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[dramatic music playing]
Thank you, Lord, for this, uh, gathering.
Thank you, Lord,
for giving us wisdom.
We trust you God Almighty to guide and protect us and lead us
to whatever we are going to do in Jesus' name.
[all] Amen.
When Daddy had us,
Daddy had zero money,
you know? Uh...
But he was the richest person in the world.
He was the richest person in the world because he had us.
Do you think Dad is watching
and he's proud of us, what we've accomplished?
He'd really be proud of us, he's very, very proud.
He would be smiling.
The dinner's for him, that's why there's an empty seat,
to honor him.
He's here, he's sitting right there.
[Giannis] Where I came from,
what I face in my life,
family is the most sacred and the most important thing,
uh, the closest thing to my heart.
[dramatic music playing]
People might say I'm one of the best players
in the NBA right now, but...
I don't... I don't... I don't see it.
I don't... I don't feel it.
I'm just a hard worker that's trying to survive
because I'm scared of going back.
I'm scared of losing all this.
My name is, uh, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
[dramatic music playing]
I wanna be an NBA player.
People think that I'm extreme.
I want the MVP.
- [laughter] - [Giannis] That's why I'm here.
That mentality can't change.
Like I grew up seeing all that shit.
Whatever you tell me does not touch me one bit.
- [announcer 1] Giannis! - [announcer 2] Giannis!
[announcer 3] Giannis Antetokounmpo!
[announcer 4] That's why they call him the Freak.
[crowd] MVP! MVP!
Hey, guys, say hello to the camera.
I'm trying to do something my dad would be proud of.
[yells]
Giannis, you have something to give when it comes to giving back.
[crowd yelling]
[chanting] Antetokounmpo!
Antetokounmpo!
Oh, my God.
[dramatic music playing]
[Giannis] There's no failure in sports.
It's steps to success.
Who's that... who's that handsome guy over there?
[man] Leading up to the 2022 EuroBasket tournament,
the four Antetokounmpo brothers were called up
in the senior national team for the first time.
- [indistinct chatter] - Just being able to participate
and represent our country and wear that jersey
with your brothers, it's, uh, it's an awesome feeling.
That's a story that you can tell your grandkids.
[man] Seeing Giannis, Thanasis,
Alex, and Kostas
on the same team, it's unbelievable.
Sometimes they don't even say anything to each other.
They communicate with their eyes.
Kolos kai vraki.
[laughing]
It's a Greek saying.
It's basically, you're connected like underwear and a butt.
- [laughter] - [men speaking Greek]
Your relationship is so close
with your family like it's, "Kolos kai vraki",
So, you... your underwear and your butt.
So, it's a saying that a lot of Greek people use.
Thanasis, he's always tried to protect me and look after me,
and I do the same thing
for my two younger brothers...
[laughter]
...because that's how our dad raised us.
[singing in Greek]
[Veronica] All my kids are on the national team,
a place that I don't have even a resident permit.
That's so great.
So wonderful.
[Giannis] Being able to wear that jersey,
uh, it's heavy.
[announcers speaking Greek]
[Giannis] Nothing is given in this life.
You earn every single thing you get.
And it's been like that since when we were kids.
[dramatic music playing]
[Veronica] I grew up in, uh, Delta state in Nigeria.
I'm from Igbo. My husband is Yoruba.
My husband said we should leave.
Life in Nigeria in the '80s and '90s
was particularly challenging.
You have oil spillage
that began to pollute the waters.
People couldn't have access to good drinking water.
[male reporter] Health authorities say the soot in the air
is increasing respiratory ailments in the state.
[female reporter] Life expectancy in the region is 40,
ten years below the country's average.
[Dr. Korieh] People were being forced
to seek opportunities elsewhere.
Europe provides opportunities
which you are not gonna find in many African countries.
[Veronica] We left...
looking for greener pastures,
looking for better life.
That's why we left.
It was a difficult decision to leave
because I have my child in Nigeria that I'm going to leave.
I left him with grandmom.
It was difficult for me leaving him behind.
[Kostas] When they left,
they had to leave behind my older brother Francis
because the journey, it was hard,
you know, it wasn't fit for a child.
[Veronica] I stopped in Greece and said, "Okay,
here's enough. Let's start life here."
The dream of every father is wherever you go,
you should be able to give your children a better education.
I need to look for another good living for my...
for the next generation after me, which is my children, you see.
So that's why I decided to leave.
When they left and went for a better life
and moved and said, "Okay, we're going somewhere else,
we don't know anybody there.
We're gonna save up this little money to get us for the first month
and then we're gonna start working."
[Giannis] All the risk was...
on my... on my parents.
Going to a country that they didn't speak their language,
they don't have the same skin color,
leaving my older brother behind.
That's the example of the ultimate sacrifice.
My parents were never able to bring Francis to Greece.
It took 26 years until they saw Francis again.
[Kostas] Thanasis, Giannis, me, and Alex, we were all born in Greece.
Thanasis is two years older than Giannis.
Then Giannis is three years older than me,
then it's me, Kostas, I'm four years older than Alex.
The rules in Greece, once you're born here,
you don't automatically get Greek citizenship.
So while we was living here, it was basically illegal too.
[Alex] Greece has one of the biggest gaps
as far as the way that immigrants are treated.
We've always been outsiders.
We had to pretty much live in fear.
[Papadojannis] Greek is a white society.
Up until the turn of the century, there were not many immigrants in Greece.
From the year 2000,
suddenly there was a huge influx of immigrants.
Greece also underwent bankruptcy.
[reporter] The Greek government stands accused
of hiding its true economic situation.
Greece's national debt stands at almost $420 billion.
[Papadojannis] Many people were trying to blame others
for the fact that they were starving or out of work.
And the easy scapegoats were
those who had different skin color.
I don't think it was only the color of your skin.
You could be from a different country.
You could have different beliefs than them,
different, you know, uh, religion than them.
[crowd chanting in Greek]
[Papadojannis] There was a group masquerading as a political party
called the Golden Dawn.
They went out in the streets spreading violence
running after immigrants.
[explosions]
Running after people like Giannis.
[dramatic music playing]
If it's a school night, and we have to be back, we have to be back.
It doesn't matter.
No bus, no bus. We have to walk.
[Giannis] Kostas is three years younger than me,
Alex is seven years younger than me.
I tell them like,
"Yo, do you think we can get home in like two minutes?"
It's like...
like, "Yeah, let's just jog."
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom.
"Man, like, oh, wow. I think that was like three minutes."
[Alex] Giannis and Thanasis,
they would kind of like disguise it
to the point that you thought as a kid,
"Oh, I'm just playing this game."
In my head, I'm thinking that this is actually a game,
but he's trying to make us run through these neighborhoods
so nothing can happen to us.
Boom, boom, boom, boom. Next time, I was like,
"Yo, I think that was like three and a half minutes."
They were just happy. They would just go with it.
But in me, I was... I was scared as fuck.
Some group of people are just gonna pop out of nowhere and try to kill us.
[Alex] There was a metro stop.
They had their headquarters
across from that metro station so like...
and that metro station was two stops away from where we lived.
A lot of the times, what those people would do is kind of
wait at that metro station
and see whoever was of color, kind of drag them out of the metro,
physically assault them, rob them, or humiliate them.
Everybody at that station
that was of color is like ducking so it appears that the metro is empty.
Giannis, he always kind of had that proud dad role.
He was like, "Yo, you guys take a look around.
All these people are being scared
and afraid of a group of people for doing absolutely nothing."
[train bell dinging]
You, um...
You, um, you want the best
for your brothers, you know?
[sobbing]
Oh, man. [sniffles]
It's hard to share, um, stories like that for me
because I always look...
try to protect my brothers in the best...
the best way I can.
He's... he's... he was young.
Yeah, he doesn't know what's going on...
It's just... it's, you know,
hiding for... people
because people don't like him.
As an immigrant, you are nothing.
I would pray,
"God, please have mercy, God."
You just have to keep moving on, you just have to find different ways
to survive, so that's what we did.
[Alex] My parents, they would sell goods.
CDs, watches,
sunglasses.
[Thanasis] Anything that was hot at the time.
We'd go to the beach, you wanna sell glasses,
you wanna sell handbags, you wanna sell, like, towels.
If my dad is working
and my mom is working, who's gonna take care of us?
We don't have nobody,
so we have to go with them.
Been selling stuff since I was four years old.
I was always trying to do whatever I could
to help my family in any way possible.
[Thanasis] I wasn't selling to try to make a profit.
I was selling because I have to eat.
Because I got to go home and buy groceries for this day.
I just want to live. I got to survive. I got to take care of my family.
[Giannis] If you don't work, you don't eat.
It's just words for people,
you know, but for me and my family it was... it's a mindset.
That was our life.
[Thanasis] I didn't know if my mom or dad, they ate.
I don't know. I've never... I never saw them.
My mom and my dad had an unwritten rule
that the kids never go to bed without eating.
My mom and dad might have went days.
The main thing was always putting food on the table for the four of us.
If you don't give them food today, tomorrow, they'll get sick.
You survive them. You help them.
Be there for them.
Even when I'm tired, even when I'm weak,
I never show them.
You know, we're fighters, you know,
my family was fighters and...
we just kept on going.
In me, I know the future is going to be bright.
I don't give up.
[Giannis] The first time I was introduced to basketball, I was 11 years old.
