Wednesday December 16, 2020
Once poor as a beggar, now filthy rich
Mega deal for “Greek Freak” in the NBA
He once sold CDs, bags and glasses on the streets of Athens to support his poor family. Now Giannis Antetokounmpo can afford anything he wants. The 26-year-old’s new, gigantic NBA contract will go down in history.
Giannis Antetokounmpo knows where he came from. How poor his family was, how bad it looked back then in Athens. In the streets he and his brothers were selling all sorts of junk that the “Greek Freak” can hardly believe that he has now closed the biggest deal in NBA history. “It is unreal to sign such a contract,” said the basketball star with the unpronounceable name. The Milwaukee Bucks paid him a whopping 228 million dollars, the equivalent of 187.5 million euros, for a five-year contract extension. Antetokounmpo got the so-called “supermax contract”, which means that up to 35 percent of the total salary of the franchise goes to him in the first year – after that it gets more and more.
“This is my home, this is my city,” wrote Antetokounmpo a week before the season opener on Twitter and thanked the club, who want to reach the top with him at all costs. “This is a big moment for me and my family,” he said.
Sporty family
The family is important to him. The 26-year-old, who has had a son since February, has four brothers. Thanasis also plays for the Bucks, Kostas for the Los Angeles Lakers farm team, Alex in Spain. Only Francis, the oldest, became a footballer.
Everyone is gifted, but Giannis stands out. The forward with the huge wingspan of 2.21 meters plays extremely powerful, especially near the basket. That earned him the trophy for Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the main round in 2019, and he got it again last season – and was voted best defender. Only Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon had previously received both prizes in one year.
So it’s no wonder that Antetokounmpo, also known as “The Alphabet” because of the jumble of letters in his surname, was heavily courted. His previous contract would have expired in the summer, the Toronto Raptors, runner-up Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks wanted him, but nothing comes of it.
The son of Nigerian immigrants is supposed to make the Bucks a master. And he should stay for a long time, unlike Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who led the club to the only title so far in 1971, but later said goodbye to the Lakers and won big. Antetokounmpo wants more in Milwaukee. “It’s simple. You have to be better than the year before,” said the “Greek Freak” after getting the second MVP title. With this attitude he had left the Athens district of Sepolia behind, where he once sold glasses, DVDs, CDs and bags as a poor boy.
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