Skip Bayless says if Kevin Durant had hit one of the greatest shots in NBA history in Game 7 over Giannis, we would be having a different conversation.
Much has been said about the legitimacy of Giannis and the Bucks’s 2021 NBA championship. This is, of course, due to the fact that their ECSF opponents, the Brooklyn Nets, were riddled with injuries and guys like Kyrie Irving and James Harden were either out or not themselves upon returning to the floor. Some forget that Spencer Dinwiddie was also unavailable due to a partially torn ACL.
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In all fairness, that Brooklyn-Nets series is the only argument that could be used against Giannis Antetokounmpo and company when it comes to them winning the chip. Other than them, they played completely healthy teams in the Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks, and the Phoenix Suns.
There were guys like Victor Oladipo, Deandre Hunter, and Dario Saric that were ruled out but these weren’t players who are the caliber of swinging a series in their team’s favor.
Giannis and the Bucks wouldn’t even be in the conversation if Kevin Durant hit the game winner over them says Skip Bayless.
One of the biggest what ifs from this Playoffs that certainly has bigger implications on the course of NBA history and where multiple players’ legacies stand, is Kevin Durant’s regulation game-tying shot in Game 7 of the ECSF. The shot was a matter of inches and if it weren’t for his feet ever so slightly touching the arc, the Nets would’ve been up by one and potentially advanced to the East Finals.
Skip Bayless seems to want to remind us all about this incredible sliding doors moment as he took to Twitter to say that Giannis wouldn’t be in the conversation right now if KD had hit that shot.
Technically, he isn’t wrong. Why would fans be clamoring about Giannis and the Milwaukee Bucks at the end of July when they had gotten eliminated some time in June. So yes, if Milwaukee didn’t make it out of the second round, no one would be talking about them because why would they be.
At least the Bucks didn’t benefit from a slew of injuries as egregious as what the Suns dealt with. Every single team they faced up until they faced the Bucks had either their best player or their second player out for the series due to injury. The uproar about an asterisk championship would be 10x louder if Chris Paul and the Suns capitalized on their 2-0 series lead.
