Why Did Giannis Want the Bucks Game Ball So Bad? To ‘Appreciate Greatness’

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a Milwaukee Bucks franchise-record 64 points in a 140-126 win over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night, though that was hardly the center of attention inside Fiserv Forum once the final buzzer sounded.

The two-time NBA MVP engaged in an animated back-and-forth with Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton and other members of the Pacers organization in a dispute over which team would keep the game ball. Things escalated from there. Antetokounmpo raced toward the visitor’s locker room in an effort to get the ball back. A scuffle ensued between the teams in one of the arena’s hallways.

By the time the kerfuffle ended, it was unclear who even ended up with the ball in question.

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said postgame that the team wanted the ball to commemorate Oscar Tshiebwe’s first NBA point. The “Greek Freak” also clearly desired it, though he said his intention was to gift it to teammate Damian Lillard, who hit his 2,451st career 3-pointer on Wednesday, passing Kyle Korver for fifth-most in NBA history.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks, on Wednesday leaves the court following a game against the Indiana Pacers at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The “Greek Freak” scored a franchise-record 64 points in the win. Stacy Revere/Getty Images/Getty Images

“I understand. When you score your first point in the NBA, you want to have the ball or whatever the case may be,” Antetokounmpo said. “But at the end of the day, you’re talking about the guy that just skipped Kyle Korver in the all-time list. In my opinion, we should all stop what we’re doing and appreciate greatness.”

One video appeared to show the actual game ball being collected by a member of the Bucks organization as the game ended. Carlisle said the Pacers actually had a reserve ball.

So, who ended up with the real game ball? Who knows.

“I have no idea. I’m not going to lie,” a still-heated Antetokounmpo said at his postgame press conference. “I really don’t know. I have a ball, but I don’t know if it’s the game ball. It doesn’t feel like the game ball to me. It feels like a brand-new ball. I can tell. I played, what, [37] minutes today. I know how the game ball felt.”

But to Antetokounmpo’s point, this avoidable situation off the court overshadowed some greatness on it. Lillard moved up an all-time list, Tshiebwe hit a major personal milestone, while the “Greek Freak” put together one of the more dominant individual performances in recent NBA history.

Antetokounmpo scored his 64 points on 20-of-28 shooting from the field and paired them with 14 rebounds, four steals and three assists.

The seven-time All-Star scored the most points without making a 3-pointer since Shaq. His 64 points surpassed Michael Redd’s team record (57 points) set in 2006 and his own previous high of 55 points. The 6-foot-11 point-forward is only the fifth player in NBA history to score 60+ points on a 70+ percent field goal percentage, per the league. He is also the first player in league history to make at least 20 field goals and 20 free throws in a game while shooting at least 70 percent on each—plus, 64 is the most points scored with fewer than 30 field goal attempts in a game, per ESPN.

“He’s an unstoppable player,” Bucks coach Adrian Griffin said of Antetokounmpo. “You can’t guard him one-on-one. You’ve got some really good guys surrounding him, but at the end of the day, it’s all him. His talent. His ability. His will. He has an incredible will to win, and he’ll do whatever it takes to win. I’m just coaching the game, and one of the coaches told me, ‘Yeah, Giannis has 50.’ I had no idea. But wow, what a great performance.”

Read more sports news from Newsweek

A chippy game may have been inevitable between these Eastern Conference foes.

The Pacers entered the contest 2-0 over the Bucks this season. That includes eliminating Milwaukee from the In-Season Tournament. Haliburton even hit Lillard’s “Dame Time” celebration in that semifinal win.

Bucks players didn’t seem to appreciate that in the moment. And multiple on-court altercations occurred this time around before the postgame drama. These teams will meet again on January 1 and 3—the first meeting in Milwaukee and then in Indiana. Both teams seem inclined to keep their disagreements with each other on the court next time around.

And maybe more “greatness” will be in store.

“Unfortunate situation,” Carlisle said. “We don’t need the official game ball. There’s two game balls there. We could’ve taken the other one. But it didn’t need to escalate to that. Really just unfortunate. Third game we played these guys within 2 1/2 [weeks], three weeks, so things are heated with the competition, and I understand all that. But for it to come into the hallway, it didn’t need to happen that way.”

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

“);jQuery(this).remove()}) jQuery(‘.start-slider’).owlCarousel({loop:!1,margin:10,nav:!0,items:1}).on(‘changed.owl.carousel’,function(event){var currentItem=event.item.index;var totalItems=event.item.count;if(currentItem===0){jQuery(‘.owl-prev’).addClass(‘disabled’)}else{jQuery(‘.owl-prev’).removeClass(‘disabled’)} if(currentItem===totalItems-1){jQuery(‘.owl-next’).addClass(‘disabled’)}else{jQuery(‘.owl-next’).removeClass(‘disabled’)}})}})})