The Bucks won the 2021 NBA championship, Antetokounmpo was elected FMVP with unanimous votes, and they slapped ESPN's expert group in the face. Before the finals officially started this year, 16 ESPN experts predicted the finals, of which 13 predicted the Suns to win the championship, and only 3 were optimistic about the Bucks winning the cup.
The specific voting results of the 16 experts at that time are as follows—
Suns won the championship 4-1: Bobby Max
Suns won the championship 4-2: Jerry Benbri, Baxter Holmes, Dave Mike Minamin, Royce Yang
Suns won the championship 4-3: Zach Love, Tim McMahon, Monica McNutt, Kevin Pelton, Josh Sedano, Ramona Hilburn, Mark Spears, Om Yass Missouk
Bucks won the championship 4-2: Nick DePaula, Nick Friedel
Bucks won the championship 4-3: Andre Snellings
In the end, only DePaula and Friedel made the prediction correct among the 16 experts, and the Bucks won the championship 4-2. Regarding the ownership of the MVP in the finals, 15 of the 16 experts also gave a prediction, 6 predicted Booker to win the trophy, and 6 predicted Paul to win the trophy. Among the three experts who are optimistic about the Bucks' championship, two are optimistic about Middleton's FMVP trophy, and only one supports Antetokounmpo's election as the FMVP. Antetokounmpo's uncertainty before the finals affected the experts' predictions.
Antetokounmpo proves himself again with his outstanding performance. During the finals, Antetokounmpo averaged 35.2 points and 13.2 rebounds per game, and performed extremely well. In the final game, he even scored 50 points, and 11 FMVP votes were cast for him. Antetokounmpo has also become the first player in NBA history to win MIP (Fastest Progressive Player Award), regular season MVP, DPOY (Best Defensive Player) and FMVP.
Paul's Suns once led the Bucks 2-0, but eventually suffered four consecutive losses and passed the championship with a score of 2-4. Paul also set an embarrassing record, becoming the first player in NBA history to lead 2-0 in the series four times but was turned around.
