“We Gotta Beat Some Kids to Win a Chip”: Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo Contemplate Over Their Title Chances in the East

The 2024 NBA All-Star game became the highest-scoring All-Star game in the league. The East All-Stars made history as the team managed to not only touch the 200-point mark but surpass it with ease. As expected, the highly anticipated game gave fans numerous highlights and memorable moments both on and off the court. One such moment was an interaction between the Milwaukee Bucks All-Star tandem, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.

The 73rd NBA All-Star Game had some amusing moments when players were mic’d up on the court. But no mic’d-up moment could top off the hilarious conversation Giannis Antetokounmpo had with his teammate, Damian Lillard.

While addressing someone who was off the court, Antetokounmpo first stated, “I’m the second oldest guy. Dame, me, and then, all young.” Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum was visibly perplexed when he found out that Damian Lillard was the oldest player on the East All-Stars. While talking to Donovan Mitchell, JT said, “Like, I don’t look at Dame as a old heir…He a little older.”

After revealing that the Bucks All-Stars are the oldest members of the East squad, Antetokounmpo walked up to Lillard and said,

“We’re the oldest ones here. We gotta beat some kids to win a chip…C’mon Dame.”

To put things in perspective, here is how old every All-Star on the East’s squad was. Let’s start with the youngest. Paolo Banchero was the youngest All-Star on Team East at 21, while Tyrese Haliburton and Tyrese Maxey are both 23 years old. 

Then comes Jayson Tatum at 25, who is only a year younger than 26-year-old Miami Heat center, Bam Adebayo. Jalen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, and Jaylen Brown all come in at 27.

Now, Joel Embiid, Julius Randle, and Giannis Antetokounmpo are all 29 years of age. But Embiid was born on March 16, 1994, and Randle was born on November 29, 1994. The Greek Freak, on the other hand, was born on December 6, 1994, making him the youngest among the three, technically.

And finally, at 33 years of age comes Damian Lillard. Dame’s age was brought up by LeBron James during last year’s All-Star Weekend as well. 

This 20-second interaction between James and Lillard in the locker room may make fans realize how quickly Lillard will be entering ‘Father Time’ as well. And we might only get to see a few more years of Dame Time dominating the league.

Should Giannis Antetokounmpo and Lillard be worried about the East?

Giannis Antetokounmpo’s interaction with Damian Lillard may have amused the commentators and the viewers at home but it sure wasn’t funny for the two aging stars in the league. At 29 years of age, Antetokounmpo may still have more than a couple of years left in the tank but the same cannot be said for the 33-year-old Damian Lillard. Dame DOLLA has been shooting with the worst three-point percentage of his career at 34.1% in 51 games so far.

And as the days go by, these two All-Stars are not getting any younger while the competition in the Eastern Conference surely is. So, Giannis may be concerned about the right thing as the Bucks also try to keep up with certain coaching changes mid-season.

Talking about coaching changes, the Milwaukee Bucks made a head-scratching move in the middle of the season. The team fired their former head coach and signed Doc Rivers as his replacement when they already had the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. 

Hoping to improve their season record to first place in the East, things did not go according to plan for Milwaukee. However, there are still plenty of games left for Doc Rivers to get a hang of how things operate in the Bucks franchise.

The next coming months will determine how the Bucks may perform in the playoffs after the regular season. If Milwaukee can stay healthy, the team has somewhat of a shot to make a deep playoff run. But if injuries get the best of the Bucks like they did last year, then fans might get to see their team suffer an early elimination from the playoffs once again.

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• Damian Lillard
• Doc Rivers
• Giannis Antetokounmpo
• LeBron James