I was playing with my dad and we had like this soccer ball.
And we're shooting and my dad was like telling us always aim for the backboard.
If you get to the backboard, it's gonna go in.
It's false.
[commentator speaking Greek]
Back home, we had this very small TV,
we were watching this guy named Sofoklis Schortsanitis.
[announcer] Up ahead to big man Schortsanitis for the dunk!
In it goes to Baby Shaq, and he scores!
He was beating the USA team, dominating.
And I was like, "Man, like he's... he's Black,
and he's playing for the Greek national team. Wow."
[announcer] And they don't have an answer for Sofoklis Schortsanitis.
[Alex] We never had Wi-Fi.
So, there was a thing called an internet cafe, right?
[Thanasis] So, internet cafe,
you go in, you give let's say one euro for one hour.
We used to go watch highlights of the NBA.
[Giannis] Ricky Rubio, Magic Johnson,
KD, Scottie Pippen,
Tracy McGrady, LeBron James, Paul Pierce.
Allen Iverson to Michael Jordan.
It was kind of like almost like star struck in... through a screen.
Internet cafe would say, "Okay, you guys, your time is done."
And I would rush to the cashier, I'd be like,
"Oh, take 50 cents. Just give me like 20 more minutes to see the video."
Can we have five more minutes?
It was like, "Just this time.
Just this time, Giannis. No more."
"Like, yeah, just five more minutes."
When I was 12 years old,
I watched the Lakers playing the Celtics.
I saw Kobe Bryant.
I Googled, how much money does Kobe Bryant makes?
And it came out, you know, at the time was like 28, $30 million.
And I'm like, holy fucking shit.
He's making a living.
And he's worldwide known and...
from basketball, from something he loves.
I could take care of my family. I could take care of my family.
I took it serious, you know, it was very personal.
The dream was I have to put everything I have in this
because I might not make $30 million.
I might make $100,000.
It's better than getting evicted for €210.
There was a point around, like, 15...
that I stuck with it.
Thanasis joined Filathlitikos.
[commentator speaking Greek]
[Giannis] And I joined him.
When I got to the team,
my job was to mop the floor.
I did it a thousand times.
I came from a time that I had to do something
in order for me to survive.
I couldn't sit on my butt
and things happened for me.
The first time we heard
about the Antetokounmpo brothers was about Thanasis.
It wasn't about Giannis.
[yelling]
Thanasis was super athletic.
A couple of teams in the first division wanted to get him.
Yeah! Yeah!
There would be fans that would leave the pros to come see us play
because the basketball we would play was incredible.
[commentator speaking Greek]
[Stavrou] There was a whole buzz in Greece.
At some point, somebody said that Thanasis
also has a younger brother
who may be more talented.
[man] Can you tell us your name?
My name is, uh, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
[announcer speaking Greek]
Everybody was talking about
a tall guy with huge hands
who was jumping all over the place,
so I wanted to witness it on the court.
He was like a young Magic Johnson.
[man] What kind of basketball player are you?
I can jump. I can shoot. I can pass the ball.
I can do everything on the court.
His feel of the game,
this was different.
He knew what was going on around him,
and the guy had never played organized basketball in his life.
It was the first game my dad came to watch me play.
I think I had like 27, and we won the game.
He said, "Giannis."
I was like, "What, Dad?"
"You're pretty good."
All the European teams are coming to like scout and watch him.
His first professional contract that he ever signed
was to the team Zaragoza in Spain,
and the contract was going to pay him like $20,000 a year,
which for them was astronomical amounts of money.
I was 17, and the first thing I did,
I came with a truck
and I told my parents, I'm like, "Let's go.
Just take everything that you want
and just put it in the truck."
And my dad's like, "I'm not taking shit.
Let's get the heck out of here."
[man] What is your goal for your career?
I wanna be an NBA... NBA player.
[man] Jeff Weltman was the assistant GM at the time.
Very simply said...
"Hammer, there's a guy, a young kid in Athens
that's really playing well right now
and really starting to gather a lot of attention."
And he said, "We should go see him."
It's a small gym in the middle of Athens, this major metropolitan city.
His mom and dad were sitting right behind us.
You know, I thought to myself, this is different because, you know,
how often do you go see a guy walk in the gym the very first day
and everybody's there, he, his brothers, and his mother and father?
We just saw him practice that day.
He was the tallest guy on the floor and he did everything.
He handled the ball like a point guard.
You can see this amazing feel that he had for the game.
3And then we saw this guy with this amazing body, this crazy length,
these long legs, these extremely long arms.
And he had the big shoulders.
So you saw a frame that could possibly get big.
What we saw, we liked.
We didn't go back. We felt like we didn't need to go back.
[buzzer sounds]
[Papadojannis] We get the NBA scouts, dozens of them,
coming to an obscure little arena in the outskirts of Athens
just to watch this guy that not even the Greeks knew about.
[announcer] Antetokounmpo.
[Papadojannis] Reports from the US
started appearing that he was going to be drafted.
The Nigerians,
the country that his parents was born in,
they appear out of nowhere too.
They swoop in and they tried to get passports for the boys
in order to use them for their Olympic team,
their national team.
Giannis got a Greek passport because the government wanted to make sure
that he played for the Greek national team as opposed to the Nigerian national team.
Life literally changed overnight, like, overnight.
Met the prime minister.
And mind you, the time that my father and my mother
went to meet the Prime Minister of Greece, they were illegal.
Then my dad was walking around by himself, and they stopped him in the street.
They could have deported him back to Nigeria.
[Papadojannis] It's wrong to say that the Greek society
embraced Antetokounmpo.
Anybody else who doesn't know how to play ball
has no opportunity to leave this life behind.
[Saratsis] We had arranged for Giannis to come to the US.
Before he's supposed to get on the plane,
he calls and says he's not coming unless his family is gonna come with him.
Now, not possible. His family was undocumented.
They had no passports, only him and Thanasis had passports.
And so I told him, if you don't come, right, like all of this planning,
everything that we have, it's all out the window.
His father told him, "You need to go. We'll be okay,
this is gonna be important for the family, and this will change our lives."
And it was almost like getting his father's... got his father's blessing.
[Giannis] I was grateful for the moment, but I was very nervous.
I was selling stuff in the streets six months ago.
[Thanasis] I remember we went to the airport.
They flew us like business class.
You know how the seat is, you know when you have like this,
you're sitting in the middle, you have this, and I'm like taking this,
and I'm looking at Giannis, "Yo, what's going on, yo?"
[Giannis] It was me, Thanasis, and my agent.
He showed us like the... we had the papers and he showed us like the receipt.
It was like €22,800.
And I'm like, holy fuck.
Why didn't he just give us the money? We can just stay home.
[Thanasis] They're giving us, like, drinks.
How they offered you like a champagne,
or they offer you this, we're like, "I don't think...
I don't think we're allowed to, you know, drink."
Thanasis was like, he was more out of his shell, was like,
"Can I have a Shirley Temple, please?"
I'm like, "What the fuck? What the hell is a Shirley Temple?"
"Yeah, me too. Let me get one."
[man] We land, we get in the car. We go into New York.
He was like the deer, it's coming the lights,
like this watching the skyscrapers.
[in Greek] Guys, right now we are in a limousine. Man!
I am out of my mind. I could not have imagined this.
Check this out.
And now Thanasis is getting in.
[in English] Hey, what up, boy?
Yes, it's ball. Whoo.
I told him, "What you bring to, you know, to wear?"
He said, "What you mean? I have my Nike shorts, a Nike..."
Come on, come on, come on.
So I went on my phone, I Google, you know, the previous draft,
what people were wearing.
I've never wore a suit in my... my life.
I had to find somebody at that time
that was in New York to tailor a suit for him.
Thanasis is more into fashion than me and he's like, "Yeah, I'm...
I'm gonna wear this, I think I'm gonna pick that,
and I'm gonna wear some glasses,
and, uh, wear a bracelet and I'mma pick some shoes."
I'm like looking at him and it's like...
"Okay, whatever. I'll do the same."
[man] Welcome to the 2013 NBA Draft.
With the first pick, the Cleveland Cavaliers
select Anthony Bennett.
With the fourth pick, Cody Zeller.
With the fifth pick, Alex Len.
It was a mix of everything, mix of excitement, nervous.
With the 14th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft,
the Utah Jazz select Shabazz Muhammad.
Milwaukee Bucks are on the clock right now.
My head was down. Hold on.
Like, I was praying the whole time. I was like this.
[coughs]
[Thanasis] And I looked at the stage.
And he looked at the paper
and he had trouble saying it and I said, "Oh, my God, it's about to be us."
With the 15th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft,
the Milwaukee Bucks
select Giannis Antetokounmpo from Athens, Greece.
Giannis Antetokounmpo. Athens, Greece.
[Thanasis] I hugged my brother.
I waved the flag.
We worked so hard and God gave us an opportunity.
[Giannis] And I went and shaked the commissioner hand,
and then he told me, "Look over there." I looked.
He told me, "Look over there." I looked, smiled.
And was like... "Thank you, your journey begins."
I jumped. [laughs]
I hurt myself, I said, "God.
This has changed. My son is going to NBA. God."
Well, with me the youngest player in the draft,
- Giannis Antetokounmpo. - Yeah.
It was, you know, mispronounced millions of times
to the point of absurdity.
[man] Giannis Antetokounmpo.
