Milwaukee Bucks guard Malcolm Brogdon, a rookie, has played well in his first NBA playoff campaign.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Inside their practice facility in St. Francis, Wisc., the flags of six countries hang on the wall, representing the men who make up the plucky young Milwaukee Bucks team that is turning heads in the NBA playoffs.
A U.S. flag hangs alongside ones from Greece and Nigeria – for Giannis Antetokounmpo, a kid raised in Athens in a family of Nigerian immigrants and the freakishly athletic 22-year-old taking the NBA by storm. There's one for Bosnia and Herzegovina for Mirza Teletovic, an Australian flag for both the invaluable veteran Matthew Dellavedova and the surprising rookie Thon Maker – who is also represented by the Sudanese flag.
Few would have bet on this youthful Bucks squad – seeded No. 6 in the East – to advance past the No. 3-seeded Toronto Raptors. Now up 2-1 in the series after winning Game 3 by 27 points, they are presenting tremendous challenges to the more playoff-seasoned Raps, especially to all-stars DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. The Bucks are showing off talent, team work and strategy, coming together at precisely the right moment.
Coach Jason Kidd preaches to them about every person staying in the "character" the team has constructed for them.
"If they stay in character as a team, that movie is great to watch. If they get out of character, it's not a very good movie," Kidd said after Friday's practice. "So we talk about that a lot – staying in character."
The leading man and action hero of this movie is definitely Antetokounmpo, the uniquely talented 6-foot-11 star who is built much like a real-life superhero and may some day be the world's best player. He defies double and triple teams with his long stride, can be used as a point guard and an inbound passer, he bullies through the paint, dishes expert passes, beats defenders in transition, is a prolific rebounder and shot-blocker, and throws down some of the NBA's most stunning dunks.
Nike dropped a new ad this week, putting Antetokounmpo's fascinating life into a one-minute video – the ultimate out-of-nowhere story.
He was born in 1994 in Athens to Nigerian immigrants. He and his brothers peddled sunglasses on the streets to help their family pay for food. He picked up a basketball for the first time in 2007, was in the Greek A2 League by 2012 and drafted by the Bucks 15th over all in 2013. The ad ends with the voice of the precocious star:
"Eventually everyone is gonna know my name."
That name, by the way, is pronounced YAHN-iss ahn-teh-toe-KUHN-poe."
He had the No. 9 selling jersey in the NBA this season, and his No. 34 jersey is the one most prominently worn around town and displayed on store-front mannequins, who are also wearing cheese-head hats.
"He's just getting started on his journey. He's only 22 years old," Kidd said. "He's going to take the state of Wisconsin on a ride, and the city of Milwaukee, and we should all sign up."
He leads his team in countless statistical categories, but it's not just the Greek Freak who is leading to the Bucks' success. The team defence has been right on point. Khris Middleton has had a hot hand. Malcolm Brogdon is the floor general, Maker and Greg Monroe the powerful tandem at centre, and Tony Snell the shut-down defender. And former Cavalier Dellavedova, who has been setting masterful screens, is sharing the role of veteran leader with Jason Terry.
Few might have anticipated that the team, which lost Jabari Parker to injury this season, could be playing like this now. They caught fire in March and went on to win 14 of their 18 games in that action-packed month, making Kidd the Eastern Conference coach of the month.
The Bucks have asked Snell to guard DeRozan with grit. Monroe was a guy they asked to come off the bench at centre and he answered big time in that role. Maker is now a starting centre – the rookie who was playing high-school ball at Orangeville's Athlete Institute a year ago and was playing five minutes a game a few months back.
"I just had to trust and now it's paying off," Maker said. "I was thinking I have five guaranteed minutes, and I've got to make the most of it – and it kept building up – I just had to clock it in and go as hard as I could in that five – and [the minutes] just kept going up and up."
Maker took great motivation from a speech Dellavedova and Terry made to their teammates this week, challenging everyone to work as hard as the rookies, Maker and Brogdon. The Bucks are the first team to start two rookies in a playoff game since Golden State did it with Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli in 2013.
At their practice facility on the grounds of a Catholic seminary, a 15-minute drive from downtown Milwaukee, the Bucks were met by a large crowd of reporters. Their excitement was muted, but their pride in how they're performing rang clear.
"This is what I envisioned," Maker said. "Us using our length, flying around on the defensive end – right now it's all coming together."
A new stadium is being constructed downtown beside the current one, and a new practice facility will be there, too. It makes you wonder what kind of things this team will accomplish there when it opens the 2018-19 NBA season.