Last Night’s Headbutt Shows How Giannis Could Learn From LeBron

Giannis Antetokounmpo gets angry. It’s part of what makes him great. If you’re in Giannis’s way, Giannis sees red. Sometimes it’s channeled to the benefit of his own team: Just ask poor Bruno Caboclo, whom Antetokounmpo dunked on this season in revenge for a slight during last summer’s World Cup competition. But sometimes it isn’t.

Last night might be the most glaring example of the latter. After Washington Wizards forward Mo Wagner stepped in front of Giannis to draw an offensive foul, Antetokounmpo strode down the court and introduced his forehead to the former Wolverine’s face. Antetokounmpo was ejected and may face a suspension, calling it a “terrible action” after the game.

A headbutt is especially spectacular. But Antetokounmpo has a long-term tendency to scrap with other players. At the beginning of bubble play, the lack of crowd noise meant he could be heard challenging Donta Hall to a fight. Near the beginning of his career, he famously ran through Mike Dunleavy. His beef with James Harden is fun, but he also maybe whipped a basketball directly at Harden’s head. There are multipart YouTube compilations of his dust-ups.

Giannis is regularly hacked by 220-pound grown men. He’s constantly colliding with bodies as he rumbles toward the rim, putting himself at risk of injury. He’s understandably sensitive to the way opponents defend him. (And, as a modern-day version of Shaquille O’Neal, he can perhaps relate to what the Hall of Famer went through during this prime. In 2001, Shaq told Sports Illustrated: “I've been getting beat up for nine years, and maybe it's time to do some beating up.") Who could blame him for wanting to fight back? Everybody has a breaking point. But if Giannis wants to be the best player in the NBA, he may need to get a better handle on his.

Consider LeBron James, one of Giannis’s few contemporaries who know how it feels to be envied by the coworkers you conquer on a nightly basis. An understated element of LeBron’s greatness, if such a thing exists, is his indifference to distraction. He’s emotional and charged by adrenaline, but also temperamentally even-keeled. He’s wise enough to know that the moment visceral anger brims to the surface and rears its ugly face, he’s already lost.

Think about all the childish antics LeBron has endured from players trying to get under his skin to gain an advantage, from Lance Stephenson to Pat Beverley. In those situations, he didn’t just rise above the antagonism, he flat out acted like it was invisible. Those in his way were less than peasants, fleas, mere mortals not worth an ounce of extra mental energy or physical exertion. (Or, as James put it during the height of his feud with DeShawn Stevenson: “It’s almost like Jay-Z [responding to a negative comment] made by Soulja Boy. It doesn’t make sense to respond.”)

Antetokounmpo’s pride kindles an internal bonfire that burns through all the doubt and criticism he still faces as a reigning MVP without a title. Many who know him well can’t imagine him leaving the Bucks, for the simple reason that such a move would be a public admittance of failure. He’s too good to let his emotions be an obstruction, however slight it might seem.

Originally Appeared on GQ