Hey everyone, welcome back to Big Time Hoops.
Today we're gonna be talking about the story of Giannis Antetokounmpo
A.K.A The Greek Freak. His struggles with immigration laws, what his childhood was like,
and his most impressive accomplishments.
So if you're a fan of Giannis and want to know all about Crazy,
Epic journey to stardom, sit back and enjoy the video.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is now one of the biggest stars in the league. He has his own signature
shoe line called the Nike Zoom Freak and has a whopping net worth of $170 Million as of 2021.
However he has remained humble and grounded through all the fame and has not purchased
even a single pair with his own money. Giannis has a story that will inspire
not only the project players from the Greek community but all over the world.
Giannis was born in Athens, Greece on the 6th of December, 1994.
He was the son of two Nigerian immigrants,
Veronica and Charles Antetokounmpo. His parents had moved to Greece with his three brothers.
Being immigrants, Giannis’s parents struggled to find work, meaning they had a hard time providing
for the family. So when they got old enough, Giannis and his brother Thanasis had to figure
out a way to help the financial situation of the family. The two brothers began selling watches,
handbags, and sunglasses in the streets with hopes to make at least ten dollars for everyone to eat.
At 13 years of age, Giannis began to notice he was incredibly tall for his age. So he and his brother
decided to practice basketball. But during their first months of practice, the two brothers did not
have enough money to get two pairs of shoes. So they would share the same pair in turns.
Giannis would save up all the money every chance he got. He used to run to practice instead of
taking a taxi so he could spend the extra dollars on his mom and dad who worked so hard all their
life to help him and his brother have a good life. He would also pick used shoes from the trash.
A crazy fact about Giannis’s teenage years is that he always avoided going out at night for
fear of being attacked by members of Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi gang responsible for numerous assaults
on immigrants. He would often sleep at the gym when it got too late or there was nowhere to go.
However, after playing a few seasons, Giannis would begin to see his family’s fortunes
shift dramatically, as Spiros Velliniatis, a coach in the Greek amateur basketball leagues,
began scouting him and his brothers (three Antetokounmpo brothers now play in the NBA).
The coach offered to find Giannis’s parents better-paying jobs in exchange for the right
to train the brothers full-time. A lifeline was provided even though Giannis struggled
to dribble a basketball when he began training. One could say coach Spiros predicted the future.
Despite being a late bloomer with his skills, Giannis’s work ethic and natural
gifts would quickly make him one of the most sought-after basketball talents in all of
Greece. NBA scouts and executives traveled to the country to see the future star in action.
Eventually, Giannis was drafted 15th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks at the age of 18.
But his accomplishment was nearly undone by a law involving his immigration status.
Greece does not offer birthright citizenship like the U.S. Instead, Greece requires at least one
parent to hold Greek citizenship for the child to receive it. Thus, without papers from Greece
or Nigeria. They labeled Giannis as stateless even though he lived in Greece his entire life.
His stateless status threatened to prevent Giannis from traveling to New York for the NBA draft,
leaving him with few options to proceed other than attempting to secure a Nigerian passport.
Luckily, the Greek government stepped in to provide citizenship to their budding
star before the draft, ensuring that Antetokounmpo
would be identified as Greek on the world stage, not Nigerian.
The struggle of Giannis’s parents to provide for their family reveals the
challenges of being undocumented, and even after many obstacles had been overcome,
this statelessness could have prevented him from ever realizing his immense potential.
But luckily, it didn’t and today we can all enjoy watching him play basketball.
When The Greek Freak arrived in Milwaukee, the Bucks franchise was worth $300 million.
Today, the team is worth $1.6 billion. The whole league is more valuable,
thanks in large part to the set of new stars from different backgrounds like Giannis.
These types of players are the ones who, to this day, are lifting teams from mid-size
markets like Milwaukee and Denver to major metropolitan areas like Philly and Dallas.
Antetokounmpo might be the most famous foreign-born NBA player,
but the league is now supplied with remarkable international talent. For the 2021 season, the
NBA had an international player on every roster in all, 107 from 41 countries as of opening night,
including a record 17 Canadians and record-tying 14 Africans.
The Greek government, like most governments, did not take long to capitalize on his stardom,
making him an official national tourism ambassador in 2018. Despite the difficulties
they experienced, the Antetokounmpo family still considers Greece to be their home,
seeking to use their notoriety to raise awareness of Greek culture abroad while
also working to help with social inequities in the country. At the same time, Giannis Antetokounmpo
also recognizes his familial connection to Nigeria, the birthplace of both his parents.
Once Giannis established himself in the NBA as a solid player, his career highlights began to rain.
Let’s go over some of his most important accomplishments:
Giannis took the field in 77 games for Milwaukee Bucks in 2013-14 and maintained
an average of 6.8 points throughout the season. That’s pretty impressive.
He was the top-ranking NBA rookie for the season finishing the year with 61 blocks
that made him eligible for the NBA All-Star Weekend ‘Rising Stars Challenge’ held at New
Orleans. So from the start, everyone knew he was going to be a key player. His impressive
performance in this event earned him a position on the All-Rookie 2nd team. Additionally, the Bucks
extended their contract with Antetokounmpo for two more seasons, 2014-15 and 2015-16.
This ended up being a smart move, because Giannis started his 2015 campaign on a good note,
improving his scoring, upholding a consistent average of 16 points per game for the first 20
games. On February 22 , 2016, for the first time in his career, he notched his first triple double,
with 10 assists, 12 rebounds, and 27 points during a game with the Lakers which the Bucks won.
Until now he had already accomplished so much at a young age. When Giannis turned 21,
he also set a record by becoming the youngest Buck to score a triple-double. On March 13, 2016,
he became the first player in Milwaukee Bucks history to earn four triple-doubles in one season.
In December 2016, Giannis was again recognized as the ‘Eastern Conference Player of the Week.
Soon after that he notched his 7th career triple double.
Giannis was selected to start the ‘2017 NBA All Star-Game’ as a member of the Eastern Conference
squad. Giannis made history by becoming the first player from Bucks’ to be selected as
an All-Star squad since Michael Redd. This was for sure a turning point in his career.
The rest is history from there. The MVPs, the championship he brought to Milwaukee.
This kid was a hero for his family, his team, and his country. And he is just getting started.
Going back to the immigration issues,
Antetokounmpo’s personal experiences mirror the uncertainty that often
defines the experience of undocumented immigrants no matter where they reside.
Giannis was lucky, but there are thousands of talented athletes just like him who are
struggling with immigration laws. Just imagine how many Greek Freaks or any other country
freaks there are out there waiting for their chance at a better life and a shot at the NBA.
What do you think of the Greek Freak’s career? Feel
free to drop your thoughts in the comment section.