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LAS VEGAS – The trophy had come an hour earlier, Most Valuable Player of the Emirates NBA Cup Championship, and it sat as a proud, silent statement in front of an elated Giannis Antetokounmpo while he spoke with reporters.

Then the question came about that trophy and, to his credit, the Bucks star didn’t default to the easy answer.

Does that award go to the best player, or does it signify the leader of the team that wins?

Antetokounmpo was covered either way, mind you. He had steered the Bucks to a 7-0 mark in Group and Knockout Round games, capping it Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena with a thorough 97-81 thumping of the tenacious Oklahoma City Thunder.

Individually, he was terrific with a triple-double — 26 points, 19 rebounds, 10 assists — that included three blocks and a pair of steals. So winning the MVP unanimously could have been about his stats and his dominance, period.

It’s inconceivable, though, that Milwaukee could have dusted itself off after a 2-8 start and navigated through its current 13-3 run without Antetokounmpo showing the way.

“The Greek Freak” simply could have said “both” to the double-barreled question. Or he could have gone with the leadership part, more palatable than the inherent boast of being best.

Instead, he pondered it, and peeled back more layers.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, the #EmiratesNBACup MVP! pic.twitter.com/dsiwReEHrc

— NBA (@NBA) December 18, 2024

“When you approach a game like this, you’re not thinking about MVPs. You’re thinking about trying to win the game,” Antetokounmpo said. “And sometimes when you try to do whatever it takes, you put yourself in position to be successful and you’re able to get a trophy like that.

“I don’t know why I got the MVP. I’m happy that I got it. I don’t take it for granted. I’m most happy we got to win the game. Some of my teammates got life-changing money.”

Members of the winning team each got approximately $514,000 for the title game (with two-way players on the roster’s fringe getting half that amount). Antetokounmpo shared that one of the Bucks’ two-way players, center Liam Robbins, a native of Davenport, Iowa, became a poster child of sorts for the extra Cup cash.

“We had this joke within the team about Liam, that I promised him from the first Cup game, I said ‘We’re going to go all the way and we’re going to get you a house in Iowa,’” Antetokounmpo said. “So after every game, I’m like, ‘Hey, one step closer to your house in Iowa.’

“After the game, I went to the locker room and I saw smiles on their faces.”

"Everybody got $500,000 right?!" 🤑 pic.twitter.com/zQru6oBZ7O

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) December 18, 2024

Giannis says his money from winning the #EmiratesNBACup is already gone 😂 pic.twitter.com/d2ZrZcBNrl

— NBA (@NBA) December 18, 2024

The Bucks’ star joins the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James as the MVPs of the two Cup editions. James won the inaugural trophy last December and, like Antetokounmpo, took the event, the competition, the prize money and the individual honor seriously from the start.

Antetokounmpo did the same, circling the Cup title at the start of Group play. It was a commitment the NBA surely appreciated, given the still-developing significance of the fledgling competition. It was a focus the Bucks needed to resuscitate their season.

“I don’t think you can flush [the poor start],” Milwaukee teammate Damian Lillard said, “but we’ve shown the team we started the season as is not the team that we are now, and it was never who we truly were.”

Of Antetokounmpo, with whom his on-court chemistry has improved considerably, Lillard added: “I don’t think the Cup [or the MVP] was something that Giannis was just determined to win. I think that’s just who he is. Just the background that he comes from. His journey to becoming the superstar that he is, is a tough one.

“So when you get to this point, you don’t want to stop.”

Coach Doc Rivers, who hadn’t yet been hired by the Bucks when they got bounced last year by Indiana in the Cup semifinal round, was asked how much working with Antetokounmpo weighed in his decision to come off the TV sideline last winter. On a proverbial scale of 1 to 10.

“I mean, a 10, right?” Rivers said after the game. “To coach a Giannis, to coach a Dame, to see that group, a veteran group, it’s an amazing opportunity for a coach. This group allows you to coach them, they really do.

“They let you coach them hard. Nobody takes anything personal. I even said it last year, it was like coaching grownups, if you know what I mean. They get that you have to tell them the truth and they handle it.”

The MVP competition on Tuesday was set up as a star vs. star situation among the two Cup finalists. Had OKC won, guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander likely would have claimed the award. With the Bucks winning, Antetokounmpo was the easy choice (with some wiggle room if Lillard had exploded offensively).

The Cup title and its MVP add to Antetokounmpo’s resume already crammed with accolades: Eight-time All-Star and All-NBA, five-time All-Defensive team, Most Improved Player in 2017, Defensive Player of the Year in 2020, consecutive Kia NBA MVP awards in 2019 and 2020, All-Star Game MVP in 2021, Finals MVP that same year and a spot on the NBA Top 75 anniversary team announced two years ago.

That’s a long journey for the skinny kid from Athens, Greece, built like a Tootsie Pop, on whom the Bucks gambled the No. 15 pick in 2013. In that time, Antetokounmpo has cobbled together a Hall of Fame legacy.

And the thing is, he never appeared happier — as happy, sure, but not happier — than he did Tuesday.

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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.

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