[woman] Giannis Antetokounmpo.
[man 2] Giannis Antetokounmpo.
- [man 3] Antetokounmpo. - [man 4] Antetokounmpo.
I think I got that right.
I looked at my phone and I went, there was like 400 followers.
All of a sudden, the followers, like every time I refresh,
it was like 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, and I got to like 50,000.
[reporter] What will be the more intimidating challenge,
the basketball part or the cultural part?
In the beginning, that would be the culture.
You know, for sure, because I am... I live in Greece for 18 years.
You know, I never leave the country.
It'll be a little bit difficult, but I'll have my family together with me
and it'll be easy.
Yeah.
Coming from overseas, we talk about Chicago, New York,
Miami, you know, those cities.
I never... I never heard of Milwaukee before.
I didn't know Milwaukee exist.
[beeping]
[upbeat music playing]
♪ The Bucks don't stop here ♪
[man] For the NBA world, it was more of a layover.
A pit stop to the next city, overshadowed by Chicago.
It's a very proud franchise.
It starts with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar joining the team in the second season.
[announcer] And the Milwaukee Bucks are the champions.
You played a great game. Congratulations on the MVP.
Thank you very much.
And then eventually, he outgrew Milwaukee.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will officially become a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.
I know that he is happier in Los Angeles.
Who couldn't be? Milwaukee is no great place.
[Nehm] And then after that, it's trying to figure out
how you build another team without a great player.
[man] The Bucks earned the right to draft you
by being the league's worst team last year.
[Nehm] Really never being able to get over the hump
and don't get to an NBA Finals again.
[announcer] I have to give credit to the Bucks.
Their most wins in 15 years. A wonderful season,
but it will end in disappointment.
It was a battle. I mean, I remember the ticket sellers
were working very hard all the time.
Selling hope was the MO in Milwaukee for a long time.
[reporter] Seemingly desperate for immediate help in the backcourt,
the Bucks select a 6'10'' 18-year-old Greek forward.
♪ Milwaukee Bucks ♪
[door opens]
[Giannis] Hello.
- [man] Glad to have you here. - Welcome to the family.
[both] Nice to meet you.
- How you doin'? - Giannis?
- Yeah. - [man 1] Giannis, sir.
- [man 2] How's it going? - How you doin'?
Nice to meet you.
- How's it going? - Nice to meet you. How you doin'?
- Nice to meet you. Welcome. - Yeah.
- So this is Jermel. - Nice to meet you. How you doin'?
Have you been out to see anything in Milwaukee at all?
- Have you gone... - No.
- No, not yet? - Not yet.
Oh, what is that?
The trophies.
[Giannis whispering] The NBA... [mutters]
[Paschke] The Bucks were a mom-and-pop operation.
Nice.
The resources, of course, weren't up to the big markets in the NBA.
[dramatic music playing]
[Paschke] The Bucks practice at the Archbishop Cousins Center
on the south side of Milwaukee.
It was the headquarters for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
And, you know, the archbishop lived there and other priests lived there.
[man] It felt like a private school's basketball gym.
We would have the priests come
play pickup during their lunch breaks after our practices.
[Paschke] They'd walk right in the gym during practice and take off their shirt,
shirts and skins, and be standing in the corner,
essentially saying, "Get out of our gym."
[man] Whether you guys are done or not, we're going to play pickup at one o'clock.
'Cause this is what we do. And if you wanna shoot,
you're gonna have to shoot after we're done.
The Cousins Center needed a lot of repairs.
Sometimes a light would go off.
There would be a leak and there would be buckets on the floor
collecting water, and we'd practice around it.
For me, the Cousins Center was everything. For other people, it might not be.
They came with... from better facility. They went to like college,
big time college schools that had better facility than the Bucks.
I loved it.
I think he was comfortable
because it reminded him of certain parts of home.
[man] Good.
Like that every time.
[Hammond] We didn't have a physical on Giannis when we made the draft pick.
One.
So we made the pick without our doctors having a chance to put their hands on him.
[man] Push.
Good.
Okay.
When I came to the NBA, they said I was 205.
They lied. I was 191...
if... I had like two burgers that day.
They did blood work test and they thought that he was extremely anemic.
He needs to eat more meat.
We need to put him on a real diet.
They were also amazed that like his growth plates hadn't fully formed,
that he was still gonna grow.
And at that point, he was like 6'8" and a half.
[man] Here we go. Go!
[indistinct]
[Oppenheimer] My job primarily was developing the young players.
He was my responsibility, you know, 18 years old,
coming from a different country.
Everything was new to him, um, and I mean everything.
[Giannis] Where I came from, whenever you practice,
you take your dirty clothes, you put it in your bag,
you go back home and you wash it yourself.
All of a sudden, while I work out and I'm taking the clothes out,
I'm about to put it in the bag to go home and wash it,
he's like, "Hey, hey, man, what are you doing here?"
"I'm sorry. I don't understand.
I'm... I take the clothes to go back home and wash the clothes
and bring tomorrow." He said, "No, no, no.
Giannis, we... we wash here."
I said, "I can wash the clothes here?"
He said, "No, no, no, we. We wash the clothes here."
I said, "You wash the clothes for me?"
He said, "Yes. You come tomorrow, the clothes will be washed."
I said, "Oh, okay.
Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay. I love the NBA."
Giannis Antetokounmpo has tried his very first corndog
and apparently he liked it.
"Just tried a corndog for the first time.
Man, God bless America."
I like three strawberries.
He never knew what a smoothie was until he had one when he came over here.
I think that changed his world.
Mm, mm, mm.
We have lots of dough.
[laughter]
There we go.
[Oppenheimer] He's curious. He's asking questions.
[woman] Somebody get a glass?
Mm.
- [woman] Yeah. - [laughs]
We were in Las Vegas for an NBA camp,
and I said, "Look, let's go have dinner at this buffet."
He said, "I can eat anything I want?"
I said, "Yeah, it's a buffet. Get as much as you want."
I look up and approaching the table, it's him with plates up his arms.
And I'm looking at him and he says to me, "Did I do something wrong?"
I said, "No, you didn't do anything wrong,
but you don't have to get all the food at once."
- [woman indistinct] - Can I take the money?
Yeah. [laughs]
[man] You got to put something in, make a wish.
- Like throw it down and make a wish? - [man] Yup.
Let me... let me... let me tell you the wish?
- [man] Do you want to? - No.
[man] Just keep it a secret.
[Giannis] I was raised in a way that I value every dollar that I had.
I didn't go crazy. I never made a purchase.
He'd send us money.
Starting from that moment, we never lacked.
[Giannis] I would just go back and forth.
Withdraw money, send money, withdraw money, send money.
When I was done, I got in this cab.
I said, "Sir, I'm trying to go to the Bradley Center."
He say, "We don't take... we don't accept cards.
We accept only cash."
I said, "Okay. Give me one second." I went to the ATM.
It said, "Insufficient funds."
Which I couldn't understand at the time because my English was horrible.
They said, "Yeah, that's over your limit for the day."
I said, "Okay." We have a game like 30 minutes.
I'm like, "Yeah."
I ran, ran a couple blocks, eight blocks, four blocks.
I have never been that cold in my life.
I couldn't move my hands.
At the time, the worst winter we've ever had
in like 72 years or something.
And I didn't have a coat.
And everybody told me, "Get yourself a winter coat."
I'm like, "No, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine."
But I didn't know what they were talking about
because I've never... I've never spent time in Milwaukee.
Now, I know.
Then I was looking at my phone, I'm like, "Ah, I might not make it."
Then these people, this family showed up.
He's like, "Aye, you know, aren't you the guy from the...
the Bucks' draft pick?" I was like, "Yes."
I was like, "Sir, ma'am, are you going to the game?"
They was like, "Yeah." I was like, "Is there any way
you can take me to the game, please?"
They was like, "Yeah."
I got in the car, I was like, "Thank you."
[dramatic music playing]
[Oppenheimer] They pull up to the Bradley Center and they drop him off,
and I see him getting out of the car.
And I said to him, "Who dropped you off?"
And he said, "I don't know."
And I said, "What do you mean you don't know?"
He said, "They were very nice people."
That's the goodness in him.
He saw the best and he sees the best in everybody.
This is the car, the first car that I drive in my life.
Indicator. Y'all got to indicate.
[Oppenheimer] We had a video guy named Ross
and he sort of taught Giannis to drive.
Here's Ross. He's my... he's my teacher.
You've got to come to a complete stop and wait until traffic is cleared.
Hey, guys. Just to let you guys know, I drive better than him.
Oh.
You see him laughing and joking and driving in the car with Ross.
Under that was this real sadness,
this real loneliness.
Before the draft, Alex said his family's got to come with him.
Okay. Now he's here.
Now we gotta... now we have to get the family here.
And that's when we realized what we're up against.
He was trying to get a... a visa
for me, Alex, my mom, and my dad.
It was to a point that we thought maybe we weren't gonna be able to go.
They didn't have a Greek passport. So here's the United States government,
you're saying, well, you're trying to bring someone from Greece
who doesn't have a Greek passport.
It doesn't work that way. We can't get them in.
[Giannis] I had never left my family's side before.
I came here, I was 18.
I had to figure everything out by myself.
After practice, you know, the NBA, you...
you don't... you don't do things as a team.
You know, you kind of, after practice,
everybody has their own thing, their own families.
