Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 50 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks to lead Milwaukee Bucks to their first NBA Championship in 50 years on Tuesday, July 20, 2021.
Popularly called the Greek Freak, Giannis and the Bucks won four consecutive games to hold off the Phoenix Suns with 105-98 wins in game 6 of the NBA Finals and captured the franchise’s first championship in half a century.
Antetokounmpo, who has now scored over 40 points in three of his last NBA Finals, won the Bill Russel NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award. Antetokounmpo is the fifth international player to win the award, joining the likes of Hakeem Olajuwon, Tony Parker, Tim Ducan and Dirk Nowitzki.
Just at 26 years old, Antetokounmpo, is the only player in NBA history with 5 All-Star selections, 5 All-NBA selections, multiple MVPs, 1 Finals MVP and 1 DPOY before his 27th birthday.
Antetokounmpo now joins Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon as only players to win MVP, Finals MVP and Defensive Player of the Year since the inception of DPOY in 1983.
He is the ninth player to win multiple MVPs and a Finals MVP in his career.
Antetokounmpo 50 points were tied for the most all-time in a closeout game of the NBA Finals, going by ESPN numbers. Greek Freak equals Bob Pettit’s 50 points scored against the Boston Celtics for St. Louise Hawks in Game 6 of the 1958 NBA Finals.
Born on December 6, 1994, in Greece to Nigerian parents. Antetokounmpo’s parents had relocated from Lagos three years earlier to seek greener pasture, leaving behind their firstborn son, Francis, with his grandparents. Although Antetokounmpo and three of his four brothers were born in Greece, they did not automatically receive full Greek citizenship as Greek nationality law follows jus sanguinis. For the first 18 years of his life, Antetokounmpo was effectively stateless, having no papers from Nigeria or Greece. After gaining Greek citizenship in 2013, his family Hellenized their surname from Adetokunbo to Antetokounmpo to more closely follow Greek spelling rules.
Antetokounmpo grew up in the Athens neighborhood of Sepolia. His parents, as immigrants, could not easily find work, so Giannis and his older brother, Thanasis, helped by hawking watches, handbags and sunglasses in the streets. In 2007, Antetokounmpo started playing basketball. When he officially gained Greek citizenship on May 9, 2013, his name was officially romanized as Giannis Antetokounmpo. His nickname is the “Greek Freak”.
Three of the Antetokounmpos have now won NBA championships, Kostas Antetokounmpo won with the Lakers in 2020 while Giannis and Thanasis won with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021.
All Giannis Awards and Honours
- NBA Champion: 2021
- NBA Finals MVP: 2021
- 2× NBA Most Valuable Player: 2019, 2020
- NBA Defensive Player of the Year: 2020
- 5× NBA All-Star: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
- NBA All-Star Game MVP: 2021
- NBA Most Improved Player: 2017
- 5× All-NBA Selection:
- All-NBA First Team: 2019, 2020, 2021
- All-NBA Second Team: 2017, 2018
- 4× All-Defensive Selection:
- NBA All-Defensive First Team: 2019, 2020, 2021
- NBA All-Defensive Second Team: 2017
- NBA All-Rookie Second Team: 2014
- Euroscar European Player of the Year: 2018
