Giannis Antetokounmpo seems like a nice guy.
Doesn't have a rap sheet.
Took the admirable, laudable path to success in the modern NBA world of LeBron James and Kevin Durant super squads, staying put in Milwaukee to be the centerpiece of small market title team.
He's the biggest, most muscular guy on the court combined with freakish athleticism and ability.
It really is awe inspiring at times.
And yet I hate him.
Giannis is proof that hate can fester and grow simply from the way an athlete plays his game against your team. And isn't that the how professional sports should be?
Watching Giannis continually Greek Freak his way to the basket is simply infuriating for anyone not wearing Bucks gear.
He plays Euro-stepping, no-charge-getting, bully-ball from coast to NBA coast with referees across the land enabling his every move!
Seeing Antetokounmpo run downhill like former Houston Oilers great Earl Campbell from the three-point line through both the paint and ill-prepared, unsuspecting opposing defenders on his way to a violent finish is like watching the biggest kid on the playground wet-willying his way through a week of recess.
Worse yet the officials give Giannis the customary superstar benefit of the doubt with every call, every extra step and seemingly every forearm shiver he unleashes on borderline helpless defenders like Celtics forward Grant Williams. It's like the elementary school principal blaming the rest of the kids for walking into the bully's fist or hitting his poor spit-covered finger with their ears.
Maybe it's over the top. Maybe it makes no sense. Maybe my Celtics loyalties cloud my views into an almost critical beyond reason biased feeling.
And maybe I'm OK with that.
The way Giannis bullies opponents and then expects to get every ticky-tack call like he's not the most physically dominating NBA presence since maybe Shaq simply crawls right up my Boston-bred sports watching bum bum!
Whether you Fear the Deer or not, you certainly should hate Giannis while wearing your best Green Team gear. Strangely, a majority of Boston fans don't seem to agree with me, at least not based on one very unscientific Twitter poll last week.
For Boston fans in particular it also doesn't help the hate that Giannis could have been a Celtic back in the 2013 NBA Draft when Danny Ainge preferred Kelly Olynyk instead at No. 13 overall with Antetokounmpo going at No. 15, which seems so utterly unfathomable now. Admittedly if Giannis suited up in a different shade of green and bullied his way around the TD Garden parquet it would certainly be to the joy and adulation of Celtics fans everywhere. Including me.
But he doesn't.
Instead he's the foe we all know and should love to hate with all his post-dunk, mean-mugging and flexing that is at best unnecessary and at worst obnoxious when done wearing the wrong jersey.
They say the heart wants what the heart wants.
Well, the heart can also hate what the heart hates.
And this Hart indeed hates Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Tonight Giannis and I will continue our one-sided emotional battle. He'll be on the court in all his frustrating greatness leading his Bucks in Game 4 playoff action in Milwaukee, looking to extend his series lead against the Celtics as he chases another championship unaware that I even exist. And I'll be on my couch complaining about the travels and offensive fouls he gets away with all too often for my provincial liking, only my two dogs hearing my whining ways.
I'll embrace my hate for one of the handful of greatest basketball players on the planet.
This is just sports, just the way sports should be.
