Giannis Antetokounmpo was referred to as a ‘freak’ long before the term became an endearing nickname – and a public persona – in the NBA.
He grew up as one of five siblings to Nigerian immigrants and was stateless, so he avoided calling attention to himself or his family in Sepolia, Athens’ rough area.
Racists would attack the family, which was reported to be the only black family in the neighborhood, in the dead of night. It was a humbling childhood that he is resolved to never forget.
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Giannis Antetokounmpo (left), grew up playing basketball with brother Thanasis (far right) as well as looking after younger siblings Kostas (third right) and Alex (second right)
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The Greek star (right) lived a difficult childhood in which his parents struggled to pay all bills
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He established himself in NBA history when he won his first championship title in Milwaukee
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He elected to go to bed with his Finals MVP trophy and the Larry O’Brien NBA title (right).
It is sometimes missed, but the guy now known as Giannis Antetokounmpo was born Giannis Adetokunbo, with the name change reflecting the Greek spelling on his passport.
He identified as Greek-Nigerian, keen to keep the African aspect of his lineage prominent despite never having visited Nigeria as a child.
Parents In 1991, Veronica and Charles departed Lagos, Nigeria, leaving their eldest child, Francis, with his grandparents.
The objective was to seek a better life for their growing family. Three years later, Giannis was born.
The problem was that without the proper residency and citizenship papers, both Veronica and Charles found it difficult to obtain job.
Antetokounmpo recalls how difficult it was to get constant employment and hence consistent income.
‘Sometimes, our fridge was empty,’ Antetokounmpo told the New York Times in 2013.
‘Some days, we didn’t sell the stuff and we didn’t have money to feed ourselves.’
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Giannis can remember how the ‘fridge was sometimes empty’ as parents struggled for work
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Giannis (left), like his older brother, had to undergo three months of military service.
Veronica frequently made money babysitting, whereas Charles worked intermittently for an electrical company.
However, with the fridge occasionally empty and a busy household, the Antetokounmpo children had to labor. It was that or go hungry again.
He would try to sell DVDs and sunglasses on the streets of Athens to supplement his family’s income. It worked on some days, but not on others.
In an interview in 2013, Veronica said that the family was evicted from their home for failing to pay their $455 monthly rent.
The Antetokounmpo story is as much about overcoming discrimination as it is about raw, world-class talent.
His parents were both athletes, with his mother Veronica being a well-known high jumper and his father briefly playing football in Nigeria.
The Milwaukee star grew up as an Arsenal fan, and his parents were surprised when Giannis and his older brother Thanasis became interested in basketball.
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Giannis (left) was viewed as an outsider in Greece as the family were without valid documents until he was 18. His parents Veronica and Charles (seen right) left Nigeria to start a better life
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The Milwaukee star (left) grew up a huge football fan and his boyhood team was Arsenal (pictured: Giannis and his dad Charles, who was pro in Nigeria, watching an Olympiacos game)
The Greek Freak, as he is affectionately known now, remains totally committed to his family
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The Milwaukee Bucks star has one child with long-time partner Mariah Riddlesprigger (right)
He added: ‘I had a discussion with God in this moment. You can call me crazy, but this is the way I felt. I said, ‘Father in Heaven, am I seeing correctly?’ And I said, ‘Why me?’ And the answer that I got was, ‘If not you, who?”
Velliniatis was sold but there was a natural scepticism from the family that had built up over the years of being mistreated by authorities and those who treated them with suspicion for being an immigrant.
The coach saw potential in Giannis and in the family – Thanasis was of interest also – and so Velliniatis pleaded with bosses at his Filathlitikos team to financially support Veronica and Charles to allow the brothers to play sports, joining the team in 2011.
‘You’re in front of Mozart and he has no food, what do you give him?’ Velliniatis said. ‘The answer is not a violin. The answer is a loaf of bread.’
And so he channeled his frustrations in practice with Filathlitikos, only for team-mates and their parents to question why he was being given special treatment when he appeared to show no skill-set.
Being stateless represented its own obvious risks, deportation being No 1. But deported to where? He was neither a Greek citizen or a Nigerian citizen. He’d never been to Lagos. Antetokounmpo was a young man stripped of identity.
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