Born in Greece December 1994 to Nigerian parents, Giannis Antetokounmpo is a professional basketball player from Greece who plays in the NBA for the Milwaukee Bucks. His sporting career, as well as those of his brothers Thanasi and Kosta, started at the Tritonas Sepolion basketball club, which was based in the suburb of Sepolia in Athens, the neighborhood where they all grew up.

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Growing up in Greece

Growing up in Athens as migrants was a tough time for all of the family, and even though Giannis and his 2 brothers were born in Greece, they did not receive Greek citizenship automatically. In fact, up until the age of 18, Giannis was classed as stateless, and had no official documents from either Greece or Nigeria, where his parents were from and where his older brother Francis was left by his parents to be brought up by his grandparents.

There were times during his early years where Giannis and his brothers would often be working selling various items such as sunglasses, bags and watches in the streets and flea markets of Athens. This was, and still is, one of the forms of work that migrants continue to do, due to a lack of other working opportunities.

His early basketball years

In 2009, Giannis started playing basketball for the youth team of Filathlitikos, who were based in the suburb of Zografou. There were some days during that period where Giannis and his brothers were the targets of racial attacks and feared walking the streets. However, they didn’t cave in and continued to pursue the sport that they loved.

It was just two years later in 2011 that Antetokounmpo was promoted to play with the senior men’s team who were part of the third division of Greek basketball. The following season he was playing in the second division with Filathlitikos. It was during the 2012-2013 season that he was gathering a lot of interest, and there were a number of clubs looking to swoop for his services.  Even though Filathlitikos never managed to get promoted to the first division of Greek basketball, Giannis was already on his way to the top.

The NBA dream

It was announced on 28 April 2013 that Antetokounmpo would participate at the NBA’s draft. Just two months later, on 27 June, he was chosen to be the number 15 of the draft. This would inevitably lead to him signing a full contract, which he did the following month, when he signed with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Giannis was selected with the highest pick on the NBA draft out of all previous Greek NBA prospects. Reaching the draft was a huge surprise for him. The future NBA star celebrated with his family and held a Greek flag. Reaching the NBA was a dream come true for Antetokounmpo and his family, and he was extremely proud of rising from the second tier of Greek basketball through to the top level of the NBA.

His first year in the NBA

It didn’t take long for Giannis to show the world what he was capable of, and what was to come from him in the following years. Though he hadn’t yet developed his own style of playing, he showed all the attributes and potential, and it wasn’t long for him to be given the nickname “The Greek Freak”.

His NBA debut was in October 2013 when he was just 18 years old, making him one of the youngest NBA players in history. He started breaking records in his first year, and was playing as someone with many more years experience and maturity than someone who was still a youngster.

The Greek Freak breaking records

One the back of his impressive debut season, he was selected to be part of the Rising Stars Challenge, which took place in New Orleans as part of the NBA All Star event. He was also named as part of the NBA All Rookie second team for the 2013-2014 season.

Throughout his career in the NBA Giannis continued breaking records, and also made history again when he became the Captain of the All Star Game. He was, and still is, a very down to earth and friendly person, and always has time for the fans and supporting charities that he cares about.

He is a much loved and respected athlete back in his native Greece, and since 2014 when he made his debut for the Greek national basketball team, is a firm favorite with fans all over the country. His story is one of dreams, but a lot of it was down to dedication, hard work, great support from family and friends, as well as his natural athletic abilities.

There are lots of fans of Giannis all over the world who have come to love basketball because of him. Some of them are now using their knowledge of the game when playing at casinot and keep an eye out for all of his news from the Milwaukee Bucks and the NBA.