Everybody's busy. I was a kid.
I can just remember coming to my office, you know,
and he'd always ask, like, "How long do you think it will be?"
You know, "When can this happen? How soon can they get here?"
[Giannis] Every week, I used to go knock on the office.
It's like, "Oh, here he comes again."
"What's going on? Where is my family?"
Two days later, "Where is my family?
Guys, I'm gonna knock on this door every day till my family shows up.
I respect everything you've done for me and the way you guys have treated me,
but I do this for my family.
I don't do this for myself.
If I cannot help my family, I don't want to play basketball.
I'm... I'm done."
He called me, he said, "If you don't come, I'm coming back."
I said, "Don't come back. We're coming.
We are processing the visa."
After the first two times that Giannis'... Giannis' family was denied a visa,
he said, "If they don't get a visa on this last try
and it's ten years, forget the NBA. I'm going back home."
We tried to apply for a third time.
Everybody combined our powers to be a legit application.
Senator Kohl was the owner of the Bucks at the time,
and Senator Kohl called Secretary John Kerry, and Senator Kerry,
as a favor to Senator Kohl, called the powers that be to make sure
that Giannis' family had an opportunity get the visa.
I remember going to the embassy,
I think the last appointment with my parents,
and talking to the person,
we got a visa,
and we just went back home and was just happy, dancing.
And we went straight to the US.
I'm like this. I'm waiting. I'm waiting. I'm waiting.
And all of a sudden I see this tall, lanky kid coming out.
I'm like, "Holy smoke, this is Kostas."
He got big. I'm like, "Yo."
Then I see Alex. And Alex was chubby.
I was like, "What have you been eating?
Now you've been eating real well with all the money I'm sending back home."
And then I saw my parents. They were so happy.
He said, "I came with limousine."
And he took us in the limousine to supermarket.
Then he posted it in Instagram,
posted it in Facebook and said,
"Dad and Mom, welcome to America." [laughs]
[Alex] It was just a culture shock.
I had never been to any place that was like this.
And I didn't even think places like this existed.
It felt like the...
like the Promised Land.
It's the first place that accepted us and, uh, the first city
that was able to build something.
You can get... you can grab a Gatorade, you can drink Gatorade from here.
We've got some snacks over there.
Some fruits.
The fridge. Yeah.
Some good stuff.
And here I usually get taped
or, uh, stretch a little bit, you know, with my trainers.
So you want to hold the ball?
It's got a Milwaukee Bucks.
[Oppenheimer] There's no doubt who the head of that household was,
was his father.
But to see the role change,
and now, he's sort of showing them around,
and he's helping them communicate with people
in somewhat kind of a role reversal,
but in the most respectful of ways.
Oh.
Maybe in 50 years, 20 years, maybe my number is up there.
We never know what can happen, but I wish my number is up there,
you know, to be next to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
and the other guys, Oscar Robertson.
I'm very happy really, you know, I can't wait now to finish this interview,
take a shower and go... just go home, play with my brothers,
and get ready for the game.
You know, gonna be the first time they're gonna see me in an NBA game.
And they're very excited. And I'm just very happy.
We played New York, it was the first time they was able to attend the game.
[announcer] Giannis Antetokounmpo, a very special night for him.
What a treat for the family. And Giannis told me
get ready when I come off the bench tonight.
I said, "Let me see how this boy is going to play. Let me see."
[dramatic music playing]
Then when he dunked...
[announcer] Picked up by Antetokounmpo, off to Brandon Knight
drives on Hardaway. Layup, no good. Clocked in, the Alphabet.
Ah!
[announcer] How about that?
Oh, Giannis.
[Giannis] I had my career high.
I had the best game of the season, uh, because I felt good. I was happy.
[Panou] That was the point that the dream came true.
It wasn't the draft day,
it wasn't the signing of contract,
it was we are all together
living the dream.
[interviewer] How does it make you guys feel now? Like, you know,
he checks into the game, he comes in and the place going crazy,
you know, for your son? Like, how does it... just talk about that feeling.
It's amazing. It's amazing, really.
- It's so great. - It's great.
It's great. It's amazing.
It's amazing, yes. We are really happy about that.
We are really happy.
Yes.
He's a first-round pick of the NBA Draft,
so he's making considerable money at that, just as that pick.
And at that time, he was living in a two-bedroom condominium.
That was great for a young player like that, that fit him,
but soon after, everybody comes,
his mother, his father, and both brothers.
They didn't move.
They stayed there.
The mom and dad in a bedroom, the two little brothers in a bedroom.
I think Giannis was like, in like, this little dining room area,
kind of was his bedroom.
It just tells you, like, who they are,
really just how much they need each other.
[indistinct chatter]
Home for me means wherever my family is.
And it's been like that since when we were kids.
[Alex] The homes that we grew up in,
we had one underground,
which was a big thing for immigrants just because the rent was cheaper.
We had houses that my parents didn't have a room.
[Giannis] The kids slept in the back
and my mom and dad slept in the... in the living room.
[Alex] I don't think it was anything that anybody wanna stay in, but to me,
it was like a palace.
If you grow up that way, you don't understand the difference.
You think that's how it's supposed to be.
We're living from day-to-day, not month-to-month.
I remember living in eight or nine homes by eight years old.
[Giannis] There was one time
I tried to get in the house.
I couldn't get into the house, and my dad was like, "What's going on?
Like the key doesn't fit."
The landlord, uh, changed the lock.
[Thanasis] If somebody's evicting you,
it can't take me a week to move my things. You move quick.
If they ask us to leave, if you don't leave, they'll call police for you.
[Alex] We had to take our belongings.
We obviously didn't have the money to have like a big fancy like U-Haul truck
or like a moving company, or something.
We have no way to transport this fridge.
I was young. I told my dad,
"Maybe we can put it on a skateboard."
We put the fridge on the skateboard
and we were just kind of like pushing the fridge down the block.
We did it at like 12:00 a.m., so nobody could see us.
[Giannis] At the end of the day, we had one another.
We never had toys and teddy bears,
and all that, uh, but we always had one another.
[indistinct chatter]
[Hammond] Once they arrived...
he just became happier.
[beatboxing]
[Oppenheimer] Now, he felt like he could really concentrate
on what he was here to do
and where he wanted his career to go.
[reporter] I can tell it means something to you.
I mean, you... all of a sudden your eyes light up.
Yeah. It means I want the MVP.
- [laughter] - [Giannis] I want the MVP. Yeah.
Very quickly his body started changing,
and when it was complete, it was 50 pounds of muscle.
[announcer] ...for the Chicago Bulls...
[Paschke] In an early playoff situation,
Mike Dunleavy Jr. popped him on one end of the court.
Nobody saw it.
Mike ran down the court, and Giannis was chasing him.
- [announcer 1] Dunleavy. Splash. - [whistle blows]
[announcer 2] You knew it was coming.
That fire was etched in my brain.
- [announcer 1] Let's see. - [announcer 2] Watch Giannis,
you can tell this is on purpose.
I got a feeling the Greek Freak will be thrown out of this one.
[announcer 1] Yeah.
[Saratsis] There was a kid who had a sign that was the Greek Freak.
At first, we weren't comfortable with it.
Being called a freak is not normally a nice thing.
And then somehow, some way,
he embraced it.
[announcer 1] There's the Greek Freak.
[announcer 2] Greek Freak been lifting weights, baby.
Understand it's about helping each other.
[Paschke] Jason Kidd became the coach in Giannis' second season.
[Giannis] I knew he was one of the best point guards to ever play the game.
[PA announcer] Jason Kidd.
I'm dealing with a guy that know what greatness is.
[Kidd] You the low man.
You gotta stay there.
Giannis gets a rebound and he brings it and then he makes a pass.
And that's where the light bulb went off in my head.
I think he can be a point guard.
[announcer] Wow. What a play by the Alphabet.
[woman] You don't think of point guards as being seven-feet tall.
Giannis coined what point-forward is in the modern NBA.
Action.
This year, I'm going to fly.
[announcer] Oh! Greek Freak flush!
He is usually referred to as Giannis or the Greek Freak.
And he's doing things on a basketball court that people have never seen before.
[man] Let's go!
[reporter] The kid who once had to share sneakers with his brother,
will soon have his own signature shoe from Nike,
the first foreign-born player to receive that tribute.
Nike Headquarters.
I got my little car over here.
l love, you know, Giannis, you know, from Milwaukee.
I can't really pronounce his last name, but I love his game.
[announcer] Look out, baby.
Being in the zone, it might be one of the best feelings you can have.
Things just happen automatically.
[announcer] And the one-handed jam.
Every decision is the right decision.
- [announcer 1] Watch out. - [announcer 2] Antetokounmpo on the drive.
[announcer 3] Behind the back pass.
It's like a orchestra.
[announcer] That's... Oh, my goodness.
That's being in the zone.
[announcer 1] Antetokounmpo has got to take a shot.
Two seconds, step back jumper.
- Got it! - [announcer 2] Got it!
[announcer 1] Giannis Antetokounmpo at the buzzer!
[man] Both parents had an enormous amount of pride
in terms of the work ethic that they instilled in him.
[emcee] Selected to play in his first ever NBA All-Star Game,
from the Milwaukee Bucks, the Greek Freak,
Giannis Antetokounmpo.
[Smith] I knew there was something else behind it.
Most guys, they don't transform the way he did,
body, mind, and game all at the same time.
