Giannis Antetokounmpo Wins Eastern Conference Player of the Week

In news that will surprise few, the NBA named Giannis its Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday afternoon, on the heels of Milwaukee’s 3-0 week. As you see in the graphic below, the numbers speak for themselves:

Along with those numbers comes a .551/.273/.636 slash and 5 blocks. If you prefer advanced stats, that’s good for a 57.2% effective field goal percentage and 60.5% true shooting on 35.5% usage. A tidily dominant week for who some national voices are already seeing as the way-too-early MVP frontrunner.

Believe it or not, this is the first time Giannis garnered these honors since November 22nd last year, which was the only week in last year’s MVP-caliber season he received them. For reference, he was the East’s top weekly player 6 times during his first MVP campaign, and 4 times in his pandemic-shortened second campaign.

The other nominees that Giannis beat out were Orlando rookie Paolo Banchero, Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell, Atlanta’s Trae Young, plus Indiana’s Buddy Hield and Tyrese Haliburton. Giannis also was nominated last week, and despite how last year went, I doubt there will be as long of a gap between these awards as the year progresses.