Giannis Antetokounmpo, a two-time NBA MVP, will become the first black athlete to represent Greece at the Olympics. Antetokounmpo will be honored alongside racewalker Antigoni Ntrismpioti at the opening ceremony in Paris on July 26.
The Greek men’s basketball team qualified for the Olympics for the first time since 2008 after defeating Croatia in a dramatic encounter in Piraeus, as reported by the BBC.
The 29-year-old Antetokounmpo, who has been with the Milwaukee Bucks since being selected in 2013 and led them to the NBA title in 2021, was spotted in tears following the triumph.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” he said after qualification. “Since I was a kid I always wanted to play in the Olympic Games.”
His journey to become Greece’s Olympic flagbearer has been plagued with difficulties. Antetokounmpo, born to Nigerian immigrant parents, was unable to travel beyond Greece for the first 18 years due to a lack of proper papers from both countries. His position altered in May 2013, when he received Greek citizenship two weeks before the NBA draft.
In a recent ESPN interview, Antetokounmpo discussed his rough background and how he overcome difficulties on his path to stardom.
“I used to sell things since I can remember myself since I was six or seven years old.
“I was always out of home trying as much as I could to help my mom and dad by selling watches, glasses, CDs, DVDs, and everything I could find. I was doing that until I turned 17 because I had to. I had no other choice. When I was selling all those things, I was the best seller.”
Despite his prominence in the United States, Antetokounmpo suffered bigotry in his home country of Greece. In a 2020 TNT documentary, he described the difficulties he faced, saying, “Greece is a country of white people; life can be difficult for someone with the color of my skin.” Or of another nationality. You go to a lot of neighborhoods and encounter a lot of racism.
Some Greeks reacted negatively to his words, including Konstantinos Kalemis, the Malakasa camp’s refugee education coordinator, who shouted racist slurs against Antetokounmpo and was later sacked.
Antetokounmpo has also faced discrimination from government officials. In 2018, Adonis Georgiadis, the current health minister, mispronounced Giannis Antetokounmpo’s name and wrongly asserted that he was born in Africa rather than Greece.
Antetokounmpo will be among the first competitors to enter the Games, as Greece customarily leads the parade. Spyros Kapralos, president of the Greek Olympic Committee, stated that there is unanimous support for Antetokounmpo to carry the flag in Paris, believing that the flagbearers will raise the country’s prestige.
