Giannis Antetokounmpo Named to NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team

The NBA is celebrating it’s 75th anniversary this season, complete with the marketing strategy and limited edition merchandise that comes with it. As a part of the commemoration, the league is releasing it’s list of the Top 75 players to have played in the NBA, and Tuesday’s list included a familiar name: Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Giannis, 26, has a resume on par with some members of the Basketball Hall of Fame: two MVPs, one Finals MVP, a DPOY, an All Star Game MVP, an MIP, and plenty of appearances on the league’s All-NBA and All-Defensive Teams. The fact that his presence on the list is so widely accepted, so assumed that he would be one of the best 75 players in the history of the league, is something nobody would have expected as recently as five years ago. That’s how dominant Giannis has become.

Elsewhere on the list, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was (obviously) another notable member of the Milwaukee Bucks to make the list, alongside Oscar Robertson, as well as Nate Archibald, Moses Malone, and Dave Cowens (who each spent a single season with Milwaukee, so it counts.) The full list has been compiled by Marc Stein below:

You might be asking, “why am I just hearing about this now?” Fair question, it’s not like the league has done a lot to advertise the 75th Anniversary Team, at least not in ways that actually...reach people. In any case, you’re hearing about it now...unless you ignored this post entirely, which...fair enough, I guess.

In any case, this is another reminder of just how special Giannis Antetokounmpo is to the sport, which pales in comparison to how special he is to the franchise, the city of Milwaukee, and sports fans everywhere. Here’s hoping that the Antetokounmpo name is included on all the league’s anniversary teams, for as long as there is an NBA to celebrate.