Fox Sports personality Brandon Marshall isn’t ready to respect the Milwaukee Bucks even if they make it to the NBA Finals. The former NFL player turned panelist on FS1’s First Things First spoke his peace on what it means if the Bucks survive this playoff gauntlet.
“Them moving forward, them advancing for me won’t be respected,” Marshall said. “You saw who they were in Games One and Games Two when the Nets were semi-loaded; they didn’t have James Harden. James Harden played 40 seconds in this series before he came back when he wasn’t supposed to, and they got ran off the court. So when you look at that I can’t respect it.”
The Bucks and Nets series has lived up to expectations in that many expected it to go seven games. Although, it’s been a seesaw to get there after the Bucks blew out Brooklyn 104-89 on Thursday night to force a Game Seven at the Barclays Center.
The Hawks have impressed plenty of people with how they’ve handled Philadelphia en route to a 3-2 series lead, but Marshall isn’t in that camp.
“Unless we got the Hawks wrong then I can’t even respect that,” Marshall said. “The Hawks are playing great ball, but nobody picked the Hawks to be a contender this year. So they go on they beat the Hawks. Then you go on, and you got Philly… I can’t respect it.”
Marshall concluded his take by acknowledging the pressure on the shoulders of Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks have won 71% of their games over the past three years. According to ESPN, they will join four other teams in NBA history to have that much success and not make a Finals if they don’t pull off the feat this year.
“I don’t know if guys fear them anymore,” Marshall concluded. “I don’t know if anybody fears him (Giannis). We know what you are; you’re a one, two-trick pony, and that’s it.”