For any basketball player, winning the NBA Championship is one of the greatest feelings. However, to suit up for your country and lead them to the gold medal might be one of the few things that can top that. Having led the Bucks to the Larry O’Brien trophy in 2021, Giannis Antetokounmpo is now chasing the latter with the Greek National Team.
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Considered a perennial MVP candidate in the NBA, Giannis has always given it his all whenever he suits up for the Hellas. In fact, his play for the national team earned praise from Spanish star and Memphis Grizzlies big Santi Aldama.
“Giannis is different when he has Hellas on his chest,” Aldama said. “Him having the pride to play for his country every summer, you can see it’s different when he plays for his country. And he takes a lot of pride in playing for his country.”
At the 2022 EuroBasket, Giannis averaged 29.3 points and 8.8 rebounds. Giannis helped the Hellas make their first Olympics in 16 years by leading them with 22.7 points and 4.3 rebounds in the Olympic qualifying games. In the 2024 Paris Olympics, he put up 25.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per contest.
Facing someone like Giannis is never an easy task, and the 2022 EuroBasket MVP Willy Hernangomez can attest to the same. “He tries to destroy everybody in front of him. He plays super hard. He’s an example for other players — the way he plays. His work ethic is really impressive. One of the best.”
Finnish star Lauri Markkanen believes Antetokounmpo is so much more than just raw strength. “Giannis is really difficult to play one-on-one. You kind of load up on him and try to make him get rid of the ball. But he can do so many things on the floor … I feel like he has some tricks in his bag that makes it really hard to guard.”
Serbia, favored to take home the EuroBasket title this year, knows how lethal Giannis is. Bogdan Bogdanovic described, “I feel like when you play him, he’s just so athletic and you can’t make mistakes against him because he punishes you all the time.”
Bogdanovic added, “His ability to play defense as well. It’s not easy to go around him, there are no easy shots with him. And when he is running in transition. These three things are pretty much unstoppable.”
So far, we’ve only gotten one glimpse of The Greek Freak during their friendly competitions. He suited up against Latvia, dropping 25 points and 10 rebounds in merely 15 minutes. Giannis would hope this could be the year he leads the Hellas to victory and earns some well-deserved hardware for them.
Greece plays one last friendly contest against France on August 24, before starting their EuroBasket Group Stage games on August 28.
