The parents of Giannis Antetokounmpo, who immigrated to Greece, are described here, along with their upbringing of their four NBA players.

Giannis Antetokounmpo has always had close ties to his family, especially to his mother Veronica Antetokounmpo and late father Charles Antetokounmpo.

Charles and Veronica (also called Vera) relocated to Athens, Greece, in 1991 after growing up in Nigeria. Collectively, they gave birth to five children, the oldest of whom, Francis, was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and raised there with his grandparents when his parents moved to Greece. Their four younger children, Thanasis, Giannis, Kostas, and Alex, grew up in Athens. After being without Greek citizenship for a considerable amount of time, Giannis was granted citizenship in May 2013, shortly before he was chosen in the NBA draft. His younger brothers, then ages 11 and 14, joined his older brother Thanasis, who had moved to the US to play in the NBA’s D-League, in 2014 after obtaining their visas.

Rise, a 2022 Disney+ film, was based on the Antetokounmpos, who were known for their talent and close-knit group.

“Ever since our time together began, I have always believed in my children’s skills and hoped that everything would turn out for the best. But as I saw them mature—playing, touring the globe, taking home titles, and all—I felt that this would lead us to a better place down the road. Says Veronica to Yahoo! Sports. And so this is where we are at the moment. We really are unique.

Charles and Francis played professional football, Veronica was a high jumper, and the other four sons in the family were drafted into the NBA. There are several committed athletes in the family. Giannis, sometimes known as the “Greek Freak,” is one of the best power forwards in the NBA.

“It’s been an incredible experience,” he told The Red Bulletin. “My parents saw my dream as more real than I did.”

Charles passed away in September 2017 at the age of 54 following a heart attack, a couple years before to Giannis winning NBA MVP Awards in 2019 and 2020 and three of his sons winning championships. (Kostas won in 2020 while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers; Giannis and Thanasis won in 2021 while playing for the Milwaukee Bucks.)

It’s challenging. Giannis said to NBA.com two weeks after his father passed away, “Losing someone you love is tough.” “losing someone who has supported you from the start. especially since we are a close-knit family.

Veronica has continued to see her sons often and attends NBA games. In 2017, Giannis said, “she’s been a colleague right next to me,” to TIME.

Who are Charles and Veronica Antetokounmpo? This page contains all the information you require regarding the parents of NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo and their relationship.

They have five sons together.In 1991, they moved to Greece, the birthplace of Giannis.Veronica conversed with her kids in Igbo, her native tongue.Both of them were athletes.2017 saw Charles’s death.In his MVP Award speech, Giannis paid tribute to both of his parents.In 2014, they relocated to Milwaukee.Their original last name wasn’t AntetokounmpoAfter Giannis entered the NBA, they assisted him in adjusting to maturity.Because they were afraid of being deported, they had no friends in Greece.In 2021, Veronica became a Greek citizen.Veronica owns a personalised basketball purse filled with signed photos.

Alex, Thanasis, Kostas, and Giannis are the other four children of Charles and Veronica.

Of the Antetokounmpo brothers, all save Francis were chosen by the NBA. However, Francis played football professionally in Greece. Three more people have achieved NBA Championships: Kostas with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020; Thanasis and Giannis with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021. The 2022 Disney+ film Rise drew inspiration from the brothers’ incredible ascent to stardom, their strong bond, and their outstanding athletic achievements.

The movie is about more than just myself. Giannis said, “It’s about the sacrifice that my parents made early in their lives in order for us to be in the position that we are today,” to the New York Post in 2022.

Charles and Veronica are also grandparents. Giannis and his spouse Mariah Riddlesprigger share two boys, Liam Charles and Maverick Shai, who are parents to two children already and one on the way. Veronica told Milwaukee’s WISN 12 News that her first grandchild was born in 2020 and that it was a “special gift.”

Charles and Veronica moved from Lagos, Nigeria to the Sepolia neighbourhood of Athens in 1991. While Francis, the firstborn son of the Antetokounmpo family, remained in Lagos with his grandparents, the other four boys were born and raised in Athens.

The pair, who were undocumented immigrants, struggled to find steady work and had to combine manual labour and odd jobs to make ends meet. Living in Athens was “a daily struggle,” according to Giannis, who told TIME that they “had to hustle every day to provide a plate of food on our table.”

Up until2012, Giannis and Thanasis used their street sales to supplement their parents’ income. Giannis recalled to The New York Times that Charles and Veronica’s four sons shared a bed, and they slept in a small den behind “a curtain.”

