The Milwaukee Bucks were eliminated from the NBA Finals after two games, but they were victorious at the NBA Awards. On Monday night in Santa Monica, Jon Horst took home Executive of the Year, Mike Budenholzer won Coach of the Year, and a heartbroken Giannis Antetokounmpo was named Most Valuable Player.

Antetokounmpo, a 24-year-old Greek forward, overcame Paul George of Oklahoma City and James Harden of Houston, the winner from the previous year. Antetokounmpo was the clear winner. He received 78 votes for first place and 941 points, 165 more than Harden. Harden finished second with 23 first-place votes and 776 points.

As Antetokounmpo said backstage, “MVP is not about stats and numbers, and obviously James Harden and Paul George had unbelievable numbers, but obviously it’s about winning.” “Throughout the season, we developed excellent habits that we were able to maintain, which allowed us to have a chance in every game we played and win 60 games.”

Antetokounmpo, his sixth with the Bucks, was selected to the All-NBA first team this season after averaging 27.7 points and 12.5 rebounds. Under his leadership, the Bucks finished the regular season with the best record and progressed to the Eastern Conference finals.

Tears ran down Antetokounmpo’s face when he saw his brothers and mother Veronica in front of the Barker Hanger crowd. He thanked his late father, teammates, and coaching staff for supporting him in achieving his goals.

He said, “As a family, we began from nothing and will go through every stage that we can be in.”

Antetokounmpo said backstage that he had vowed not to cry in front of his family. He said, “You start getting emotional when you hear your name up there on the stage and then you realize these years of hard work, what you did in the past.”

Steve Kroft of “60 Minutes” reported last year that Antetokounmpo was born in 1994 in Athens into a low-income household on the outskirts of Greek society. His parents left Nigeria to raise their family. They shared a bed with three or four others in cramped two-room dwellings with no papers. There was rarely enough food.

“It was challenging,” Antetokounmpo said Kroft. “We didn’t have a lot of money. However, we were ecstatic. We weren’t broke, as far as happiness goes. Back when we were having problems, we were all in the same room. We were having fun. We were grinning at each other. There were challenging times.