According to a new book, Giannis Antetokounmpo was so impoverished as a child that he had to share a pair of basketball shoes with his older brother, despite the fact that he is currently perhaps the most gifted player in the NBA.
The athlete, who was up in a neighborhood of Athens, Greece, had to wait for his sibling Thanasis to finish playing in order to wear his size 15 sneakers because his parents couldn’t afford two sets.
The seven-member family was so poor and frequently hungry that Giannis once passed out while working out on an empty stomach.
The humble beginnings are now a far cry from his current lifestyle as the star player of the Milwaukee Bucks, whom he helped lead to victory in the NBA championship May for the first time since 1971.
The rags to riches story is laid bare in new biography, Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP, by author Mirin Fader, published on Tuesday.
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo was voted MVP two years in a row, a feat only legends like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James had achieved before the age of 26, his current age
The child of Nigerian immigrants, Giannis grew up in extreme poverty in Greece where his family could hardly afford to eat
As one of the top players in the league, the NBA star is currently living the high life. Giannis Antetokounmpo is pictured here with his family after winning the 2019 NBA Awards’ most valuable player title.
According to Fader, the 6′ 11″ basketball player consumed pancakes nonstop for ten days after trying them for the first time because he was so ecstatic about the incredible victory.
Because he was so used to being poor, after practice he would load up on food at the free buffet and developed an obsession with Walmart, which he saw as a “treat.”
When Giannis first visited Chipotle, he was so overwhelmed by the variety of options that he had to order everything at once, which required them to be wrapped in two football-sized tortillas.
Sports journalist Mirin Fader of The Ringer, a website covering sports, describes how a thin, unknown Greek immigrant with Nigerian parents, who played in Greece’s lowest professional division and was considered a wildcard selection risk, rose to prominence in the NBA.
Only superstars like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James had accomplished the distinction of being named the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2019 and 2020 before Giannis, who is currently 26 years old, did.
However, Giannis thought that such fame was only a pipe dream back in Athens. His parents had relocated there from Nigeria in 1991 in pursuit of a better life because of the unrest in their native country.
They moved to Sepolia, a working-class neighborhood of Athens, but were unable to get Greek citizenship and struggled to get employment.
Giannis (pictured center with his mom and brother) was born three years after his parents immigrated to Greece and by the age of six he was helping his mother Veronica sell purses on the street
The book claims that when Giannis’s family didn’t have enough food, his father would skip meals and that his mother once had to sell her wedding ring in order for them to eat.
Giannis was born three years later, and the book tells how, by the time he was six years old, he and his mother Veronica were already making ends meet by selling fake handbags and sunglasses on the streets.
If his family didn’t have enough food, his father Charles would miss meals for a few days. At one point, his mother had to sell her wedding ring to make ends meet.
Giannis once had to go with his mother to the landlord’s office to plead for an extension on the time to pay the rent because the family had been evicted more times than they could recall.
When he was younger, Giannis had aspirations of being a professional soccer player like his father, who was injured.
However, a local coach named Spiros Velliniatis convinced him to start playing basketball when he was 13 years old, saying that he had received a message from God.
Even though Giannis lacked basketball abilities or skills at the time, Velliniatis insisted that something “divine” was at play.
Giannis tried harder than anyone else and arrived 40 minutes early for practice at a national training camp.
Even though he was still awful, his height, athleticism, and attitude set him apart.
He started out on the Filathlitikos youth squad, which played in the Greek national second division. The guys on that team were quite unprofessional, and some of them used to smoke during halftime.
Giannis lived in a poor area of Athens and had to walk two hours to get to the dusty, airless gym from his home since he couldn’t always afford the bus and metro fare.
Despite his poor shooting and inability to dribble, Giannis was driven to improve.
.
Giannis was a 15th round pick when he was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks, beating the Atlanta Hawks who planned to choose him soon afterwards
+23View gallery
After the draft, Giannis’s biggest problem was fitting in with his new teammates who brutally hazed their 19-year-old rookie
But even training became a challenge because he was missing meals and not getting proper nourishment.
During one session, Giannis began ‘gasping for air’ because he was so weak and ‘could not go on any more,’ and eventually collapsed, Fader writes.
His teammates would later learn that he hadn’t eaten anything all day and constantly offered him food after the incident.
Giannis shared a pair of sneakers with his brother Thanasis who would hand them over after his game so Giannis could play right after.
However, the family’s low socioeconomic status was not the only barrier they faced in society.
Giannis’s younger brother Alex said that growing up black in a mostly white country, they always felt they were ‘outsiders.’
That was especially the case when it came to race, and Giannis was called ‘blackie’ by people in the street who told him to ‘go back to your country.’
One of Giannis’s teammates, Rahman Rana, whose family is from Pakistan, recalled: ‘People really treated him badly.