[announcer] Knowing exactly where Klay was, and oh, my goodness,
this is getting ridiculous out here with Giannis Antetokounmpo.
[audience exclaims]
And I just couldn't understand why until I heard his story.
[Saratsis] It had nothing to do with his talent.
He'll tell you, "I'm not as talented as Luka." Right?
"The game doesn't come as easy to me as it does Jokic."
The difference is that he played with a sense of fear,
he has to do everything he needs to do to stay
because he was petrified of going back.
[Papadojannis] If you ask Giannis how he does what he does today,
he'll say that it's a piece of cake.
"When I have been hungry,
when I had no idea where we will sleep at night,
being an NBA player is nothing."
[laughs]
...noise with your mouth.
So usually, me and Mariah, when we're together,
we don't say a word to one another.
He still is on his phone, so I'm watching the show
I wanna watch while he's on his phone anyways.
[Giannis] She... no, don't even say the show because she's weird.
- What show am I watching right now? - [Giannis] Yeah.
911.
[Giannis] She wants... she watch like, uh,
when people get killed and... she enjoys
watching people suffer,
and I don't, you know?
We've never talked about how we met, you know?
Nobody knows... really knows.
And this... it's better to say it this way than somebody say it for us.
I met your mother in Vegas. [laughs]
[chuckles]
We met in Las Vegas during NBA Summer League.
Mariah was working there at the time, right?
I said, "Hmm, that's a girl that I can like make a family with.
I can see myself with a girl like that."
And I told one of my close friends. I was like,
"Is there any way you can get her number for me?"
And, um, he went out to Mariah
and Mariah was like, "No. I don't give my numbers out."
I told him to find me on Instagram or something like that.
Yeah. Sometimes you get rejected, you know?
You don't get what you want immediately.
He was trying to play hard to get after that.
I wasn't try... I'm very hard to get.
- Okay, whatever. - [laughing]
Fast forward, I was taking a trip
to Miami with my family, my father, Mom, my brothers, at the time,
and I was like, "Do you wanna come?
You can come with us, join us, you know, and, uh, you know,
get to know one another."
I was really nervous 'cause you just never know what to expect.
And I get to Miami.
When I like first walked in, he's like, "Oh, this is my mom
and this is my dad." I'm like, "What in the heck did I just get myself into?"
- She showed up at the like... - [Mariah] The first time like we had
a conversation in person,
I met his mom, I met his dad, his aunt.
- [Giannis] Cousins, brothers. - I met Thanasis and Alex.
Kostas wasn't there on the trip.
He had a high school tournament.
So it was everybody at once and I was like, "Whoa."
- [Giannis] My... - [laughs]
She had the... you know,
she stayed in the house with all my brothers, my friends, my family.
We watched the All-Star Game on TV.
- We watched... - [Mariah] Cooked with his mom.
Yeah, cooked with my mom and aunt.
I have never, never brought a girl, another girl around my parents.
I never did that.
My dad was shocked.
He's like, "Giannis is bringing a girl around?
What the hell is going on, you know?"
I think he went to the room, started praying and he said, "Thank you, Jesus."
That was my first interaction of, okay, this guy is different.
Like, he's not spending it with friends or like his entourage.
He was with his family.
Hey, guys, say hello to the camera.
Hello to the camera, Dad. Come on.
My father was tough.
I called him gangster.
Stubborn too.
They're pretty similar with their stubbornness.
Their presence... like you feel their presence.
When Giannis walks into a room, you feel his presence.
When Charles walked into a room, you felt it.
[Giannis] Quiet.
Very respectful.
Always bowed his head.
I'm like, "Dad, like it's okay. You don't need to do that anymore."
Like... he's like, "No, no, no, no, no, no."
[Veronica] Charles was a kind person,
a loving person, a caring person,
and a humble person.
He's a very good dad.
[Giannis] All he cared about was his kids.
Always.
Always... always about his kids.
Christmas for us was one of the happiest, uh, holidays.
From 24th of December until 7th of January,
you sung Christmas carols.
We have a thing that we call kalanta.
It's Christmas so nobody goes to school.
We would always go from house-to-house
or store-to-store.
You'd sing Christmas carols in like Greek.
So there's a triangle. You know, how you do ting?
They'll give you some money and give you a tip and, like "Oh,
thank you so much."
And then you would move to the next store and the next.
[in Greek] ♪ Good evening, Noblemen ♪
[both] ♪ If this is your will ♪
♪ Christ's holy birth ♪
♪ In the town of Bethlehem ♪
♪ The Heavens rejoice ♪
♪ All of nature is happy ♪
[Giannis in English] We just walked all the streets of Athens.
Me and my brothers, we started at 6:30 a.m.,
and went all day. We raised like €500.
That's around $600.
[Thanasis] My dad never asked for anything. Never.
Never. But we all knew what he wanted.
He wanted a nice TV.
And then we went and bought it and everything.
He was so happy.
[Giannis] We brought the rest of the money back home,
and we gave it to my father.
Take this money, pay for the rent so he can buy us one more month.
And pay for the light bill
and pay for the water bill and get some food.
And then he was like, "Okay. You know what,"
he was like, "Guys, I'm going downstairs. I'll be back."
And he was like, "Hey, I got something for you guys."
And it was the Play... the PlayStation 2 and it was the exclusive version.
It was silver.
It was actually like a limited-edition PlayStation.
I don't know how he found that.
He brought it home with two controllers.
Usually when you get one, they only give you one controller.
But he know... he knew that it's my kids, my sons...
they go together everywhere, and he brought two.
And we were going crazy.
And it was so special that all the kids in the neighborhood
come to our house to play.
I don't know.
I don't know how my dad found this,
but I will always, in every chance that I get, make them feel special.
And he did. He really did.
It was one of the happiest days of my... of my life.
[Mariah] His mom called me.
I was driving somewhere...
and I had to turn around...
and go get Giannis from the practice facility.
[Giannis] I went downstairs. We were in the car.
I was like, "What... what's going on?"
Her hands are shaking.
She's not looking me in my eyes.
In my head, I'm like, "Who it is? Is it my mom or my dad?"
[Mariah] It was a really tough day.
Really... really hard experience.
The door in the apartment was open.
Um... the apartment was open
and I just heard my mommy yelling, screaming.
Saw my dad on the floor.
I was in Greece and, uh...
they called me.
He was crying and...
"He's heavy." That's what he said.
That's what exactly he said. "He's heavy. He's heavy.
I can't pick him up."
Paramedics came.
Kind of revive... tried to revive my dad.
And then they looked at me and they said, "There's nothing we can do.
Uh, there's nothing we can do."
And they just took him away.
[Alex] I went back to the house, and I was confused on what was going on.
My brain at that... at that... at that age of like 15, 16 years old
couldn't understand how somebody that was just with me,
he just... he just dropped me off at school,
how is he... how is he no longer here?
[Giannis] Your mom is right there sitting, and she just lost her best friend.
They've been together for over 30 years.
Uh, wherever my dad went, my mom went. They were always together.
They never separated themselves.
[Veronica] When he passed away, I was so down.
I feel like I'm alone.
Even my kids are there,
even everyone here with me, I'm alone.
They say, "You are not alone.
You are not alone. We are here for you.
Please Mommy, please.
Don't give up. Don't give up."
[dramatic music playing]
[Kidd] His dad has a heart attack.
I lost my dad, uh, to a heart attack.
And just to understand what he was going through,
the things that his dad wouldn't be able to see.
That night, the whole family comes back to the practice facility.
This was his sanctuary. This was his home.
And so we wanted to be able to let them cry,
let them laugh.
Basketball was a anchor for this family.
[announcer] The Milwaukee Bucks are gearing up for the 2017 season,
and their young star, he's doing it with a heavy heart.
[reporter] 54-year-old, Charles Antetokounmpo,
suffered a heart attack here in Milwaukee.
[Marques] We're playing the Blazers.
And, man, that still brings, uh, chills to me when I think about that.
[announcer 1] Here's Giannis all the way to the basket.
And he scores.
[announcer 2] Giannis driving on Harkless. To the rim. Lay it in.
[announcer 1] Twenty-one in the first half.
[Marques] Giannis makes all the great plays down the stretch.
Great blocks, great scores.
Everything to seal the deal.
[announcer 1] Giannis.
Yes. And one!
[announcer 2] He is spectacular.
- [announcer 1] Yes! - [announcer 3] Oh, yeah.
[announcer 1] Yes! He rolls it around.
That long stride.
Giannis from Brogdon.
Giannis Antetokounmpo has 44.
Heart, resolve, grit, and the mean mug.
We haven't seen anything like this for a long time around here.
[reporter] Is that tonight's game ball in there?
My teammates gave it to me, yes.
My team... my teammates gave it to me.
They told me to, uh, keep the ball.
He got the game ball and he dedicated the game ball to his daddy.
[Giannis] It's special.
I feel that motivates me on a daily basis.
Uh, just playing... you know, playing hard, play for my family,
and, uh, especially play for my dad.
Hopefully, he's seeing us from above and, uh, he's proud of us.
[Paschke] I knew it was hurting him,
but Charles got to see what Giannis had become,
and there's great solace in that.
[Alex] My father's passing uplifted Giannis' career.
When something like that happens,
it just kind of change the way you view things.
You start to see that we all come from one place and we're gonna end up...
in the same place.
