There's a sneaky rivalry brewing between the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat, stemming from postseason battles over the years and boiling over this summer as Giannis Antetokounmpo was dealt from one franchise to the other. From Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro's fight to petty Twitter squabbles, it hasn't been a pretty scene, but the latest discussions surrounding Bam and Bucks legend Khris Middleton are reaching unnecessary levels of stupidity.
Former All-Star Gilbert Arenas made the argument on Gil's Arena that Bam is a better No. 2 for Giannis Antetokounmpo than Middleton was, but his comments ran much deeper than that. What began as a spirited conversation over who is the better sidekick devolved into a debate over who is the better No. 1 option — something neither of these players has been except for when injuries and game situations made it necessary.
Of course, Twitter picked that one up and ran with it, sparking an online war of words between Bucks fans and Heat fans who are picking each other's favorite players apart for no reason. The truth is hidden somewhere deeper in the conversation that Gil and the fans haven't quite understood yet.
Bam Adebayo deserves his recognition, but the Bucks-era duo of Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo is a pillar of modern NBA history.
Let's get the Bam of it all out of the way. We might not like him in Milwaukee right now for how he treated Tyler Herro and some of the past battles between these teams, but he's an incredible player. Adebayo is one of the best and most versatile defenders in basketball, a high-level playmaker for his position, and sneakily has one of the best face-up games in the NBA.
For years, Heat fans have poured their hearts out online, claiming we haven't seen a fully unleashed form of Bam because he gave up personal stats for team success. Earlier this year, we saw what he could do offensively when he beat Kobe's record for the second-most points ever scored in a game with 83.
But some of the glaring redundancies between Giannis and Bam need to play out on the basketball court before we can make any serious proclamations. Neither is considered a very reliable 3-point shooter; they both operate in the paint, and both like to have the ball in their hands in similar areas on the court.
So not only do we not know what they'll look like alongside each other, but they haven't proven a single thing as a duo yet, whereas Giannis and Middleton uplifted each other to one of the most improbable yet memorable NBA Finals runs in the history of this long and storied league.
In his prime, Khash Money Middleton was one of the coldest shot creators in all of basketball. He was the epitome of sacrificing for his team because Middleton could've been a 25+ point-per-game scorer if he had been given the green light to do so, but instead, those Bucks teams ran through Giannis as the offensive engine, and they won a championship because of it.
But when the Bucks needed Middleton to be the coldest MFer on the basketball court, he was. Game-winners, stepbacks, and-ones, clutch free throws — you name it, and he did it. And in the end, Giannis and Middleton achieved something together that Bam and Giannis can only dream of — winning a championship as an underdog in the Eastern Conference.
At this point, it's a theoretical and senseless debate over who was the better No. 2 option for Giannis, and extrapolating that into an argument over who would be the better No. 1 option is just as pointless. We can be intrigued or even excited to see how Giannis and Bam look together without trying to tear down Middleton, regardless of where your fandom or allegiances lie.
Khris Middleton and Bam Adebayo are both future Hall of Famers. If you want to have the debate about who is the better No. 2 to Giannis, save it for after we have a greater sample size than a few pictures of Giannis and Bam hanging out at a WNBA game or on Klay Thompson's boat to compare against one of the greatest duos in modern NBA history.
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