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UVA hoops fans could learn from Giannis Antetokounmpo on the concept of failure

Chris Graham
Giannis Antetokounmpo
(© ernando febrian – Shutterstock)

I wouldn’t expect many of the UVA basketball fans that I interact with to share Giannis Antetokounmpo’s lighting-rod perspective on failure in sports.

“There’s no failure in sports. There’s good days, bad days, some days you are able to be successful, some days you’re not. Some days it’s your turn, some days it’s not your turn. That’s what sports is about. You don’t always win, so other people are going to win, simple as that,” Antetokounmpo said this week after his Milwaukee Bucks, the favorite going into the playoffs to win the 2023 NBA title, were bounced out by the eighth-seeded Miami Heat.

I’m not even thinking here, relating Antetokounmpo to UVA hoops, about 2018, and UMBC, though there are parallels.

The Heat had to win their way into the main playoff draw via the play-in tournament, and only did that after closing out Chicago on a 15-1 run in the final 2:54.

Then Antetokounmpo went down in Game 1 of their quarterfinal series with a back injury that forced him to miss two and a half games.

That one reminds me of how the 2018 UVA team that was the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament had to play without De’Andre Hunter, a future #4 draft pick.

Still should’ve beaten UMBC, just as the Bucks still should’ve beaten the Heat.

As Antetokounmpo said, hey, you don’t always win.

But no, actually, his comments this week had me thinking more about how the 2022-2023 season ended for Virginia, which went 25-8, shared the ACC regular-season title with Miami, which went on to earn a Final Four berth, made it to the ACC Tournament championship game, but things finished with a first-round NCAA Tournament exit.

The bulk of the people who comment on my columns and Facebook posts characterized the season as a failure because of that early exit.

The question to Antetokounmpo came from came from Eric Nehm, a writer for The Athletic who has covered Antetokounmpo since his debut in the NBA in 2015.

That’s an important preface to the more personal part of Antetokounmpo’s answer.

“Oh my god, you asked me the same question last year, Eric … OK?” Antetokounmpo said. “Do you get a promotion every year in your job? No, right? So, every year you work is a failure? Yes, or no? No. Every year you work, you work towards something, towards a goal, which is to get a promotion, to be able to take care of your family, provide a house for them, or take care of your parents. You work towards a goal. It’s not a failure. It’s steps to success.

“I don’t want to make it personal,” Antetokounmpo said. “There’s always steps to it. Michael Jordan played 15 years, won six championships. The other nine years was a failure? That’s what you’re telling me. I’m asking you a question, yes or no? Exactly. So, why did you ask me that question? It’s the wrong question.”

It’s a good point about Michael Jordan. You always hear how he was 6-for-6 in the NBA Finals; what doesn’t come up when people talk about 6-for-6 is those other nine seasons.

With UVA hoops, the narrative advanced by clods like “Towering Fraud” Pat Forde before 2019 was that Tony Bennett would never win a championship because of his style of play, and since 2019, the story is now that, you know, OK, great, he won in 2019, but that was a fluke.

I try to remind people that only one team wins its last game – OK, if you count the NIT and CBI, and I think there’s another one of those tournaments, it’s more than one, but only one that counts – and that the other 360+ teams that start practice in October, play games for five months, work through injuries and hours spent on buses and planes and trying to keep up with classes and girlfriends and making sure to touch base with mom and dad every so often, they all finish the hard way.

Are the other 360+ efforts thus failures because they didn’t end with nets being cut down on a Monday night in April?

“We’re going to come back next year, try to be better, try to build good habits, try to play better. Not having 10 days straight of playing bad basketball, and hopefully we can win a championship” Antetokounmpo said.

I’ll finish this with a bit of perspective from Antetokounmpo that should relate specifically to the UVA hoops fan base.

“So, 50 years from 1970-2021 that we didn’t win a championship, it was 50 years of failure?” he said. “No, it was not. It was steps to it. We were able to win one, hopefully we’re able to win another one.”

We were able to win one, hopefully we’re able to win another one.

That’s all you can hope for, honestly.

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019, and Team of Destiny: Inside Virginia Basketball’s Run to the 2019 National Championship, and The Worst Wrestling Pay-Per-View Ever, published in 2018. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].