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CAs the season was over for them, after the Heat swept the Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals, Giannis (25) and Thanasis (28) decided to spend a few days on vacation visiting their brother Alexis (19). For this they had to cross the pond, traveling the more than 7,000 kilometers between Orlando … and Murcia. As a trip it even sounds curious, but the little one has signed this summer for UCAM. His presence, of course, put the Spanish focus on a family that among other issues tries to forget the aforementioned result and the barrage of criticism that has fallen on the first of those mentioned for it. The one who has not been able to accompany them is Kostas (22), who is still within the Californian bubble in which the NBA is decided this season: his Lakers are in the task of ordering a ring. And Francis (31)? Who knows. It has always been among his people something like the fifth Beatle.
Antetokounmpo somos todos.
Or Adetokunbo, in the original African version of a surname that was then sifted into the Greek alphabet.
“We haven’t seen each other for a while. It’s great to have come and check that his house is clean and that he is making the bed. He is mentally very focused, ready for the season that is starting and to improve,” says Giannis. “We could be with Kostas, supporting him in the final, but we preferred to accompany Lex. We would have liked to see some of his matches, but at least we can be in training. It’s our little and in the end you do whatever it takes, “adds the MVP of the season for the second year in a row. He is, the 34th from Milwaukee, a star of a League that is served by the whole planet. He is also the third child of a emigrant family …
Charles and Vernica came to Greece from Nigeria in 1991. They had no papers and had to work as street vendors or picking fruit in the fields, so Giannis learned just that in order to bring some money home. Neither he nor his brothers were going to get citizenship until they came of age, which is paradoxical considering that immediately afterwards he was recruited for a selection that he has defended in Euros and World Cups. “We asked our parents: ‘Why don’t we have an identity or a passport? Why can’t we travel with our friends?’ They couldn’t explain it to us. They never had the chance to vote or express their opinion“Anteto recalled a little over a year ago.
So sport came to the rescue, as in so many other cases. Spiros Velliniatis was the coach of Filathlitikos, a club from Zografou, east of Athens. He was looking for talents and remembered that a boy had impressed him two years earlier in Sepolia, one of the capital’s neighborhoods. A certain Thanasis. I didn’t find it, at least not directly. “Top with three others who played on the Tritonas team court. I was surprised by what I saw. It was Giannis, along with two of his brothers: Kostas and Alexis. I looked up at the sky and said, ‘God, how could anyone have noticed the physical abilities of this child?’ The rest was to convince him. “For this he even had to look for a job for his parents. The rest is history … including the four years he signed with Basket Zaragoza in October 2012. The Bucks chose him in fifteenth place in the next draft and he did not make his debut in Spain, but he left a story to tell … and 400,000 euros as a transfer to CAI.
Thanasis was the one who played in our League. In Morabanc Andorra, specifically. During the 16-17 season and with a contribution that served to get into the playoffs. Before that, the first American adventure did not have the expected result: Just a fleeting NBA appearance with the Knicks after going through the D-League with the Delaware 87ers and Westchester Knicks. After that (and shining in his country with Panathinaikos), in the summer of 2019 he joined the Bucks to barely play the garbage minutes, at least for now, and to serve as support for his brother, above all. In that sense, his contribution to Giannis’s career seems fundamental. “If I could compete with him, with two years younger, I can compete with anyone,” he points out.
Kostas ‘relevance to the Lakers is similar to Thanasis’ to the Bucks, but there it is: about to become the first member of the family with a champion ring. In the bubble, he barely got to play the preparation games, despite being kept inside to complete the training sessions, but it turns out that in the regular season he enjoyed minutes in five games., four more than needed to qualify for the jewel should that team win the title. The case of Dion Waiters is significant: he started the season with the Heat and ends it with LeBron’s, so it is guaranteed no matter what happens in the final. Returning to Kostas, who went through the University of Dayton and made his NBA debut with the Dallas Mavericks, it has also been speculated that his arrival in Los Angeles had to do with a hypothetical attempt to take over Giannis’ services in the future.
Lex is the little one, but, given the offers of a few universities after graduating from the Dominican High School in Wisconsin averaging 20 points and 7 rebounds, he seemed very clear: “I want to become a professional as soon as possible. I was born and raised in Europe, I know European basketball and the best thing for me would be to sign a contract with a European team. ” Said and done. He has signed three seasons with UCAM, although in the first he will have a record with the Liga EBA subsidiary and combine the dynamics of the ACB first team with an elite group led personally by Sito Alonso. along with the rest of his staff. There is an exit clause towards the NBA, of course, but at the moment its development passes through Murcia. Where, you know, he cleans the house and makes the bed.
The first-born, finally, is a strange case. Francis was the only one who had already been born when his parents emigrated, but orThey chose to leave him in Nigeria with his grandparents in a decision that has marked his life and for which he retains the Adetokunbo. It was also original as far as sport is concerned, since it bet on the goalkeeper before the basket. With little luck, by the way: it is assumed that, once he finally followed in the family footsteps, he played in Greece for Aittitos Spaton and AE Sparti, two modest ones. Those who have seen him in a video say that he worked as a midfielder, but there are not even reliable statistics of a football career that in any case seems to have come to an end. Now he throws the music at him and released a single months ago, ‘Shekosi’, in whose video Darko Peric guest stars. The actor of ‘The paper house’, s.
When Giannis received the first MVP, he was reminded of the family in a moving speech. Charles had died two years earlier, when he was only 53 and after a heart attack: “So I put the goal of being the best in the league in my head; all I did on the court was thinking about my dad“. Vernica is still alive and boasts of children:”He always believed in us, he was always there for us; you are my real heroineThere was also room for Francis, Thanasis, Kostas and Lex: “I love them and they know it, they are my models; I look at them and I appreciate everything they do for me“Antetokounmpo, in short. Between Nigeria, Greece and the United States … with a place for Spain in the history of a family:” Murcia is a very beautiful city.
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