So there's no point of you being scared.
And I felt like Giannis installed that mentality,
and he stopped being scared of anything.
You don't feel fear.
Fear does not exist.
Fear for what?
Fear of losing?
Fear of what? Not being good enough?
The difference between a coward and a hero is how to navigate fear.
We're all gonna die one day.
We are a dash. It starts from 1994 and ends somewhere.
Do what you want to do, and go conquer the world.
[announcer 1] That's why they call him the Freak.
[announcer 2] He is so special.
[announcer 3] Oh, express yourself.
Giannis.
There are certain guys who can get really good numbers,
but it's not always applicable to the team success.
He married the two.
[announcer] A monster blocked shot. Ahead for Middleton.
He became that problem for every opposing team.
Okay, the Bucks are coming to town.
What's job one?
Well, it's Giannis. It's the Freak.
[announcer] Giannis finds Bledsoe, one of the great plays this season.
He's just going by one name, basically.
- [announcer 1] Giannis. - [announcer 2] Giannis.
- [announcer 3] Giannis. - [announcer 2] Here he comes.
Giannis Antetokounmpo.
[announcer 4] You don't see that every day in the NBA.
[Nehm] That was the year where it was like,
"Okay, this guy could potentially be one of the all-time greats."
[announcer 1] Oh, my goodness. Wow.
[announcer 2] Giannis! Whoo!
[crowd] MVP! MVP!
MVP! MVP! MVP!
[man] The 2019 Most Valuable Player goes to...
Giannis Antetokounmpo.
[applause]
[Alex] He tried to ask us not to cry, because he knew that if we got emotional,
he was gonna get emotional.
[Giannis] I wanna thank... thank the front office,
the ownership for like, you know, believing in me...
[cheers and applause]
...when I was 18 years old back in Greece.
I wanna thank the city of Milwaukee.
I wanna thank, uh, my country, Greece and, uh, Nigeria
for always supporting me, you know?
Uh, I wanna thank my dad.
Uh, obviously, you know, my dad is not here with me,
- but, uh... you know... - [applause]
I wanna thank my amazing, uh, mom.
She always saw the future in us.
She always believed in us. She was always there for us.
She's the foundation of this family.
You're my... you're my true hero.
You're my true hero.
[cheers and applause]
The first time I saw him really show his emotions in front of people
was on that stage.
Yeah, I said... I said I'm not...
I'm not gonna cry, and the first thing I did was cry.
That's crazy.
He realized being vulnerable and letting people see who you really are
and letting people see a different side of you is okay.
It's safe.
It feels good.
- It's difficult. - [man] Congratulations, Giannis.
That's the day I found out I was pregnant with Liam.
I had written him a card that said,
"MVP or not, you're gonna be a dad."
I'm like, "No way."
She's like, "Yeah." And then I just like started just crying.
And then I'm like, "Oh, my dad's not gonna be here to see this."
Where's my baby?
Oh, baby.
I'm here, baby. Who are these strangers?
Who are these strangers? My baby, come here.
- [Mariah] You want a popsicle, Liam? - Who are these strangers, hmm?
His father is the reason he wanted to become a father.
It was so important to him.
[Giannis] He never had money.
All he had was love and the lessons he gave us.
I hope I can be as good as a father as my dad was to me.
[in Greek] Do you want ice cream?
Do you want ice cream? No?
Do you want the dinosaur?
[growls]
When our boys were born, it really grounded him
and like made him more balanced,
you know, because he came home
to this little baby who loved him unconditionally,
who has no idea who he is.
Do you wanna play basketball?
No?
Hey, Liam, do you wanna play basketball when you grow up?
Do you wanna play basketball?
Okay.
My kids... I guess my kids not will be basketball players, it's okay.
You wanna be an engineer?
Maybe a lawyer? What you wanna be?
They don't know the big name.
They know him as their dad.
- [screams] - [laughs]
The part that I love of being a father is that I know they need me.
I love that feeling.
[Liam laughs]
[Giannis] Boo!
[Mariah] I'm like, "Giannis, stop buying them toys.
There's too many."
And he's like, "No, I enjoy buying them toys
because I didn't have a single toy when I was a kid."
And it just like broke my heart, but at the same time,
it makes sense like why he works so hard to give our kids whatever they want.
- [Giannis screams] - [laughter]
- [Giannis] You got me. Okay. - [laughter]
No. No.
Go get mama. Get mama.
[laughter]
[Mariah] Before Liam was born, we went to a birthing class
and the teacher goes, "Any other questions?"
And he's like, "Yeah. How do you change a diaper?"
I was, like, "Oh, jeez."
I said, "I'm in trouble."
[speaking Greek]
- Come on. Go get your... - [Mariah] Does he need to change diaper?
- What? You too? - [Mariah] Does he?
Yeah.
- Give me a diaper. - Matt.
Matt, can you give him a diaper please?
He's like, "Daddy, poo-poos."
Like, "Poo-poos? It's not pee-pee?"
He said, "No. Poo-poos." "Okay. Go to mama."
"Uh-uh. Daddy." You know, like, "I want you."
[laughs] So like, man, I just...
I just scored 50 yesterday,
and now I'm changing diapers?
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ My heart will always be with my home ♪
[reporter] Exciting news.
Giannis' older brother has agreed to a two-year contract with the Bucks.
Thanasis last played in Europe but has been in the NBA before.
[announcer] Tha-nasty.
Giannis' older brother, Thanasis, joins the team the next season.
Hey, man, feels great.
Feels great having this guy out here.
[Andrews] To be able to have your best friend there,
Giannis was happy.
[announcer] No one else on the planet who does that.
♪ I could tell you I'm sorry But you know I won't ♪
[man] It's my honor to announce the 2020 Most Valuable Player
is Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Winning back-to-back MVPs, how difficult is that?
There's LeBron James. There's Steph Curry.
There's Joker.
To be the greatest of the greats
two years in a row is an absurd accomplishment.
- [announcer 1] Giannis. - [announcer 2] Greek Freak flush!
♪ Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, gone ♪
♪ You see my rocket ship Head up in the clouds ♪
♪ When the spaceship lit, ignite ♪
♪ Hit me from the ground I'm about to lift off ♪
["Lift Off" by Labrinth playing]
Once he won the MVPs,
the last thing remaining on his résumé
was an NBA championship.
Listen, listen, listen, listen.
Please. Please do me this favor so I can be better.
I can be a better player. I can lead this team to a championship.
Please don't call me MVP.
[dramatic music playing]
In December 2020, he had a big decision to sign,
you know, another contract to stay here for another couple years or to leave.
With professional athletes in Milwaukee,
the question is always when is this person going to leave?
That was a very real concern
as Giannis was leading into this decision.
[Middleton] I know this deadline is pushing soon,
so for his birthday present,
I had the corny joke of giving him, uh, pens.
- [laughter] - [Giannis] It's just stupid-ass pens, bro.
Bro, you mad 'cause you want it.
Bro, first of all, Mamadi had
- one of these in like his back pocket. - [laughter]
[Middleton] I've been his teammate for the longest time,
and, of course, I don't want my guy to leave.
I'm glad that you were surprised.
When people were wondering if Giannis would sign with the Milwaukee Bucks
and stay in Milwaukee, a Greek gentleman came up to me, a fan,
and the fan said, "Don't worry about it, Jim.
We have a philosophy in Greece called philotimo,
which is founded in character and loyalty."
He said, "He'll stay."
[upbeat music playing]
[Giannis] It's more than just basketball for me.
It's more than just business.
And people can say that's a flaw that I have.
They can tell me, "You could go to New York,
to go to Miami, go to LA,
to a big market team and make more money."
But those people did not help me, man.
Those people did not bring my family.
I didn't cry with those people.
I didn't, uh, fail with those people.
I didn't succeed with those people.
I grew up here.
This is... this is my home.
[Giannis] I was a kid that came from nowhere and they embraced me.
I couldn't leave.
Anytime you hear Giannis talk, it's about his family,
what his mom did, what his dad did,
what his brothers are doing,
how much his kids and me mean to him.
- Okay. Let's do this. Let's do it. - Let's do it.
- So I just, uh, put the date? - Date.
[Mariah] That's who he is.
And Milwaukee is such a big part of it,
because it's what allowed his family
to go from struggling
to where they are now, thriving.
- He wants the pen. - [Mariah laughs]
You wanna sign?
It's big, man. It's big.
Like from where we came from,
putting my signature on a paper like that,
it's fucking unbelievable.
It's unreal. It's unreal.
The biggest deal in NBA history.
And, um, it's all because of hard work.
Gonna keep working hard.
And, hopefully, I cannot let you guys down
and make you guys proud and make this city proud
and, uh... have fun.
Let's have fun, okay?
[man] We love you, guys. Thank you.
- [woman] We love you. - [applause]
[all] Cheers.
[man 2] Congratulations.
[man 3] Cheers, man.
[Veronica] Cheers.
Cheers.
[reporter 1] It's not often that a true NBA superstar stays in a small market.
[reporter 2] News of Giannis signing the supermax has fans thrilled.
It's good for the league that you can see a superstar like that
stay put, give Milwaukee this identity,
uh, and not just be another guy who bolts for the bright lights.
[Paschke] Philotimo, the Greek philosophy of character and loyalty.
Giannis has philotimo.
More than anybody I've ever known.
