Giannis Antetokounmpo quashes rumours about beef with James Harden by showing the framed jersey of 2017 MVP in an interview with the GQ
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2020-21 Finals MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo is clearly past whatever beef he had with Brooklyn Nets’ James Harden. The two have been passing jabs at each other since 2019 making every head to head match up a lot more interesting for the fans.
The Greek Freak defeated Brooklyn Nets in the playoffs last year. However, James Harden played with a hamstring injury while Kyrie Irving was completely ruled out. Milwaukee was fortunate for that matchup because the injured Brooklyn Nets pushed them to 7 games.
They barely stood a chance against a healthy Nets team. Bucks ultimately won the championship ship over Phoenix Suns in the Finals and ended the 50-year drought.
They’ve had a shabby start to the 2021-22 season while dealing with injuries and health protocols. Giannis, in his recent interview with the GQ, discussed his future plans. He hinted at the possibility of leaving Milwaukee somewhere down the line. There were some light-hearted moments in the interview as well when he shared his jersey collection. That’s when he denied any bad blood between him and the beard.
A timeline of the Giannis Antetokounmpo-James Harden beef
This whole thing seemingly starter when Houston Rockets decided to post a passive-aggressive tweet in response to Giannis winning MVP over Harden.
The latter had a monstrous scoring season and led his team to 4th seed in the western conference. Antetokounmpo on the other hand got the Bucks #1 position in the east which most likely was the deciding point.
This did not sit well with the Rockets or Harden, who later reacted to the snub in an interview. His anger wasn’t directed towards Giannis particularly but the fact that he came second in the MVP race despite having a great season. “I went out there and did what I was supposed to do at a high level. There are only a few other seasons that anybody has ever done that before.”
NBA fully milked the situation by scheduling a season opener between Milwaukee Bucks and Houston Rockets in the subsequent season. Harden went 2-13 from the field and refused to give Bucks’ defence, ranked no.1, any credit. Until then Antetokounmpo hadn’t responded to any of these comments by Harden or the Rockets organization.
In the 2020 All-Star game, the 2x MVP poked where it hurt. He hinted that Harden was a ball hog, a popular media narrative, and passed on him during the draft. The beard had the last laugh as Team LeBron ultimately won the game. Giannis went at it again after the game discrediting Harden’s defence.
This led to James Harden’s famous interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols where he called Giannis ‘Run and Dunk’ man. He insinuated that being 7-foot tall and dunking takes no skill at all. Giannis never responded to that himself but he let his championship trophy do the talking. In addition, he revealed that he finds James Harden the most difficult player to guard in an Instagram Live.
The GQ interview will most likely end all rumours about the feud unless we see its revival in the playoffs when these two teams meet in the postseason.
