Giannis Antetokounmpo recently lashed out at The Athletic’s Eric Nehm after their first-round exit. The Bucks, the top seed in the East, were knocked out by the play-in Miami Heat. Following the exit, Nehm asked Giannis if he perceived this season as a failure. However, Giannis reacted harshly to the question. In light of his controversial statement, Kobe Bryant‘s press conference after the Lakers’ Game 6 loss in the 2008 NBA Finals has gone viral. Bryant, visibly disappointed, considered the season a failure despite winning the MVP.
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The Milwaukee Bucks’ loss is as surprising as things can get in the NBA. They were the top seed in the East and looked unstoppable. However, Miami Heat stunned them when it mattered the most.
Giannis’ reaction to Eric’s question following this clearly touched a nerve. For any athlete, losing in such a manner is not easy. But how you react to it certainly defines your mentality. Kobe Bryant proved that in his 2008 post-game interview.
Kobe Bryant, unlike Giannis Antetokounmpo, acknowledged the Lakers’ season was a failure
In 2008, the Boston Celtics freshly assembled Big 3 met with the Bryant-led Lakers in the NBA Finals. Boston arguably had the best defense in the league and the trio of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett proved a little too much for the Lakers.
Kobe, known for his extreme competitiveness, could not overcome the lethal Celtics and lost the Finals 4-2. After game 6, he sat down in the press conference, visibly affected by the loss.
During the post-conference interview after the 2008 NBA Finals Game 6, a reporter asked Bryant how he categorized the season after winning the MVP and leading the team to the Finals. In response (from the 2:30 mark), Bryant claimed that winning the MVP was not the goal. The goal was to win a championship. Losing the Finals in game 6, therefore, was a failure according to the gold and purple’s legend.
Bryant: “The goal was to win a championship. It wasn’t to win an MVP or anything like that, it’s to win a championship. So, in that aspect, we failed.”
This is completely opposite of Antetokounmpo’s reaction. Where Giannis directed his frustration at the reporter, Kobe Bryant readily acknowledged the loss as a failure.
Was Giannis Antetokounmpo wrong to lash out at Eric Nehm?
Eric’s question might have been repetitive. As Giannis pointed out, Nehm had asked the same question last season. But in all fairness, this question is to be expected by a team like the Bucks, especially since last season.
They were champions in 2021. In 2022, they lost to the Celtics in Round 2. This season, they lost to the Miami Heat in round 1. For a team that won 58 games and had a 70.7% win percentage, losing in the first round is not exactly a success.
Antetokounmpo’s reaction was understandable in the context of brewing frustration after the surprising loss. However, it was clearly misdirected frustration. Instead of telling Nehm what success meant to him, he should have just clarified that in the context of winning a championship, the Bucks certainly failed.
