Giannis Antetokounmpo has achieved almost every NBA accolade possible with the Bucks: an NBA championship, Finals MVP, regular season MVP (twice), Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, and All-Star MVP. However, he believes that leading the Greek national team to its first international medal since 2009 could be his greatest feat as an athlete, as FIBA.com relays.
Greece won the bronze medal by defeating Lauri Markkanen and the Finnish team 92-89. Antetokounmpo amassed 30 points, 17 rebounds, six assists, and two steals while shooting 9-11 from the field and 12-16 from the free throw line. Markannen, for his part, had 19 points and 10 rebounds.
“This is probably the greatest accomplishment I have ever accomplished as an athlete,” Antetokounmpo said after the game.
He went on to clarify the meaning of what might seem to some an unusual claim, and to ensure fans in Wisconsin don’t take his words the wrong way.
“This is not better than the championship I won with the Bucks. Winning a championship for an NBA club is a huge accomplishment and Milwaukee is a great city. But it is 500 or 600 thousand people,” he said. “But when you are able to make 12 million Greeks happy, and you are able to inspire the next generation – like (the 2005 EuroBasket winners) inspired us from the previous generation in 1987 that inspired them. This is the biggest thing ever.”
Antetokounmpo believes there’s something special about international competition, saying that every time he plays with the national team, he falls in love with the game more, a feeling likely aided by the fact that he was able to achieve this success while playing alongside two of his brothers, Kostas Antetokounmpo and Thanasis Antetokounmpo. He’s hoping that by seeing his and the team’s success, more young players will be inspired to chase that feeling.
“There’s a kid right now watching this on TV who is going to be very very happy that maybe one day that he can win a medal with the national team,” Antetokounmpo said.
Poor guy hasn’t played with Steph enough to have real highlights. Thankfully, that will likely change soon!!
Not sure if that says more about Giannis or about Greece…
I think it speaks more to the American view of international competition than anything else. We’ve been spoiled by having the US olympic team and by housing the most competitive league in the world.
Really lol ……. to get Greece behind Giannis. Is monumental in every imaginable way.. ..🙏
Then the Bucks shouldn’t even bother getting him any help.
Because he loves Greece? What?
Foreigners loving their home countries continues to chap the rears of U.S. Americans.
I still remember the xenophobic online exasperation by Chicago Bulls fans when Lauri Markkanen elected to spend his off-seasons in Finland (“That poor small backward country, how can he prepare himself there?!”).
There’s a difference between working for a paycheck as well as one’s personal career abroad and playing for the country you love in front of your own people.
I was saying just that a couple of months ago when everyone was talking about giannis joining poor warriors.
The Greek national team is above everything else for Giannis. It’s the same fo Doncic.
Giannis is such a wonderful human being. I am happy to see him succeed and be happy, even if it doesn’t benefit the Bucks directly.