About to start his tenth NBA season, Giannis Antetokounmpo is considered by many to be the best basketball player in the world today. But a decade ago when he arrived in the Big League, the Greek Freak couldn’t imagine himself in such a position, far from it.
Two regular-season MVP titles, an NBA championship ring, a Defender of the Year trophy and six All-Star Game selections, all that at just 28 years old. Despite some poor guys who continue to see Giannis Antetokounmpo as a dude with no skills who only goes straight ahead, his greatness today is indisputable. Too powerful, too competitive, too dominant, just too strong. However, there was a time when Giannis was not yet the Greek Freak as we know him today. but just this Greek prospect with an unpronounceable name. And if his potential was intriguing, not many imagined such a rise for this youngster who grew up without papers in the streets of Athens. The proof, Antetokounmpo was only selected in 15th position of the 2013 Draft, a Draft in which players like Anthony Bennett, Cody Zeller, Alex Len, Trey Burke or even Shabazz Muhammad were all selected before him (yes that spade). And what is perhaps the craziest thing about all of this is that even the main interested party did not imagine himself rising so high in the NBA elite when he arrived at the big leagues.
“I get asked, ‘Did you expect to get to where you are today?’ I did not think. And there’s another question, ‘Did you want to get to where you are today?’ I never meant to. I wanted to be a great basketball player. I never wanted to be the best. I wanted to be an NBA player, but not one of the best. […]
I just wanted to be a good role player, a good sixth man. And all of a sudden, when you work extremely hard, and you dedicate your life to something, crazy things happen. »
– Giannis Antetokounmpo, via Eric Nehm de The Athletic
If seeing the words “Giannis” and “role player” in the same sentence makes you laugh today, we remember the doubts that surrounded Antetokounmpo ten years ago, in particular about the fact that he was too frail to truly s impose in the NBA or even its technical limits as well as in shooting. A decade of hard work later, the Freak has become one of the most fearsome physical beasts in the entire League and while he’s still far from being a sniper, he’s clearly progressed through the perimeter to become less predictable against opposing defences. The result is one of the most incredible awards in history for a guy not even 28 years old. So behind the highlights, the trophies and the glory, Giannis has above all become a true role model for young players in terms of work ethic. The famous Kobe Bryant Mamba Mentality that we often talk about, Giannis has it. This desire to constantly progress day after day, this obsession to earn as much as possible, and this ability to always find new sources of motivation to continue to push back his own limits allowed the Freak to exceed everything he could have imagined when he was just a kid of 18 who was discovering the world of the NBA.
“I worked extremely hard, so hard that I came to this and was like, ‘Oh sh*t what’s going on?’ I am at the top of the mountain. »
– Giannis
Giannis Antetokounmpo always wanted to maximize his potential, but he didn’t think it could take him to the top of the NBA player hierarchy. And yet, almost ten years after his selection in the Draft, the Greek Freak is there, at the top. And something tells us that he has not finished his ascent…
Source texte : The Athletic