Miami \u2013 Two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo said Thursday he believes the Miami Heat are his best chance at another title.<\/p>\n
And as team president Pat Riley proudly introduced his latest blockbuster acquisition, he hinted that Antetokounmpo could soon have more star power to back him up in that pursuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe landed the plane,\u201d Riley said of completing the deal to bring Antetokounmpo to town. \u201cNow there\u2019s another one we have to land.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was a reference to the Heat\u2019s continued pursuit of free agent superstar LeBron James, who led the team to back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013.<\/p>\n
The Heat are reportedly in the mix as James decides where he\u2019ll play next after announcing his departure from the Los Angeles Lakers in June.<\/p>\n
James himself remained mum on the topic on Thursday when he appeared at a fan festival in New York.<\/p>\n
With the situation still murky, Riley stressed that the Heat were celebrating the arrival of Antetokounmpo as a move that makes them contenders now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not here guaranteeing anything,\u201d Riley said. \u201cBut we want to win. This is the team that we have right now, and I\u2019m happy with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riley said the Heat nearly landed Antetokounmpo by the February trade deadline.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old has played all 13 of his NBA seasons with the Bucks, leading them to a title that snapped a 50-year drought.<\/p>\n
The 10-time NBA All-Star was the 2019 and 2020 NBA MVP and the 2021 NBA Finals MVP. He averaged 24.1 points, 9.9 rebounds, five assists, 1.2 blocked shots and 1.1 steals a game overall for Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
Last season, he averaged 27.6 points, 9.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists, but the Bucks failed to reach the playoffs, and tensions grew between Antetokounmpo and Milwaukee management.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I\u2019ve accomplished a lot of things in my career, but one of my goals is to win another championship,\u201d Antetokounmpo said. \u201cI feel like this is the best route for me to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t shy away from the idea of instant expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thrive under pressure,\u201d Antetokounmpo said. \u201cI need pressure. I think to go to my next level, I\u2019ve got to get out of my comfort zone, and I feel like Miami was the place for me to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
He admitted leaving Milwaukee was difficult. It\u2019s one reason he\u2019ll play in a No. 7 jersey rather than the No. 34 he wore as a Buck.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like 34 holds so much weight and has so much history,\u201d Antetokounmpo said. \u201cOut of respect to the organization that drafted me and that I played for 13 years, I decided to leave that number there and start a new chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami \u2013 Two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo said Thursday he believes the Miami Heat are his best chance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[359,3013,8173,355,59892,99],"class_list":["post-767610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-lebron-james","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba","tag-pat-riley","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}