing.