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With all the trade rumors around Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, some are looking at his career thus far and reflecting on the totality of it. While it might seem that a trade involving Antetokounmpo and the Bucks won't happen, it's led to conversation around what would be the label if the star only won one championship.
On ESPN's “First Take,” Stephen A. Smith would say that Antetokounmpo would be an “underachiever” if he finished with one title in his career. Fellow analyst Jay Williams heavily disagreed with that statement, saying it's a “horrible” and “asinine.”
“That was one of your worst picks I've heard in a long time, that was horrible,” Williams said. “Like I'm the little brother that has this filled with the venom sometimes when you and I go at each other, and it's all love. But I think we really need to do a better job of reframing some of these conversations, right? And if you were to say that the franchise, the Milwaukee Bucks, have underachieved, or are the biggest underachievers with the talent of Giannis, fair.”
“But a guy who has a 50-point closeout game, a guy who's never chased any of these Dream Team scenarios,” Williams continued. “A guy who's a Finals MVP, a guy who's a multi-time all-star, all-NBA, all-everything, global face of the game, the fact that he brought an NBA championship to Milwaukee in the midst of the fire that he did, to call him an underachiever, I just think is an asinine comment.”
“That was one of your worst takes I've heard in a long time, man. That was horrible… I think we really need to do a better job of reframing some of these conversations.”
Jay Williams put Stephen A. Smith on BLAST for labeling Giannis an “underachiever”pic.twitter.com/wh8BIv9K54 https://t.co/GywgOkT3jM
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) June 16, 2025
Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo is defended by Jay Williams
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As a return to the Bucks for Antetokounmpo seems likely at this point, one has to wonder which side they agree with in regards to Smith and Williams. There's no denying that Antetokounmpo has impacted the NBA and the city of Milwaukee tremendously, especially bringing a title.
Williams would also point out how other great players won one title, but to Smith's logic, they'd be underachievers.
“Because then, if we go through history, we're calling a lot of these other great players who have won one NBA Championship, which, by the way, you know how hard it is to win a championship. It's one of the hardest,” Williams said. “So you're calling Allen Iverson an underachiever. You're calling Dirk [Nowitzki] an underachiever. You're calling KG [Kevin Garnett] an underachiever. You just called Oscar Robertson an underachiever because they've all got one championship.”
It remains to be seen what Antetokounmpo's future with the Bucks looks like, but there's no doubt he'll continue to achieve heights in the NBA.
