I wonder what it’s like to have either communicable skills that another country would desire or enough spoken-for wealth that it doesn’t matter that you’re a useless piece of ...
That’s mostly immaterial, though. My point is that if there is a basketball team in the world, Giannis can play for it if he wants to. Mostly. He is good enough to be The Guy wherever he chooses to install himself, both in this wonderful\* country or wherever else he may choose to go. The middle school near me has some nice outdoor courts. I’m sure if Giannis was like “I’m going to only play basketball here for the rest of my life,” as long as he was creative enough, he could probably make it work.
Where it gets complicated is the NBA. In the NBA, you may or may not know, you can only play on one team during any given game. This is known as The Nick Young Rule. Back in the day, having Nick Young on your team was considered such a boon that players, staff, and ownership would fight in the locker rooms for the chance to have Nick Young play for them.
This didn’t result in any catastrophic injuries, but some players’ careers were shortened by the prospect of teaming with Nick Young.
Nowadays, things are more civil. If a player is changing teams, it’s probably through trade or free agency. The second apron has made physical altercations like this all but impossible.
…what?
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Right. Giannis. Okay. [According to Doug Smith at the Toronto Star](https://www.thestar.com/sports/doug-smiths-sports-blog/raptors-mailbag-shai-gilgeous-alexander-vs-steve-nash-and-the-case-to-trade-for-giannis/article_9d14661b-c351-443e-ad2e-c8e22723ecea.html), “I do know there is mutual interest between Antetokounmpo and the Raptors.” Furthermore, “I would make the case that a logjam at the wings makes them deep enough that if they had to pay even two out of Gradey Dick, Ochai Agbaji, Ja’Kobe Walter, RJ Barrett, Jonathan Mogbo would still leave enough to fill out a pretty good team with promising young players still developing.”
Your mileage on that concept may vary, but Giannis is a special type of competitor. A different type of incisive mind than MJ or LeBron. MJ seemed like he wanted to inflict pain. LeBron seems like he’s an ever-evolving supercomputer. Giannis seems like he does all the work in advance so that when the moment to jump on a weak pattern comes, he’s there. Ready. The fact his mind, his hand, his fingertips are moving to where they are is less the force of will than the force of habit. His hand was intercepting that pass because he’s done it time and time before.
So yeah, maybe he sees something in Toronto. The fit next to Scottie Barnes seems a little clunky to me, but also kimchi and peanut butter seem like a good combination in my mind, so maybe just ignore me. I stop existing as soon as you stop reading.