The Antetokounmpo brothers no longer sleep in bunk beds

Literally a movie life.

The story of the Antetokounmpo brothers is so surprising that last June

was released (in Spanish it has been broadcast as

), the film that tells how the children of some Nigerian emigrants went from selling CDs in the streets of Athens and not having papers to wearing an NBA champions ring.

Giannis, Thanasis, Kostas and Alex Antetokounmpo were part of the Greek preselection for the Eurobasket and the first three are contesting the championship.

One of the big favorites made her debut this Friday against Croatia in group C, in Milan, with a hurried 85-89 victory.

Giannis continued in his imperial line with 27 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and three blocks;

Thanasis contributed five points and a rebound;

Kostas did not play this time.

The coincidence of three brothers in the great European tournament is another milestone for this family accustomed to the impossible.

Giannis and Thanasis, with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021, and Kostas, with the Lakers in 2020 although with an almost testimonial role (he only played five games), form the first trio of brothers who are champions in NBA history.

In addition, on March 31, 2021, they starred in the second time that three brothers faced each other in an American league match, after Jrue (New Orleans) and Justin and Aaron Holiday (both with Indiana) coincided on the track. in 2019.

More information

Interview (2019) with Giannis Antetokounmpo: "I was afraid to leave the house in case they deported me"

Giannis, 2.11m and 27 years old, is a world star, twice named the NBA's best player of the season, a wonder of nature that left Willy Villar, then sports director, "with his legs trembling with emotion". from Zaragoza, when in 2013 he went to see him play with Filathlitikos, from the Greek second division.

He then discovered a giant who could shine "in all positions" with great ease and did not pick up the phone until he agreed to incorporate him.

Although they immediately closed the signing of him, the Bucks chose him in the

that summer and kept him in exchange for 400,000 euros.

The rest is history in the mecca of basketball.

"It was a humble family, in a modest house," recalls Villar, now in the sports management of CB Canarias, about that trip in which he met part of the Antetokounmpo family.

“The four brothers slept in a room with bunk beds.

And they were always together.

When we signed Giannis, we were thinking of arranging for the four of them to go to Zaragoza, to play in the quarry, and to find a job for their parents.

But the Bucks took him away and we shut down the operation.

They had it very clear with him, they did not doubt.

The brothers have always been a block, a unit.

They are also united by the fact that they are all physical wonders, and Giannis with great talent.

Genetically they are gifted, they are not gym products, they have a special DNA.

Thanasis, 2.01m and 30 years old, went through Andorra and now officiates as shooting guard and forward in Milwaukee (56 games last year).

Kostas, 2.09m and 24 years old, has ended up in the Asvel Villeurbanne.

The little one, Alex, 2.03m and 21 years old, is trained in the Development League in the United States.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, this Friday against Croatia. Luca Bruno (AP)

Far in time, but forgotten, is the time when his parents, Charles and Vera, left Nigeria, arrived in Turkey and then in Greece;

when the brothers were afraid to go out on the streets in Athens because they did not have a passport and could be deported by the police;

and when they were the only four blacks in school.

That past lives on in them and is often remembered by Giannis, the great protagonist.

From that poverty in the neighborhood of Sepolia, which means "outside the city", El Fenomeno Griego emerged, adding 50 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks in the last game of the final against Phoenix to win the ring, the first non-American with his own line of Nike shoes, a star in this Eurobasket that has started in a big way.

And a speaker against the racism that the family has suffered,

like the swastikas that appeared on a mural with his image in Greece.

“There are people who say: 'he is black, the Greeks are not black'.

My parents grew up in Nigeria, but I have never been there in my life.

If I'm not Greek, I don't know what I am," he said in

His brother Kostas has revived that origin by changing his name on the shirt: Adetokunbo, as in Nigerian spelling.

"My brothers are my religion," repeats Giannis.

The four of them dreamed in those bunks in Sepolia of succeeding in basketball.

Today they even have a movie.

Results and classification of the Eurobasket.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on

50% off

Subscribe to continue reading

read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber