Getty Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Mllwaukee Bucks, left, and the Suns fan who was counting 100s on national TV during Antetokounmpo's free-throw routine.
On the spectrum of bad ideas, this one was somewhere near rock-bottom idiocy. In the first quarter of the Suns’ Game 5 loss to the Bucks at home in the NBA Finals, one Suns fan went a bit too far with the notion of counting out the seconds it takes for Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo to shoot free throws—he was, for some reason, counting out what appear to be $100 bills during Antetokounmpo’s foul-shot routine.
And he was put up on national TV while doing so which, considering the outcome of the game, and the fact that the Suns are now down, 3-2, in the series, made the whole thing look all the worse.
Here’s the video that was shown on ABC on Saturday night:
And just about everyone tuning into the game had the same question: Who is that guy? Said broadcaster Jeff Van Gundy: “I want to know who money man is right there!”
That also included Knicks rookie Immanuel Quickley:
Who this dude counting hundreds 😂
Did He Make it Home Safely?
The consensus among those who took in the viral-video fan was that he was certainly taking a mighty risk in so publicly flaunting the fact that he was strolling around what is now being called the Footprint Center with at least $1,200 in cash.
As one user on Twitter said, “I wanna know if the Suns fan counting money made it home safely.”
Another was pretty sure he did not: “The Suns fan counting his money during Giannis’ free throws is guaranteeing that he gets jumped in the parking lot after the game.”
The Suns fan counting his money during Giannis’ free throws is guaranteeing that he gets jumped in the parking lot after the game
And one knew just where the blame for Phoenix’s misfortune in Game 5 lay: “It wasn’t Booker’s turnover in the last few seconds. It was that Suns fan in the stands counting his money when Giannis was at the free throw that caused that loss.”
It wasn’t Booker’s turnover in the last few seconds. It was that Sun’s fan in the stands counting his money when Giannis was at the free throw that caused that loss 👍🏼 #BucksVsSuns #basketball #NBAFinals #NBA #NBAFinals2021
Antetokounmpo Goes 4-for-11 From FT Line in Game 5
The good news about Game 5 was that it did appear, at least in the numbers, that Antetokounmpo is once again shaken when it comes to his free throws. He was only 4-for-11 shooting from the line in the game, his worst performance since he went 0-for-3 against Atlanta in Game 4 of the conference finals, the game in which Antetokounmpo injured his knee.
In the first four games of the series, Antetokounmpo had been a respectable free-throw shooter, making 63.6% of his shots from the line.
Antetokounmpo did have a critical miss in the final seconds of the game, after drawing a foul on a fast break following a steal by Jrue Holiday on Devin Booker with 13 seconds to play. That basket gave Milwaukee a 3-point lead, but Phoenix had a chance to tie because of the miss—except that Antetokounmpo was able to back-tap the offensive rebound and seal the win.
Antetokounmpo addressed that after the game:
You know, not going to lie, I’m always real. I feel like that’s what makes me who I am. I’m always real. Sometimes I go to the free throw line and I’m nervous a little bit, you know, but this time, I wasn’t nervous at all because I was so dialed in. I just missed.
But I’m happy. I live with it because I shot my routine, I did exactly what I always do, and I just missed. But there’s going to be times that they are going to talk, the opposing players are going to talk, the crowd is going to yell. But just got to keep playing through that. Keep playing, keep your composure and just keep trying to do whatever is possible to help the team win.
Like even when we missed, we were able to tip the ball back to Khris and he made them. I could put my head down and just be like, oh, missed the free throw, whatever the case might be, but no, I kept playing. That’s what I do. That’s how I’m built.