[dramatic music playing]
[Paschke] When Giannis decided to stay in Milwaukee,
everybody breathed a big sigh of relief
and then you go right back to,
"Okay, now, what can happen?"
[anchor] Back-to-back MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo,
has achieved a lot in his seven-year career,
but what has eluded him so far,
even a crack at an NBA title.
[announcer] For many people, this is a stunner.
[Saratsis] They played Toronto in the Eastern Conference Finals.
And he couldn't push through the way that he wanted to.
The next year, they lost to Miami in the second round of the bubble.
[announcer 1] The Milwaukee Bucks had the best record again in the NBA.
[announcer 2] They just couldn't get the engine going.
[announcer 1] That's it. The best team in the NBA is gone.
The biggest critiques are always he needs to shoot the ball better,
that he doesn't have a good outside shot,
his free throws.
[Andrews] Coming off a supermax extension against the Boston Celtics,
Giannis heads to the free throw line,
and the issue that has plagued him comes back.
[announcer] Antetokounmpo, a chance to tie it with free throws.
Giannis for the tie.
Oh, he comes up short, and that's it.
[reporter 1] You're a two-time MVP.
You gotta make that free throw. It's that simple.
[reporter 2] Can't overlook Giannis and that missed free throw
with 0.4 seconds left.
[reporter 3] Are you gonna sit up here and tell me that the pressure
is on the organization and not...
- [reporter 4] Yeah. - [reporter 3] ...Giannis?
[Saratsis] Even though he will never say that he hears all the criticism,
he hears all the criticism.
He sees all of it.
I wouldn't wanna be Giannis.
You take the last shot and you miss, they'll blame you.
If you don't take the last shot and we don't win, they blame you.
[man] The pressures of being an MVP,
the pressures of winning a championship,
when you care about so many people,
um, as Giannis does,
his family, the organization,
uh, the city of Milwaukee,
it can become overwhelming for a 26-year-old.
It was a tough year, just emotionally and mentally.
And all this pressure of, "Giannis, in order to seal who you are,
you have to win a championship," it gets to you.
[Alex] Every person has a boiling point.
I think that he reached that level
that it was like, "I don't think I can anymore."
[Giannis] I was dealing with some stuff.
I don't think I had enough time to grieve my father.
I had to be there for my brothers and my mom.
Seeing your mom sad and wearing black clothes
and all that is not a good feeling.
And I don't think I had time to kind of...
take for myself, talk with my family.
I said, "I don't wanna play no more.
I don't wanna play no more."
There's no joy. It's torture.
I thought he was gonna quit. I thought he was done.
I thought he wasn't gonna play anymore.
[Thanasis] What I said was, "I'm with you.
You're going to stop playing. So what?"
You gotta start being that 12-year-old and saying, "Okay, we gotta go out there,
work, and see what we're gonna eat tomorrow."
This is nothing.
[Kostas] I was like, "If you quit, we quit."
We're family. We do it together.
I think it was a decision that I was willing to take,
not for him to feel that excluded, not to feel alone.
I remember telling him,
"Have you ever grieved for your father?
You dove into the basketball.
You did everything to make sure that your family was okay,
which was the right thing to do.
But when have you ever stopped and said, 'I need help myself?'"
I started talking to a sports psych,
started doing therapy,
and it was one of the best decisions that I've ever done in my life
to be able to, uh, develop a coping mechanism.
[Mariah] He fought harder than anybody will ever know off the court.
To see his fight and what he did to get through it was just absolutely amazing.
[anchor] Milwaukee with Giannis, they had the best record in the east,
back-to-back seasons and disappointed in the playoffs.
Why do they look different this year?
This is a team, if they handle close games differently than they have in the past,
the Bucks can certainly get to the Conference Finals.
Giannis genuinely contemplated quitting basketball
probably in the beginning of January,
and 20th of June they were in the Eastern Conference Finals.
[reporter] The Hawks are now down two games to one to the Bucks.
[announcer 1] So Giannis opens up on fire here.
And he scores.
[announcer 2] Milwaukee trying to take a stranglehold on this series.
[announcer 1] Oh!
[announcer 2] And someone's down.
And it looks like it's Giannis grabbing that left knee.
Oh, no.
[Giannis] I fell down.
My knee kind of went the other way.
- [announcer 1] Oh. - [announcer 2] Oh, man.
- [announcer 1] Can't even look at it. - [announcer 2] No.
[Giannis] I keep yelling.
I'm like, "Fuck, fuck, fuck."
[Andrews] The way that he yelled out,
it was piercing how much pain he was in.
[announcer 1] Trying to help Giannis to his feet.
[announcer 2] Here's the true test.
Is he able to put any weight on it?
[Giannis] My brother came to me and was like, "What do you feel?"
"Like, bro, I felt like a pop. Like, I fell a pop on my knee."
He's like, "No, no, no, no, no. Are you sure?"
And while I'm walking back, I looked at my knee,
and my knee was double in size,
and I said, "Oh, shit."
[announcer 1] This is something you absolutely don't wanna see.
[Baker] I saw him two days later.
He had a brace on.
He literally was limping into the gym.
And he was saying, "I'll be back. I'll be back."
I'm like, "You're not gonna be back."
He hyperextended it.
And I've been around basketball enough and have done the injury to know
that you can't come back from that within a month.
I said, "Guys, just give me opportunity."
That's all I asked for.
Just give me an opportunity.
Hold this down for me.
Played two unbelievable games and went to the finals.
[reporter 1] The Bucks advance now to the finals,
but we still don't know when
or perhaps if Giannis Antetokounmpo is gonna come back.
[reporter 2] Almost certainly there'll be no Giannis.
[Giannis] I was walking.
Then I was jogging.
Then I was running.
Then I was lifting weights.
Yeah, I was back in six days.
[Holiday] We have our first finals practice.
First time we see him touch the floor.
And we're like, "All right. Cool. The game's the next day.
There's gonna be like a little walkthrough."
And Giannis is going a 150 miles an hour.
And we're like... literally have to tell him like, "Bro, calm down.
We don't... like... we don't need you today.
We need you tomorrow. Relax."
He wasn't looking for people to coddle him.
He wasn't babying the knee.
He was like, "I'm here to win a championship."
[PA announcer] Good evening and welcome to game one of the 2021 NBA Finals.
[announcer 1] Giannis Antetokounmpo, after missing the last two games
in the conference finals, is in the lineup.
[Giannis] Come on. Bucks on three. One, two, three.
[all] Bucks!
[announcer] Antetokounmpo, again, drives inside and throws it down.
Giannis is a super freak healer.
I don't know if he has some other makeup than the rest of us,
but he heals in a way that nobody else does.
[announcer 1] There is no hesitancy from Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Crowder to Bridges. Bridges up inside.
Blocked by Antetokounmpo.
[announcer 2] He blows it down the center of the floor.
Only Chris Paul is back. He slams it.
[Giannis] Played the game one, lost game one,
but I felt so much confident though,
because when I got on the court, I'm like, "Okay, I can play."
The next game, we come back, game two.
[announcer 1] Middleton, the drive. Blocked by Ayton.
- Saved by Bridges. - [announcer 2] This is unbelievable.
Seven three-pointers.
[announcer 3] Inside. Bridges to Ayton. Foul, and one.
[announcer 4] The Suns halfway to a championship.
A 2-0 series lead.
We lost game two.
But I played better, I felt better.
[crowd chanting] Suns in four! Suns in four!
They were real enthusiastic and emphatic that they were gonna sweep us.
4-0. 4-0.
Teams that have won the first two games in the finals
have gone on to win the championship 89% of the time.
Could the Bucks get swept?
Giannis doesn't have that alpha quality leadership.
[announcer] They lose this game tonight, their hopes of breaking
a 50-year drought of a championship in peril.
[Giannis] The game was so close to being taken away from me
that I appreciate every minute of it.
I didn't take it for granted.
All of a sudden, Giannis starts to take over.
[announcer 1] Antetokounmpo, four assists here in the opening quarter.
[announcer 2] They can't stop Giannis tonight.
[announcer 1] Giannis Antetokounmpo punishing the Suns.
The impact that Giannis has on the psyche of the opponent.
[announcer 1] Shot won't go. Gets the rebound. Back up.
Banks it in, and a foul.
[announcer 2] Giannis goes for 41.
And the Bucks beat Phoenix 120-100.
I call it the Giannis effect.
[announcer] Antetokounmpo on the steal.
[Marques] I don't wanna get dunked on by Giannis.
I don't wanna get my shot blocked by Giannis.
[announcer] Now Booker throws it up for Ayton.
Shot blocked by Antetokounmpo.
What a block from Giannis.
[Marques] You get so preoccupied with Giannis
that it impacts almost every area of your game.
[announcer] The NBA Finals are tied at two games apiece.
It's a best of three now.
Two more.
Game five is one of the most perfect basketball games
we've ever played as a team.
[announcer] Booker, the drive. Gets inside.
Leans in.
Knocked away and stolen by Holiday.
Jrue Holiday stole the ball, came up,
it looked like he was gonna dribble out the clock.
We're up one. I think I'm gonna hold the ball.
It's probably the smart thing to do.
He told me to throw it up, and I threw it as high as I could.
[announcer] Phoenix has to foul.
And Antetokounmpo throws it down.
[Paschke] That play,
that recognition on the part of Giannis crushed the Phoenix Suns.
It crushed them.
One more, baby.
One more.
