If you visited Athens a decade ago, you may have come across Giannis Antetokounmpo. The one who is today the undisputed star of the NBA, the powerful American basketball league which organizes this Friday its first official match in Paris, roamed the streets of the city of Périclès to sell to tourists items on the run. Child of Nigerian parents smuggled, the player who plays today at the Bucks of Milwaukee, a city without charm of the northeast of the United States, had for only paper only his birth certificate announcing that he saw the day December 6, 1994 in Zografou in the suburbs of the Greek capital.
The best player of the 2019 season discovered basketball on a worn field at the end of his street away from the glitter of the NBA floors he is currently treading on. Today, this same site displays the image of a large American equipment supplier with a comma-shaped logo which means "victory" in Greek.
A footballer father, a high jumping mother
It has above all turned into a place of worship for the Athenians. A status that did not suggest the first steps in the life of the young Giannis, whose real family name - Adetokunbo - was changed by the Greek civil registrar when transcribed from Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet. “My parents entered Greece illegally. They could be deported at any time, says the jailer of the team leading the Eastern conference. I could wake up one morning and no longer find them after a police raid. It was a daily threat. "
The stepback for 10K. @ Harleydavidson | #FearTheDeer pic.twitter.com/j5zLrDVmK7
- Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) January 21, 2020His soccer father and his high jump specialist mother left Nigeria in the early 90s. Arrived at the foot of the Acropolis, they live in a unique room with their five children. Giannis etymologically "the son of Zeus" - started basketball at the age of 13 in a small second division club, BC Filathlitikos. "When my mother fell ill, I promised to put me in basketball to do everything so that my family can have a better life," says the giant (2.11m and hands of 30 cm) aged today 25 years.
Strangely, the player with an unpronounceable name goes through the net of the recruiters in a country that is in love with the orange ball. No Greek elite club or European team arrives in Piraeus to observe the phenomenon, which passes between the drops. His destiny changes almost by chance.
It is an American supervisor who smells the good vein in 2013. Weakest NBA franchise, Milwaukee dares to recruit him in fifteenth position in the draft, the traditional transfer market, the same year. Without illusion and for cheap.
That summer, Giannis crossed the Atlantic and flew for the first time in his existence. But old reflexes are hard to lose. At the end of his first training, he leaves with the elbow of boxes containing the cakes offered to the players as a snack. In the trash cans adjoining the room, he collects the new sneakers thrown by his teammates who change them at each meeting.
He has just crossed the 10,000 point mark
It will not take long for the equipment manufacturers to get in touch with the phenomenon. The success story is underway and delighting an America where the myth of the self-made-man is very alive. In 2018, Nike is already designing a shoe with its name: "Air Antetokounmpo" for an annual contract of 10 million dollars (8 million euros). An honor reserved for the greatest like legend Michael Jordan.
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The Greek Freak (the Greek monster) as the Americans call him is now an NBA megastar, his best defending player who has just crossed 10,000 points just before coming to Paris. "It is revolutionizing the game: it is big, fast, skillful," notes Frenchman Nicolas Batum, who will cross paths with the phenomenon this Friday on the Bercy parquet floor. "It is unique," confirms Jacques Monclar, the voice of basketball on BeIN Sports. He is an extraordinary multitasking athlete. He is a spider, the most influential player in the world on his team. He can take the Bucks to the NBA Finals. Last season, his team was eliminated in the conference final against Toronto.
Millionaire in dollars with a fortune estimated at 43.2 million dollars (39 million euros), the giant makes the happiness of the Milwaukee Bucks which thanks to him passed from the last to the first place of the NBA in a few years. In 2016, the franchise also hastened to extend the star's lease for four years for the astronomical sum of 100 million dollars (90.3 million euros). With his extraordinary physique (2.11m, 110kg, 2.26m wingspan), Antetokounmpo is programmed to be one of the best players in history. A label that did not prevent him Wednesday when entering the locker room of the PSG at the Parc des Princes to be happy as a kid.
