Table of Contents for November and December
This is belated. Giannis and Wemby have already traded January highlights.
Seriously, though, I think for anyone who saw the game on January 4 between the Milwaukee Bucks and San Antonio Spurs, which even for a regular season game had very little at stake, a notch on the timeline was made. Late in the game, after we thought we had seen just about everything these two kaiju had to show us on this given night they gave us an imagination-defying display.
Giannis drove into Wemby, hitting him with the shoulder, but Wemby didn’t give much ground and he definitely didn’t crumple. When Giannis rose to drop a hammer — and he had dropped many in the course of the night — Wemby rose too and met him at the rim for the block. One of the best descriptors of what took place in that moment of shocked exhalation we all experienced was drawn from the always analogous The Matrix:
This game fell shortly on the heels of a San Antonio game in which San Antonio fell to the Memphis Grizzlies, and Wemby was dunked on by Ja Morant. Morant played a game of angles and speed against Wemby to create enough space for the dunk. One could even argue he was fouled on the play as Wemby failed to reposition himself for the block. Giannis did not take this approach, and why would he? At his size, the Greek Freak has never needed to truly go around anyone. Plus, this MVP who once feigned stealing LeBron’s crown desired on this night to deliver his own mighty message to a would-be challenger. But the message got returned to sender.
This happens to almost every athlete, but not to Giannis. At every level, he has always been the best athlete on the floor or at least the soon-to-be-best athlete. He has always had his body and time. This was the first moment of his career where not only time appeared as a traitor to him, but he also discovered a body with more length. He couldn’t do what he had always done. This play wasn’t about schemes or coaching. This moment wasn’t about teammates and spacing. This moment was about Wemby’s ability to closeout, to fill space, to put a hand in the face of the present moment, to block out the sun.
Anyway, the Bucks won, but the Spurs did also.
November
“Are you torn about ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’?” (November 28)
“Table of Contents for October” (November 6)
December
“The books I memorized in 2023” (December 29)
“2023 Airport Beers, an informal interview series” (December 22)
“The runner’s knot is a godsend” (December 20)
“Godzilla Minus One Oppenheimer” (December 14)
“Ants!” (December 7)
