Giannis Antetokounmpo

Giannis Antetokounmpo was born in Athens on 6 December 1994. His parents had come to Greece from Nigeria, and he grew up in the Greek capital. Although he was born in Greece, he did not have Greek citizenship as a child; he received it in May 2013, a few weeks before the NBA draft. His surname is the Greek spelling of the Nigerian name Adetokunbo, so it also appears in other forms abroad.

He began playing basketball in the youth teams of Filathlitikos, a club in Athens, and from 2011 he played for its senior team in the lower divisions of Greek basketball. In 2013 he also played for Greece at the Under-20 European Championship. On 27 June 2013 the Milwaukee Bucks chose him fifteenth in the NBA draft. He was eighteen and almost unknown in the United States.

Milwaukee remained his team for thirteen seasons. He was named the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2019 and 2020, won the 2021 championship and left as the club’s all-time leading scorer, with 21,531 points. In July 2026 a trade sent him to the Miami Heat. Alongside the NBA, he has played for Greece at two World Cups, three EuroBaskets and the Paris 2024 Olympics.

On the court Antetokounmpo is known for his long strides, his drives to the basket and his defence; fans call him the “Greek Freak”. He won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award for the 2018–19 and 2019–20 seasons, the first Milwaukee player to win it since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and in 2019–20 he was also Defensive Player of the Year, a rare double. He was chosen for the All-Star Game ten times, every year from 2017 to 2026.

His biggest club success came in 2021. In the sixth game of the NBA Finals against the Phoenix Suns, on 20 July 2021, he scored 50 points and Milwaukee won 105–98. It was the club’s first championship since 1971, and he was named Finals MVP.

With the Greek national team the great moments came later. In July 2024 Greece won the Olympic qualifying tournament in Piraeus, and at the Paris opening ceremony he carried the Greek flag together with the race walker Antigoni Drisbioti. In September 2025, at EuroBasket in Riga, he scored 30 points in the 92–89 win over Finland that gave Greece the bronze medal, its first EuroBasket medal since 2009.

In Greece his games are followed closely, and the national team’s bronze medal in 2025 was celebrated across the country. He gives interviews to Greek media in Greek, and some of his posts are in Greek, like the short caption quoted below. His first name, Γιάννης, is the everyday form of Ιωάννης, one of the most common names in Greece.

Try this: find a Greek-language news report on the EuroBasket 2025 bronze medal game. Look for the words ομάδα (team), νίκη (victory) and αγώνας (match). Then read the score 92–89 aloud: ενενήντα δύο – ογδόντα εννιά. Finally, compare two meanings of τιμή: “honour” in his caption, but “price” in a shop.

• His surname is the Greek spelling of the Nigerian name Adetokunbo.
• In 2019–20 he won both the MVP award and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season.
• In the 2021 Finals clincher he scored 50 points.
• At the Paris 2024 opening ceremony he shared Greece’s flag with the race walker Antigoni Drisbioti.