MILWAUKEE -- Brewers players filled a suite at Fiserv Forum on Wednesday night and watched the Milwaukee Bucks get their hearts broken. A 16-point fourth-quarter lead got away. A No. 8 seed took down No. 1.
But did it mean the Bucks’ season was a failure?
By now, you have almost certainly seen Bucks star (and Brewers investor) Giannis Antetokounmpo thoughtfully, painfully and soulfully answer that question. If you somehow haven’t, take the time to hear him out.
You probably have some opinions of your own.
The Brewers certainly do.
“I guess you can call it a failure because that’s part of being a No. 1 seed. It’s all about expectation,” said Brewers ace Corbin Burnes. “Everybody thinks, ‘You’re the No. 1 seed, you should win.’ But basketball, just like baseball or football or any other game, just because you’re the better team, the better seed, or have the better roster or a bigger payroll, it means nothing until you get out there and play. If you lose, it’s not a matter of ‘fail.’”
“I heard someone else say this,” added Brewers closer Devin Williams of Antetokounmpo, “but you’re talking about a guy who grew up eating one meal a day and selling watches on the street. His perspective on everything is different than what fans want it to be. I kind of think about it the same: I care a lot about what happens here and about my performance, but when I got good is when I realized it’s just baseball.”
But both Williams and Burnes can see the other side of the argument. The Bucks’ goal going into this season was to win the NBA Finals. The Brewers’ goal is to win the World Series.
As Burnes sees it, it’s all about context.
“I think there are ways in which we’re similar to the Bucks,” Burnes said. “Maybe there was a stretch of time where our teams weren’t very good, and now we’ve had a stretch of good years. They actually won a championship. So it’s like, ‘Now that we’re good, we’re expected to go out and win.’ … For us, you get the same thing. When we didn’t get to the World Series in 2018, you could say, ‘That was a failure.’
“But to have a successful season, you have to win it all? That’s just not the case. Everyone wants to win that final game of the year. But for 29 of 30 teams, that’s not the reality. It’s tough to judge on a ‘World Series or bust’ kind of scale because that means 29 other teams were complete failures.”
There’s no right or wrong here. If you’re a “World Series or it was an utter failure” kind of fan, that’s your right. If you can enjoy the ride for what is, that’s also your right.
“I thought he made everybody think and that's a great way to answer a question,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “Look, for sports fans, it's win or lose. And that's fair. It's what we want; everybody wants to win. That's what makes us feel good, winning. Giannis made us think a little differently about it, and that's interesting.
“It doesn't change how much everybody who's around [sports] wants to win. You're going to get results you don't like, but it's not going to change how he's going to live his next day.”