Retired England-based basketball player, Ovie Soko is backing Milwaukee Bucks of America’s Nigerian-born star, Giannis Adetokunbo (Antetokounmpo) to emulate a record feat achieved by Hakeem ‘The Dream’ Olajuwon in winning the most valuable player and best defensive star awards during a single season of the prestigious National Basketball Association (NBA), megasportsarena.com reports.
It means Antetokounmpo would also join the rare class of players winning the MVP prize back to-back, and then claim a second gong to boot within the same campaign, but Soko, a British former international, says his fellow-Nigerian-born basketball star, who plays for the national team of Greece, is capable of achieving it.
Although Olajuwon is one of only two NBA players that have ever achieved the feat of claiming the NBA’s MVP and best defensive player awards in one season, Soko, who played for England at national team level and was a veteran in the British Basketball League (BBL) before retiring, is rooting for ‘The Greek Freak’ to pull off the rare feat this time out.
Dramatically, the feat has been achieved before only by the legendary pair of Michael Jordan (1987/88) and Olajuwon (1993/94), which adds another feeling of camaraderie to the story for Soko, as it would fill the milestone with two players of Nigerian background should Giannis adds his name to that exclusive list, and his compatriot believe it is very much likely.
Soko wrote in his column for Sky Sports: “With Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year, I think it is very possible we see Giannis Antetokounmpo pick up both awards. That would be a great reward for a special year in which he has led the Milwaukee Bucks offensively and defensively.
“What the Bucks have been able to do is so highly predicated off Giannis’ unique abilities and gifts. Take a look at the best plays from Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks from this season’s NBA
“Giannis could take two end-of-season awards away from Lakers players. LeBron James is his competition in the MVP race while Anthony Davis is one of his main rivals – along with Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert – for Defensive Player of the Year.
“I do not think winning the MVP is a priority for LeBron. If he wanted to go out every year with the goal of winning it, everyone knows he could do it. His performance this year has given him a new kind of respect. The guy is 35 years old and no one would be angry if he was the MVP, it would not be wild.
“NBA analysts Sam Mitchell and Steve Smith debate if LeBron James can mount a late-season challenge to Giannis Antetokounmpo in the race for MVP? But, on the strength of the numbers – individual stats and team wins – you have to give MVP to Giannis.
“Similarly, you could legitimately give Defensive Player of the Year to Utah’s Rudy Gobert or the Lakers’ Anthony Davis. I see the Lakers as the best defensive team in the NBA – we have not seen them get anywhere near their ceiling yet but they have still been special on that end of the floor and Davis is major reason for that.
“How good has defending MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo been this season? His astonishing numbers do not lie. But the Bucks are able to run their defensive system in a different way to most teams because of Antetokounmpo. He is one of the most mobile seven-footers the world has ever seen!
“When you look at a guy like Gobert, he changes the game defensively against most teams in a traditional way but he has not bought a different way to defend in the way Antetokounmpo has. Gobert’s approach is no different to the dominant big-man defenders we have seen in the past.
“With Giannis, how many times have we seen a 7ft defensive player earn as much credit for his mobility as well as his size? That adds a different element. In certain situations, Giannis is able to do things that 6ft 5in guys are doing.
“If Kyrie Irving, for example, gets Rudy Gobert on an island on the perimeter, it leaves the traditional big man in no man’s land. In that same situation, Antetokounmpo’s mobility allows the Bucks to take that one-on-one risk against a player like Irving. He can use his lateral quickness so keep up with a perimeter player and use his height to force a tough shot.
“When Giannis is a factor defensively on the perimeter as well as in the paint, it’s a completely different game. That, for me, is why Giannis edges out Davis and Gobert for the award. Winning Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season is something only achieved by two players before – Michael Jordan (1987-88) and Hakeem Olajuwon (1993-94).”