Giannis remarked, “Those moments back then, they were beautiful, man,” to ESPN in 2018. It’s amazing to experience adversity, come out stronger, and see your family succeed now. Since I can still remember such moments, I’m pleased I had them.

The 13-year-old Giannis was persuaded to join the semi-pro team Filathlitikos by junior club coach Spiros Velliniatis, who told Charles and Veronica he would get them a job paying 800 euros a month, according to The New York Times. “I knew that basketball isn’t important to Nigerians,” Velliniatis said. “They are passionate about football. It is imperative to appease the parents. If not, they won’t be intrigued.

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Despite growing up in Greece, Giannis and his brothers never lost touch with their Nigerian roots.

In response to Andscape, Giannis responded, “My family is from Nigeria.” “I was born and attended school in Greece, naturally. But at the end of the day, Greek culture isn’t there when I get home. That is pure Nigerian culture. It has to do with morality, self-control, and respect for authority.

One of Nigeria’s four official languages, Igbo, is what Veronica spoke with her sons in at home. Speaking one of the more than 500 languages and dialects spoken in Nigeria, Charles was raised speaking it.

In 2015, Giannis acquired a passport from Nigeria. It is essential. That shapes who I am. My parents are from Nigeria. They want for me to understand it. He stated, “I got it because I wanted it,” to the press.

The NBA player and his mother visited Nigeria in the summer of 2023.

The Antetokounmpo brothers are athletes; their father, Charles, played professional football, while their mother, Veronica, competed in high jumping.

Even though Charles believed his boys would all become basketball players, he used his football skills to assist them hone their skills, notably footwork training. Charles was very happy with Giannis’s leadership of his brothers both on and off the court.

In 2016, the father of five said of Giannis, “the way that he mentors all of his brothers is amazing,” to the National Basketball Players Association. “For them, he will go above and beyond. He’ll stop at nothing to make sure kids have everything they need. He teaches children life lessons, basketball lessons, and priorities. It’s amazing to see how Giannis is picking up everything I am teaching him.

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Giannis’s father passed away in Milwaukee on September 29, 2017, following a heart attack. He was fifty-four.

On the day of Charles’s passing, Giannis and his entire family—including Veronica, whom he called “strong” and “a beast”—took to the basketball court at the Bucks’ downtown offices to show their condolences.

“There was never a day in my life that I called him and he wasn’t there for me,” Giannis stated to NBA.com. I could be lazy and sit on the couch, and I’d ask him to get me some food. He would just respond with, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll take care of it.” He has been at the game every day since the day he came. And he was happy. incredibly happy. For each and every youngster.

Not long after his father’s death, Giannis said that it was “okay to be sad,” provided that the family helped one another through the grieving process.

“We loved our dad very much. My mother loved her husband. But in the end, I think he accomplished his purpose for coming here,” he said. He raised us nicely, and he had five kids. That is the most important element. I want to leave my children with the same impact that my father is currently having when I die away.

In 2019, Giannis shared an old photo of himself and his dad on social media with the caption, “Happy Father’s Day! I truly do miss you.

After three years, Giannis and his family founded the Charles Antetokounmpo Family Foundation, a “global social impact foundation” that funds organisations like the Milwaukee Diaper Mission and the International Rescue Committee in an effort to support young people, widows, athletes, refugees, and immigrants.

Two years following the passing of his father, Giannis was voted the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 2019. He paid homage to both of his parents during an emotional address he delivered on stage.

“I’d like to thank my father. You are aware, of course, that my father is not present,” he remarked. “I was going to be the top player in the league, that was my mental aim two years ago. I will stop at nothing to ensure that my team wins, and I will take home the MVP award. I always think of my dad when I walk on the floor, which inspires me to work harder and advance in my game.

Giannis also praised his mother as his “hero” and congratulated his brothers.

“You cannot glimpse the future when you are a small child. He said, “If your parents are good, they see the future for you.” She never lacked faith in us and always saw the future in us. She was our constant companion. She is our family’s cornerstone. My real idol is you.”

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2013 saw the Milwaukee Bucks select Giannis. The following year, after a protracted and challenging process to obtain their visas, his family arrived in Wisconsin to join him.

According to an excerpt from Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP by author Mirin Fader, Giannis felt “lonely,” “homesick,” and “lost” during his rookie season. The New York Times published this writing.

He informed his family in November 2013 that he would go back to Greece if they were unable to go to the United States.

