humanrefutation wrote:I think it's a fairly simple disagreement.
You have some fans, like myself, who believe Giannis is amazing and worthy of praise and adoration, but also has flaws that are worth critiquing in the hope that he gets better.
You have others, those Giannis fanboys like greekbuck and 3Diamantidis, who believe Giannis is so great that any critiques of his play are a personal affront to the mythology they've built around him. So, instead of engaging with those critiques, they respond by lashing out in defense of Giannis's honor - as if any criticism of him demeans his status as a great player. It comes from a place of insecurity, as they've invested so much emotion in Giannis that they cannot engage with any possibility that he's anything less than a superstar.
The problem with that second group is that they're overly defensive in the way they engage with this topic. This is because they are not used to watching greatness, and they don't understand that EVERY. GREAT. PLAYER. has dealt with the critiques of their greatness as soon as they begin to show signs of it - LeBron was considered a poor shooter and too scared in big moments, Durant was considered soft. Kobe and Westbrook were (are?) considered black holes with poor shooting numbers. Harden's defense. Shaq's inability to be effective outside of the paint and his overall laziness in preparing for the season. Iverson was a ball hog who didn't practice. Jordan was considered a scorer who couldn't carry a team to win. The list goes on.
Being afforded greatness doesn't mean you don't face scrutiny - it means that the scrutiny will become so much more intense. You fanboys and fangirls might get annoyed with some of the posters here, but I wonder how you'll react when those criticisms become part of a national/international conversation that dominates discussions in spaces a lot more prominent than our board. Because guess what? That's what's about to happen next. That's the price you pay for trying to become a superstar.
Reading the boards every once in 2-3 months isn't the best scenario when you want to claim that someone is fanboy.
I seriously doubt if you have ever criticized Giannis flaws more than me or some of the guys you label as fanboys.
I'm not expecting you to read all my 2,3k posts(lol---i wouldn't do it) but if you had read some of them from time to time maybe you could have see things a little bit different.
Because it was us who ran to calm things down every time that a buck fan was getting on GB or PC forums, claiming that Giannis was better than lebron at the same age, it was us who claimed that Giannis was NOT a PG simply because he lacked the vision of a true PG, it was us who were upset with all the charging fouls Giannis had(and made him lead the league in commited fouls for 2,5 seasons) and finally it was us who said that Giannis was NOT a superstar simply because superstars are not made in the RS. It's Playoffs that matter.
Where were you guys when some bucks fans clearly had this team as ...4th seed in the East in January(based on Giannis performances)? I said back then that this team is a .500 team and it won't matter at all if Giannis will have a top5 season because he and his team are inexperienced and way too inconsistent. Do you believe now(3 months later) that this is not a .500 team?
Where was my mistake? Nowhere.
OF COURSE and i started laughing when some of the guys here went to the exact opposite edge and started posting that he is not playing well, that he's a net negative and that the bucks will get to the playoffs because of middleton, brogdon, maker and the global warming lol.
A guy who is having 32,31,28,31 pts in 4 games with 2-3 of those games being the top rebounder, blocker, thief and he misses a TD a couple of times for 1 assist is not playing well?
What exactly do you expect me to do if not laugh?
What exactly are your expectations? Giannis having a quadruple double, break all records and lead the bucks to a HC advantage?
Well, he can't do it. And if that's the criteria for the fanbase to claim that someone is the team's best and most valuable player, then Giannis is not your guy.
I blame Giannis for all this. Because he is the one that got expectations so high.
I DO believe that a large part of the fansbase hasn't tasted any kind of success all these years. That the fanbase sometimes clearly doesn't know what it wants.
You can't claim that a guy is better than lebron(lol) and 2 months later that he is having a huge slump when his numbers(based on those numbers you claimed he was better than lebron lol!) are almost the same!
I've posted so many times that the bucks need a PG, when many here claim that the ball must be only on Giannis hands to run the offense(when he clearly CAN'T do it like a true PG---He doesn't know how to run a PnR--ain't that a problem?)
I AM a Giannis fan and i'm damn proud for this.
I've watched his efforts 4 yrs now and i feel happy w his development.
That doesn't mean i can't be harsh on him when he is playing like *****, but it also doesn't mean that i won't laugh and i won't become extremely ironic with guys who post incredibly lazy things against him when he's clearlty the best player even when they are criticizing him. Because in the end that's the difference: When Giannis is bad he can still be good in other things aside his O(he can be top rebounder or defender). When another player is bad, he is bad almost everywhere(although khris is giannislike---he can be bad in O but play D).
In the end of the day, if you can't understand how laughable it is to claim that someone is playing like **** when he gets elected as player of the month(when it was the last time that a bucks player accomplished this?) i can't do anything mate.
Cheers.