‘We were treated as second-class citizens.’
Growing up with four siblings, Giannis had to share a pair of sneakers with older brother Thanasis who would hand them over after his game so Giannis could play basketball right after
A former teammate revealed Giannis and his family were treated as second-class citizens in Greece. Now, the family is reaping the rewards of his success
Back in Athens such glory was a pipe dream for Giannis, who grew up penniless and faced racist attacks
When Giannis was 16, he played against another team in Crete where rival fans screamed ‘go home, monkeys’ and threw coins and soda cans at him.
He broke down in tears after the game, Fader writes.
Rana recalled how Giannis was ‘just shattered’, saying: ‘It was the saddest day, seeing how racist people are.
‘We were working so hard to be accepted in this society and people were rejecting us.’
Giannis poured out his heart to Rana and said that watching his family live in such poverty left him feeling ‘destroyed.’
Giannis and his brother stayed home at night in fear that white vigilantes would attack them on the street or that the police would stop them.
With no papers and being undocumented, Giannis feared being arrested and thrown out of the country.
The only way Giannis could cope with the racism was by ‘burying it deep inside,’ his Nikolaos Gkikas said.
Giannis’s hard work began to pay off and soon he was dominating in games, swatting away shots from opposition players at one end of the court then dunking at the other.
He developed an ability to dribble like a point guard despite his 6ft 11in height and his wingspan which would eventually stretch to more than 7ft.
The book revealed that the family always felt like ‘outsiders’ while growing up black in a mostly white country. Pictured: Giannis and his mother in Athens
.
Giannis shares a son with girlfriend Mariah (pictured). In May, they announced they were expecting their second child
But without Greek citizenship he couldn’t travel by plane and couldn’t play for the Greek first division, so he was stuck in the semi-pro second league.
By 2012, Giannis had gotten himself an agent, but when he went for a physical exam, the doctor was stunned to see his liver looked like it belonged to a 70-year-old alcoholic.
The doctor advised Giannis to start eating more and nourishing his body with healthy food to take the strain off his body.
Rumors of a talented but raw teenager would soon reach NBA scouts who began to take an interest in the 16-year-old Giannis.
They made the trek to the grimy gym in Zografou, where dozens of NBA scouts sat with clipboards having arrived in limousines.
With interest from the US, Greek authorities came under intense pressure to give Giannis citizenship so that he could potentially move to the US.
Fader writes scathingly that it was only after Giannis attracted interest from basketball clubs and only after his family approached the Nigerian embassy in Greece did they speed up the process.
Giannis finally got his passport in May 2013, but now he faced the daunting prospect of the NBA draft.
It was only until US professional leagues began showing interest in Giannis, that the Greek government finally gave him citizenship and a passport
Giannis was a mediocre basketball player in his early years, yet he managed to make it to the major leagues.
‘He was a mystery because he wasn’t playing for Greece’s two best teams,’ writes Fader. He was a global player, which made him mysterious.
Because his name was mispronounced, he remained a mystery. His frame was almost abnormally lean, and he possessed incredible athleticism.
Agents conjectured that he may follow in Magic Johnson’s footsteps, citing his “potential off the charts” according to his official NBA biography, but he still had a long way to go.
The Milwaukee Bucks selected Giannis in the fifteenth round of the 2013 NBA Draft, beating out the Atlanta Hawks, who were going to select him sooner.
It was a significant risk, but it would be well worth it.
Giannis’s main issue right now was adjusting to his new teammates, who severely harassed their rookie, who is only 19 years old.
It didn’t help that he was so thin that Fader describes him as having the appearance of a “very long toothpick.”
She claims that they called him “Bambi,” “Stop Sign,” and “Baby Giraffe” and handled him like a “punching bag.”
Giannis was so charming with his wide-eyed approach to America which he often documented on social media
When Giannis revealed in a tweet in January 2014 that he had tried a smoothie for the first time, it won over thousands of hearts.
But over time, Giannis was able to win them over with his humor, humility, and diligent dedication to the game.
Giannis also connected with Bucks supporters; his tale of rising from nothing spoke to the city’s working class residents, and they were inspired by his diligent work ethic.
Furthermore, he was incredibly endearing with his broad-minded perspective on America, which he shared on social media.
He gained a ton of followers after sending out a charming tweet on January 24, 2014, which went viral.
“I just tasted a smoke for the first time…MAN GOD BLESS AMERICA,” it said.
Giannis ‘liked,’ according to Fader, coming to Walmart to buy furniture since, to him, it was like shopping at the best places.
His taste in American cinema was piqued by films such as Eddie Murphy’s 1980 comedy Coming to America, which told the story of an African prince who settled in New York.
Similar to Murphy’s character in the movie, Giannis got completely lost in the narrative and devoured it, often quoting his favorite lines, such as “sexual chocolate.”
