The Bucks can still do this

There has never been a 3–0 series lead squandered in NBA playoff history. There should be one by the end of next week. After all, we’ve seen this movie before.

I am T’Challa:

Giannis Antetokounmpo is the future of the NBA, poised for his second consecutive MVP. Regardless of what happens this offseason, or next, he will be a major force shaping the landscape of the league. He is the King, he is T’Challa, the Black Panther, hoping to lead his team with wisdom to victory.

I am Kilmonger:

Brash, abrasive, obstinate, and damn good, Jimmy Butler is a disruptive force in what was supposed to be a season of deep meaning for the Milwaukee Bucks. Drifting through his career, unaware of how to define himself, he has found the perfect situation for himself in Miami, and he is taking what he wants. He is the Usurper, he is Kilmonger, the Villain, hoping to achieve the dominance he has long fruitlessly sought.

At its core, this should be a battle of two stars, Jimmy Butler and Giannis Antetokounmpo. As T’Challa and Kilmonger duel for the fate of Wakanda, so Giannis and Jimmy must duel for the fate of the East (next round nonwithstanding). With the series standing at 3–0 in favor of the Heat, it’s obvious that hasn’t been the case; if the series were about the stars matching up with one another, the Bucks would be winning handily. Antetokounmpo has been denied the pleasure of guarding Butler, even when Butler gets hot, which has happened in two of three games. Butler hasn’t had to guard Giannis alone, because one of these coaches knows how to plan for the specific demands of a given matchup. Head coach Mike Budenholzer has taken heavy criticism for refusing to let his MVP off the leash, or do anything to acknowledge the fact that he is coaching an NBA playoff series as opposed to a regular season game or, for that matter, a meaningless scrimmage.

If nothing changes, the Bucks will lose Game 4. So something must.

Is this your king?

Butler has humiliated Antetokounmpo like Kilmonger humiliated T’Challa. Butler is on his fourth team in four years, team after team having passed on him; he has been denied the love that Giannis has received. Yet he appears to have found his element. Teaming with the slick-haired and villainous Pat Riley (and his mild-mannered surrogate, Erik Spoelstra), they have built an unbreakable unit in Miami that combines new-school principles of small ball and abundant shooting with the old-school principle of testosterone as a basketball virtue. The Heat are the more competitive team. They are the more confident team. They are perhaps better conditioned. They have Milwaukee up against the ropes, laughing derisively.

While the MVP is defined and known as a regular-season award, the postseason is where that award is validated. What we’ve seen from Giannis is a system player who can’t take over when the moment of adrenaline comes. Is this the player we’re supposed to believe is the best in the world? This is the team he leads?

I never yielded

The Bucks are down, but not out. They witnessed firsthand last year when a team came together to win four straight games in a playoff series. They can do that. They have what it takes, they just have to be willing to make the sacrifice necessary to meet the need of the moment. They want to stay loyal to their style and their systems. That’s no longer a viable path forward. They are left for dead, virtually eliminated, because of the 140 playoff series that have gone 3–0, none have gone back 4–3. The series is viewed as though it hinges on Budenholzer. It shouldn’t, and ultimately, it doesn’t. Giannis is responsible, and if he must defy his coach and play more selfishly, so be it. If Khris Middleton needs to be the one to do it, then he should do it. Budenholzer should not get in the way of this team winning a title. He certainly won’t next year.

The Milwaukee Bucks are a better team than the Miami Heat. They have better stars, a better system, and better defense. Jimmy Butler is no MVP. Bam Adebayo is a versatile player, but he is nothing Milwaukee can’t handle. Goran Dragic isn’t a threat. Andre Iguodala can barely dunk anymore. Kelly Olynyk is fugly. Duncan Robinson is 11 years old.

Even casual fans know this: Playoff basketball is different. In the regular season, teams look to ease the grind of the schedule and put their faith in the law of averages to allow them to rise to the top if they simply play their game. The playoffs don’t work that way. If this Bucks team has any fight, any capacity to play like there’s no tomorrow, that must be on display in Game 4. They must combine poise with intensity and approach the game with a sense of purpose we haven’t felt from them in months.

Wakanda Forever:

What’s at stake this season must be made clear. This is the season of the Black Mamba, Covid-19 (or, for the sake of this sentence, the Black Plague II), the Black Lives Matter movement, and most recently, the Black Panther. While it’s easy to feel that the most important response to these tragedies is definitely not basketball, it can be at once acknowledged that basketball is a game of the heart, and that for grief, basketball is as legitimate a processing mechanism as any. In round 1, the Bucks stopped the sports world single-handedly to learn more about and ultimately act in response to the unlawful attempted murder of Jacob Blake by Kenosha police.

They came back because they determined they had something to play for. I’m sorry, but this was that? They are part of something bigger than this playoff series. Whatever it was in that locker room that stood up to the entire sports world needs to stand up to the way things are going on the court. Do what it takes to win the games. Namely, unleash Giannis and his co-star, Khris Middleton. No rest in the second half until the game is secure. They’re adults, they can handle more exertion in cases of emergencies. Let Giannis devour Butler on defense. A snake has a head, and Butler needs to be cut off.

After Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets scored 52 points in a season-saving win, he broke down crying at the notion that he was playing for something bigger than himself — his shoes carrying images of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Basketball is a dream. Any Black American living their dream in this climate is a hero, honoring of those denied that chance due to an unfair legal system that stuffs prisons with brown bodies to promote white supremacy.

If the Bucks season ends in disgrace, a sweep in the second-round at the hands of a team written off as an also-ran, not a true contender, then it will be from a lack of fight. And no, the hope of a nation, of a race of people, does not truly and necessarily ride on the Bucks’ back. But like the Heat, Kilmonger had a 3–0 lead, 2020 has a 3–0 lead, white supremacy has a 3–0 lead. The deficit has never been overcome before, or at least only so in fiction. It’s time to start somewhere. Game 4 on Sunday is the birth or death of a dream, of miraculous turnaround, of playing for something bigger, of winning for more than just your team.

When King T’Challa is brought low by Kilmonger, he continues the challenge, but not without a new outlook. He understands the virtue of his enemy’s position, and insists that he is yet the one who will make things right. If the Bucks are to inherit their greatness, they must — just as Chadwick Boseman’s King T’Challa did — look at this most hopeless of moments and refuse to blink. Maybe, as was the case just days ago, the world will watch them do so and find inspiration to do the same.