“Although I was raised with my family, I am a very independent and resilient child. However, I was aware that I had to go in search of a brighter future,” he told the NBPA. “I used to constantly use Skype to talk to my family and show them around the apartment, saying things like, ‘Alex, Kostas, this is your bedroom.’” “Mom, this is your and dad’s bedroom,” I said. Our living room is this. We use this as our kitchen. And I could see my mother’s expression in her eyes. “Perhaps one day we’ll be able to be there with you,” she said. I was about to lose it, but the Bucks came through for me by bringing my family.”

Giannis, Kostas, and Alex shared a Milwaukee apartment a few years into Giannis’s career before Kostas moved to the University of Dayton. Before Veronica moved upstairs following the death of her husband, their parents shared a downtown apartment building, one level below. Since then, Giannis and Riddlespringer and their children have relocated to the Milwaukee suburbs, as reported by GQ.

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Though the family is known by the name Antetokounmpo, their original Yoruba surname is Adétòkunbọ̀. Antetokounmpo became Giannis’ surname after his given name was misspelled on his Greek passport. The entire family eventually adopted the new last name, according to Andscape.

Giannis spoke about his family’s lesser-known Nigerian name with comedian Hasan Minhaj in WhatsApp’s original digital short “The Game of Adétòkunbọ̀” in February 2023.

Giannis said that his given name “means everything” to him, explaining: “I grew up in Greece and my parents are Nigerian, and that’s who I am. … I know where I’m from and I’m proud of that and I hope my kids can be the same.”

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Charles and Veronica made sure to be at the majority of Giannis’ games, and Veronica continued to be an arena mainstay after her husband’s death. When 18-year-old Giannis was starting out in the league, his parents also helped by “paying the bills, driving me to the airport — simple things like that.”

“My father is helping me with basketball. My mother is doing everything else,” he told the NBPA. “If you could give like an MVP trophy, it’s going to my mom.”

Veronica keeps up with everything related to Giannis, especially any gossip on social media. In 2022, Giannis told SiriusXM’s The Starting Lineup that he tried to avoid online chatter, as he would eventually hear it from his teammates, his partner or his mother — who is “on Facebook all day.”

“She knows everything. You know, she’s my No. 1 fan, or stalker I’d say,” he joked, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “She’s my mom.”

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As undocumented immigrants, Charles and Veronica were fearful of forging bonds outside of their family in Greece because “their friends could tell the cops, ‘Come get them,’ ” Giannis told TIME in 2017. “Even now that [my parents] are in Milwaukee, it’s tough for them to have friends. Because for 25 years, they’ve lived without having friends. It’s tough to trust somebody.”

The kids were also afraid in Greece, as they were constantly worried that Charles and Veronica would get deported.

“They couldn’t deport me because I didn’t have a passport. Deport me to go where? Back to Nigeria?” Giannis told the outlet. “I was born in Greece, I had a birth certificate. They couldn’t deport me. But they could deport my parents. So we were afraid as kids that one day we could wake up without our parents. That was one of the toughest feelings for us growing up as kids.”

Even when he had conversations with new people as an adult, his mother told him to ask questions and to give her their names to look up.

“So she still has that trust issue,” he said. “I think it’s getting better and better and better since we moved to the States. But for me, it’s kind of easy to now trust people.”

Despite being fearful of people outside of their family, Charles and Veronica taught their kids to be tough and believe that things would work out.

“My parents would always tell us: ‘Things are going to be all right. Believe in God, things are going to be all right eventually. We are blessed. We are blessed just being in this situation,’ ” Giannis recalled. “Have patience, believe and have patience.”

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In September 2021, Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou granted Greek citizenship to Veronica and her youngest son, Alex. They were sworn in on Sept. 16, 2021, at Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ residence, with both Giannis and the president in attendance.

“It is historic that you are the first woman president of the republic and thank you for inviting us as a family,” Giannis told Sakellaropoulou the next day, according to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini. “We have always felt Greek, we went to a Greek school, we know Greek, we know Greek culture and [the citizenship] is just the official seal.”

They were the last two living members of the Antetokounmpo family to obtain Greek citizenship. Shortly before Giannis was drafted into the NBA in 2013, he and Thanasis were granted citizenship. Kostas received his in 2016.

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Giannis may have been the one to watch during the 2020 NBA All-Star Game in Chicago, but off the court, all eyes were on Veronica.

WISN 12 News called her “the biggest fan of the night” among the sold-out crowd, showing off her custom basketball purse. The one-of-a-kind bag was covered in signatures, including those of LeBron James, Khris Middleton and her son Giannis.

While Giannis led the Eastern Conference’s team, her other four boys attended the game, which she called “a very proud moment for me.”

“It’s so fun, it’s so great, and I’m so proud,” she said of Giannis, who was the captain of his second All-Star Game in a row. “Better than proud.”