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NBA Fans Are Hammering Giannis Antetokounmpo Over Sham Triple-Double Against The Wizards

#Giannis Antetokounmpo
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Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is, for my money, the best player in the NBA these days.

There are plenty of arguments to be made for players like Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid and Luka Doncic. But Antetokounmpo at his absolute best is darn near unstoppable.

Antetokounmpo wasn’t exactly at his best on Sunday night. But he was still pretty dang good. The Greek Freak racked up 23 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds in a 117-111 victory over the Washington Wizards.

The performance marked his fourth triple-double of the year.

But the way he achieved the feat has some fans calling him out.

With just over 10 seconds to play, Antetokounmpo pulled down his ninth rebound of the game. He then dribbled the length of the floor as the clock expired. But rather than dribbling out the clock or dunking the ball, Antetokounmpo threw up a half-hearted “shot” attempt and grabbed his own rebound. That gave him his 10th rebound of the game and secured the triple-double.

Fans were not happy.

https://twitter.com/Grinch21188235/status/1632590634627354625?s=20

Others, however, respected Antetokounmpo’s hustle.

Giannis Antetokounmpo Admits To Stat Padding For Triple-Double

To his credit, Antetokounmpo admitted to the shameless stat-padding after the game.

β€œI was thinking about scoring the ball, but I feel like in those situations it’s best to kind of keep the ball,” Antetokounmpo said. β€œBut yeah, I just try to play the game smart and kind of stole one.”

The two-time NBA MVP is in the discussion for the third this year. He, Jokic and Embiid are the primary candidates for the award along with Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum.

But a clip like this may do more to hurt his odds than it does to help him in the eyes of voters. Jokic leads the league in triple-doubles with 25 and analysts regularly commend him for racking them up in the flow of the game.

As it turns out, the league itself frowned upon Antetokounmpo’s tactics.

The NBA rescinded the final rebound on the basis that he made no attempt to actually score, therefore the final “shot” was not actually a field goal attempt.

Justice is served.