Giannis Antetokounmpo returns to drop 50 points in a win over the Pacers: ‘Man, just watching greatness’

MILWAUKEE — Giannis Antetokounmpo caught the ball in the backcourt at the opposite 3-point line. He dribbled it four times down the left side of the floor to get to the frontcourt, where Pacers forward Terry Taylor met him at the 3-point line. With the ball in his left hand, Antetokounmpo slowed down and dribbled in between his legs from his left to his right hand and then immediately back from his right to his left, hesitated and then exploded towards the left baseline. Taylor backpedaled and as he did, Antetokounmpo pulled up.

Swish.

As Antetokounmpo made his way down the floor, he stretched all five of his fingers on his right hand far apart to signal “five” and then formed a small circle with those same fingers to make a “zero.” He was well aware of what he had just done, but at that point, it would have been impossible to ignore it.

“Obviously, you can hear a bunch of people in the crowd like, ‘Giannis get 50! Giannis get 50!'” Antetokounmpo said. “You look up. You have 48. But at the end of the day, I don’t care. Obviously, it’s a nice feeling to have 50. You’ll always remember it, but I care about winning. I want to win games.”

“As long as I’m winning, my team is winning, I’m good. 50s, 40s, 30s, all those things, accolades, they’re going to come, but they only come with winning. If your main focus, your number one thing is winning, you do whatever it takes to finish the game. Sometimes, you gotta shoot more. Sometimes, you gotta defend more. Everything else comes, but if you’re thinking about, ‘Oh, let me get 50. Let me get mine.’ It doesn’t work that way. You gotta always focus on winning.