Giannis Antetokounmpo is one of the most inspiring stories in NBA history.
It's absolutely absurd that ESPN's Stephen A. Smith could find a reason to call him an "underachiever," especially in the context of saying the Milwaukee Bucks legend needs a second championship ring to avoid the label.
Give us a break.
Giannis has made the most of a life where nothing was given to him.
He was the son of Nigerian immigrants in Athens, Greece, where the family struggled to make ends meet. Antetokounmpo and his brother Thanasis would sell goods on the streets to try and get a bit of extra cash.
Even when Antetokounmpo took to basketball more fully, he was a bit like Bambi, with long and spindly limbs and not yet a mastery of his body.
The Bucks found him toiling in the Greek second division and somehow saw enough there to make him the No. 15 overall pick in his draft class.
Antetokounmpo came to the NBA oblivious to U.S. culture and not yet physically ready to make a consistent impact on the league.
But through it all, Antetokounmpo had no choice but to work hard, at every one of those stops.
And in that hard work, he turned himself into one of the best players in the history of basketball.
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Underachiever? Are you kidding?
He brought Milwaukee its first NBA title in a half-century.
He made one of the greatest plays in NBA Finals history when he made an impossible recovery to block an alley-oop dunk attempt by DeAndre Ayton.
He dropped 50 points — yes, 50 — in the clinching Game 6 of that 2021 NBA Finals series.
This is one of the most legendary players the NBA has ever seen. He's grown as much as anyone from the start of his career until now.
Antetokounmpo has achieved, and achieved, and achieved some more. There's no "under" about it.
Smith has a lot of bad takes. This is one of his worst.
Antetokounmpo has put everything he has into each and every day of an incredible journey. There's nothing disappointing about his story, just inspiration.