Namita Trilok Chandra
22nd November 2020
Giannis during an NBA game (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Giannis Sina Ugo Antetokounmpo is a famous Greek basketball player who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks. He grew up playing basketball for teams in Filathlitikos in Athens. In the 2013 NBA draft, Giannis Antetokounmpo was selected 15th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks. The fans and the NBA community have given Giannis Antetokounmpo the nickname 'Greek Freak'.
In the year 2017, he was awarded the Most Improved Player award and has a total of four All-Star selections in which he was the captain of the eastern conference team in the year 2019 and 2020. He was also a player on the Greek under-20 National team and the 2013 FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Europe under-20 Championship and helped Greece finish at a strong fifth position.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, according to sources, has an estimated net worth of 4.32 crore dollars and is the twenty-sixth most paid athlete in the world. His endorsements from 2K sports, Hulu and Nike amongst others helped him add an approximate amount of $1.9 crores to his earnings.
The Greek player has various awards and honours under his name, which include NBA defensive player of the year, NBA All-Rookie Second Team and Euroscar European Player of the year. But his most prestigious award is the NBA Most Valuable Player award, and Giannis does not have only one but two of these awards that he won back-to-back in 2019 and 2020.
In the 2020 season, Giannis Antetokounmpo was up against LeBron James and James Harden in the race to the Most Valuable Player title. He beat them and became the 13th player in the history of the NBA to win the MVP award back-to-back. He also became the third player after Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon to win both the Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of The Year award in a single season.
For the Raptors last season, Giannis was indeed unstoppable and lived up to his nickname averaging 29.5 points, 13.6 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.0 blocks and 1.0 steals. When asked about how he felt after winning the Most Valuable Player award, Giannis replied saying, "It's not important at all." He said that his main focus was to help Milwaukee win an NBA championship since their last championship ring came in the year 1971 and they haven't won since then. However, the Milwaukee Bucks were eliminated in the playoff stage putting an end to their championship dream for the 2020 season.
(Sources: Bleacher Report, Lastwordonsports, Essentiallysports, ESPN)
Edited by: Suditi Jha