His ignorance was also demonstrated on the floor when the Bucks coaches warned him that playing the Utah Jazz at altitude could have an impact on his performance.
In response, Giannis believed he was at altitude and ran to the top of the stands.
Giannis picked up trash talking on the court as he became fluent in English, but it took him some time to figure out when to use profanity.
He didn’t use the word “b***h” as an insult when he first learnt it; instead, he would yell it when he missed a shot, which made his teammates laugh even more.
Giannis received a designer suit from one of his teammates, but he never wore it—rather, he lived in his team uniform every day.
He became addicted to sweets soon after, letting out a ‘oooooooohhhh’ as he tried peanut butter for the first time.
The first time he tried pancakes he became ‘obsessed’ and ate them for ten days in a row.
In 2016 Giannis signed a four-year deal with the Bucks worth $100million, meaning he had finally made it to the big time
The man dubbed the “Greek Freak,” the most improbable NBA draft pick who began his career in a rough-and-tumble gym outside of Athens, had won the biggest title in sports.
Fader also talks on Giannis’s first experience at Chipotle, saying he was “astounded” by the variety of options and the idea of combining all the food into a single wrap.
He ordered black beans, pinto beans, guacamole, cheese, chicken, steak, and more. The server had to use two tortillas to fill his enormous burrito.
Giannis would load up five plastic containers of food to take home from the free buffet that the Bucks received before and after games, drawing curious looks from his teammates who didn’t understand why he was “hoarding” food.
According to Fader, Giannis never forgot what it was like to be impoverished, which is a harsher explanation for his actions.
‘What drives Giannis so much is that he’s frightened somebody could take it all away at any moment,’ stated Bucks assistant coach Josh Oppenheimer.
Not a day went by that Giannis didn’t reflect back on those days, according to Fader. Epifania. Purchasing. selling goods on posh beaches. not having sufficient.
That inspired him. It alarmed him.
“Because basketball has given us all we have,” Giannis would remind his brothers, they should respect the game.
Giannis finally reached the big time when he inked a $100 million four-year contract with the Bucks in 2016.
However, he continued to live frugally, and when he moved, he had a yard sale scheduled to get rid of items he no longer needed.
It was halted by the Bucks because it would have been a security risk.
But Giannis’s success also brought him unfavorable attention—he continued to face racist taunts in Greece.
Despite his fame, wealth, and success, Giannis keeps a relatively modest lifestyle
He was charged of putting the NBA ahead of his nation after he was forced to miss games for the Greek national team due to injuries.
A Greek-born professor living in London, Evangelos Markopoulos, wrote: ‘Enough with the black guy who claims to be Greek.’ His childhood court in Sepolia was defaced with swastikas.
One of the most well-known right-wing commentators in Greece, Adonis Georgiadis, the minister of development at the moment, said that Giannis was “born somewhere in Africa.”
Giannis faced severe backlash whenever he discussed the bigotry he encountered in Greece.
He remarked last year that it was “tough being black in a country of white people” and that he experienced “a lot of negativity” as a child.
Giannis was called the N-word and dubbed “the ungrateful one” by Konstantinos Kalemis, the Greek Ministry of Education’s coordinator for refugees.
Despite the fact that Giannis was born in Greece, a far-right lawmaker stated, “The only real Greeks are those who were born Greek.”
On the floor, Giannis kept getting better, stronger, and faster.
Giannis used to watch his childhood hero, Kevin Durant, in internet cafes when he could scrape together enough cash to rent a computer for an hour, and Durant commended Giannis’ approach to the game.
Giannis respected the elders of the game by seeking advice from his idols, including as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.
Giannis won the NBA Player of the Year award in 2017.
He was one of the league’s most feared and unstoppable players by the 2020–2021 season, having qualified for the league’s All-Star game for the first time that same year.
There were wild celebrations in Milwaukee in July of this year as he nearly single-handedly led the Bucks to their first championship in fifty years.
The most prestigious award in basketball had been won by the man known as the “Greek Freak,” the most unlikely NBA draft pick who began his career in a rough-and-tumble gym outside of Athens.
Plus, he carried it out his way.
Per Fader, Giannis ‘didn’t care to wear flamboyant attire’ like some of the big names.
He hasn’t purchased a pair of sneakers for himself and stays away from other players during the off-season in order to maintain a professional distance and dominate them on the court.
As LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Dwayne Wade did in the Bahamas in 2015, you won’t see Giannis on a banana boat in pictures that quickly went viral.
According to Fader, Giannis is an example of the new breed of NBA players, including Ben Simmons of Australia and Luka Doncic of Slovenia, who are versatile players.
It implies that the next Michael Jordan may be from Alabama or a dilapidated gym in the Athens suburbs.