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Her family name means in Greek "the crown that comes from the seas": Giannis Antetokounmpo's journey resembles a modern odyssey, that of an undocumented child in the process of becoming Milwaukee – leading 2-1 to Boston in Eastern Conference semifinal – one of the biggest stars in world basketball.
At 24, Giannis Antetokounmpo is already a phenomenon of the NBA, as he proves in each match of the semi-finals of the East Conference against the Boston Celtics. After finishing the regular season with the Bucks with the best record of the championship and personal averages that give the tournaments (27.7 points and 12.5 rebounds per game), the colossus of 2.11 m is even a favorite for the title of best player of the year (MVP). And this, after only six seasons in the highest championship of the planet.
"It's no coincidence that he has reached such a level today," says Takis Zivas, his first basketball coach, "because he's a great player and teammate. His priority is the team, the group.
Third in a family of five, Giannis Antetokounmpo has set the collective as the main value on the floor as in life. With his teammates, he pulls up and hopes to help win an NBA champion title that escapes Milwaukee since 1971. And with his family especially. "I am the legacy of my fathers," he wrote in his Instagram account introduction, in tribute to his father Charles, who died in September 2017. Since childhood, Giannis Antetokounmpo is very close to his brothers, whose relationship has been labeled "AntetokounBros", include "the brothers Antetokounmpo".
From Athens streets to American stars
The sons of Nigerian immigrants who arrived in Greece in 1991, Giannis, Thanasis, (drafted in 2014 by the New York Knicks), Kostas (who spent the 2018-19 season with the Dallas Mavericks reserve team) and Alex were born and grew up in Sepolia, a poor neighborhood in Athens. Elder Francis had stayed in Nigeria when his parents emigrated to Greece. Their daily life was marked by precariousness, punctuated by odd jobs and sale on the sly.
"The beautiful stories hide many problems," says Spyros Velliniatis, the recruiter who spotted the Antetokounmpo brothers as children. "I had a revelation when I saw them," says Velliniatis, who is used to surveying the Greek capital to find future talent.
He convinced them to play basketball at the Filathlitikos Zografou club, assisting the parents financially. "It's me who found them housing, I helped parents get a salary," he recalls, not without pride.
Official Ambassador of Tourism in Greece
The talent, personality and efforts of Giannis Antetokounmpo allow him to progress quickly. "What interests him is the progress and the work," confirms his first coach, Takis Zivas, who joined him at the age of 12 at the Filathlitikos Zografou club. "Giannis is a fighter, he was born like that". "We are talking about a child different from the others, with an exceptional mentality".
Undocumented until 2013, Giannis Antetokounmpo is naturalized Greek when leaving the country for the United States. He was recruited by Milwaukee Bucks on June 27, 2013 and gradually became the best player on his team, helped by an impressive physique. His athletic characteristics – his hands measure 30.5 centimeters, his stride reach 2.68 meters – have earned him the nickname "Greek Freak", the "Greek monster" since his arrival in the United States.
The multiplication of contracts ranked him in 30th place of the highest paid athletes in the world in 2018, according to the American magazine Forbes.Giannis Antetokounmpo is now official ambassador of tourism in Greece, figure of the airline Aegean, and embodies his country abroad. "As high as I can rise, Greece will rise at the same time," he told the Gazzetta newspaper in 2016.
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