[cheers and applause]
[Giannis] We won game five.
And when we won game five, I'm like,
"We gotta go back home now."
And it's kind of tricky because you might be up 3-2
but you have the pressure.
[crowd chanting] Bucks in six! Bucks in six!
Bucks in six!
Because if you don't finish it, now you gotta go back there.
[announcer] For Giannis Antetokounmpo, simply the biggest game of his life.
[Ernie] Fifty years of no championship.
This was a chance for Milwaukee to win an NBA title.
[Giannis] We need one more.
At the end of the day, it's just another game.
Enjoy this shit.
Set the fucking tone. Pay attention to details from the start.
Do what you do based on your fucking role.
Do what you do.
- We want to dance tonight. - Do what you fuckin' do!
Come on, let's dance. Come on. One more time. Come on.
- [man] Together on three. One, two, three. - [all] Together.
[man 2] Let's go.
[dramatic music playing]
[Giannis] Thanasis said, "Hey, man,
the trophy's in the building."
I said, "The trophy's in the building, huh?"
You can finish it today.
This trophy is not leaving this building. We're gonna win.
You know, we're gonna win. We're gonna make this happen.
I gave my brother a hug and I told him, I said, "Man, we've come a long way, huh?"
He was like, "Yeah. Go finish this."
"I will."
[dramatic music playing]
This guy, like from the first play of the game,
just showed that "I want this."
[announcer] Shot blocked by Antetokounmpo.
Once again comes out of nowhere, throws it off the backboard.
He was there on every play.
[announcer] Giannis down the... he banks it home.
I was watching it live in Greece.
[announcer] The spin move. Giannis does it again.
I think he had like 35 points.
[announcer] Giannis tries a three.
It's good.
And then he had like 40.
[announcer] Bank shot. No good. Antetokounmpo with the follow.
- Forty-five. - [announcer] Middleton inside.
Nice entry pass. And a slam from Antetokounmpo.
He's got 45.
What's the difference between a coward and a hero?
It's how you deal with fear.
Then you decide to be a hero.
[announcer] Inside, Antetokounmpo. Puts up the one-hander.
Shot is good. Forty-nine.
[net swishes]
Fifty points.
Only the seventh player in the history of the finals to have a 50-point game.
And that'll do it.
It's over.
The Bucks have done it.
The long wait has ended.
After a half-century,
the Milwaukee Bucks are NBA champions once again.
The 50-point game in a close-out game to win an NBA Finals at home.
Milwaukee's first championship
across all professional sports in 50 years.
[man] Finals MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
[cheers and applause]
[Baker] Small market superstar.
His commitment to staying in Milwaukee
and it culminating in a world championship,
you can't write it in a... in a movie.
[crowd cheering]
[dramatic music playing]
[Giannis] I had one goal and one goal only,
to get to my family.
[Giannis] I wish dad was there to hug him too.
[dramatic music playing]
Hey, guys, say hello to the camera.
Hello to the camera, Dad.
Come on.
Uh, it's been a long journey, man.
A long journey.
I can... I can remember the first time that my dad walked into Bradley Center.
I was just like a stupid kid with just big dreams.
[Charles] Giannis works very, very hard.
His name is now a household name in Greece
because of his achievement, and this is always what we pray for.
[dramatic music continues]
Yeah!
I'm a champion.
My city is a champion.
[speaking Greek] Kostas. Kostas.
[speaking Greek]
[in English] ♪ I'm a thief in the night ♪
♪ I'll tell you once ♪
♪ Won't tell you twice ♪
Eh!
Meet my mom right here.
Started from the bottom, now we're here.
[crowd cheering]
Whoo!
[crowd cheering]
No matter what happens in life, nobody can take that moment away from you.
[crowd cheering]
[Giannis] It's been done. It's history.
[crowd cheering]
Milwaukee, we did it, baby!
We did it!
[cheers and applause]
We did it, man.
I love it here. I love the city.
I feel like I'm one of them.
And I'm gonna do everything that I can to win, uh, another championship.
I'm not satisfied. I want more.
I know I'm in the second chapter of my career now.
The goal is to have another, uh, another Hall of Fame decade.
How you doing?
- [man] Oh. - [Giannis] You good?
Now that the sun is going down, we go up there.
We take a legendary picture with the trophy.
[man] Yes, sir.
[Giannis] It's gonna be historical, this moment.
Let's do it.
[indistinct chatter]
[Giannis] This is historical moment. Historical.
This is beautiful right here.
What is this?
[gasps] Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
Are you serious?
- Whoa. - Thank you. Oh, my gosh.
[speaking Greek]
[indistinct chatter]
[Stavrou] Giannis, Thanasis, Alex, and Kostas, they really love Greece.
That's the place they grew up.
But we don't deserve Giannis.
That's my point of view.
[speaking Greek]
[in English] Stand here. No. Stand right here...
[indistinct chatter]
[Mariah] When we go back to Greece, I was like,
"Why do you like being here if there's so many people
who don't think you belong here?"
[Giannis] You don't see a lot of immigrants thriving in Greece.
I feel like if me or my brothers don't do it now, who's gonna do it?
[indistinct chatter]
[Giannis] I believe that dad is extremely proud,
you know, what we've accomplished and who we've become as human beings.
He's watching from above.
He's smiling at us.
He's guiding us, you know, through our journeys.
He's proud of our grandkids.
He's proud of, you know, what we're gonna accomplish in the future.
If I could have one wish right now, it's that every person on this earth
could have the opportunity to accomplish their own dream,
to reach their own potential, to be great in what they love,
to accomplish their dreams.
There's something special in reaching your dreams.
It fills you up as a human being.
And I believe this family can do that for people.
[Alex] Like Daddy used to say,
if you can take advantage of an opportunity today,
why wait till tomorrow?
I know that it's starting from a little meal right now.
This foundation is gonna be beyond us...
- [Thanasis] Amen. - ...because this is gonna be
going for years, and years, and years, centuries, you know?
And then when we are... when we are done,
our kids gonna take over.
And when our kids are done, our grandkids are gonna take over.
And when our grand... your great-great- great-grandkids are gonna take over.
I thought about them like, "Okay, I'm just gonna start this foundation."
I got the name, CAFF, Charles Antetokounmpo Family Foundation.
Try to do something my dad would be proud of.
Try to uplift immigrants in Greece,
in Nigeria, in Milwaukee.
[indistinct chatter]
[applause]
[Mariah] He's like, "I'm changing that perception
of what immigrants can do in a country."
It's Giannis!
How are you guys doing?
[in Greek] How are you?
He's five-meters tall!
Immigrants aren't criminals.
They're not here to take your jobs.
They're here looking for a better life, just like you are.
[in Greek] So, this hoop here has got a lot of history.
This hoop is where I scored my first slam dunk.
Did you train for many hours every day?
Every day, but for me it was a lot of fun.
I played with my brothers, with my friends.
Let's build some new memories on this court.
Well done! Now you have to defend.
[in English] Where I came from, what I've faced in my life,
I'm hopeful that...
when they see me and they see that it can be done,
they see my brothers and they see it can be done.
[in Greek] There you go! There you go!
No, hang on! Where are you going?
First turn around and tell him, "In your face!"
[in English] That's bigger than just basketball.
[in Greek] You did it! Well done!
[Papadojannis in English] If you go to any of the immigrant neighborhoods in Athens,
you will see a lot of Antetokounmpos.
Maybe they won't be famous or rich,
but all of them believe that they can do it now.
[kids chanting] Antetokounmpo!
Antetokounmpo!
[indistinct chatter]
[boy in Greek] Giannis, one photo please.
[indistinct chatter]
[speaking Greek]
[in English] Hey, hey. The president arrived.
The president.
No, it's very hard to get here.
- What? - It's very hard.
It's very hard.
How you guys feel, man?
How do you feel, man?
[Giannis] I'm happy that I can pin these guys down.
Play some basketball for once.
This is amazing. If we was playing basketball on a court
like this when we was younger, we'd feel like we was on the top of the world.
I changed my shot. I'm telling you, everything is going straight now.
♪ No ordinary love ♪
What's your definition of your success?
For me, it's to be able to provide for my family.
Ten years ago,
my definition of success was putting food in my mouth.
He got two in a row.
He got three in a row.
Steps to success always, always, always, always.
But... hey.
Hey, I'm proud of you guys.
When we see ourselves when we're 60, 70, we'll have no regrets.
Whatever comes as a family.
We are living and breathing our dream.
Who is it gonna be?
- Yes! - [laughs]
Yes!
["No Ordinary" by Labrinth playing]
♪ I need you in my arm ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ All this ♪
♪ No ordinary love ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Your kiss, a sky... ♪
[Giannis] I want to win a medal for my country.
It's a challenge that I haven't yet conquered.
I gotta keep on going back until I do it.
[announcer] Grayson Allen.
Pump fake. Inside the lane.
Miami has its upset.
Number eight has upset number one.
[reporter] Do you view this season as a failure?
That's the wrong question.
There's no failure in sports.
Every year you work,
you work towards a goal.
To be able to, uh, take care of your family,
provide a house for them, or take care of your parents,
you work towards a goal.
It's not a failure.
It's steps to success.
There's good days, bad days.
Some days you are able to, uh, be successful.
Some days you're not.
Some days it's your turn. Some days it's not your turn.
We were able to win one.
Hopefully, we can win another one.
[upbeat music playing]