Giannis Antetokounmpo proudly carried the Greece flag at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, but he nearly passed on that opportunity.
Antetokounmpo revealed that when he was asked to be the flag bearer, he told authorities to give that honor to his Greece captain Kostas Papanikolaou instead.
“The day they told me and asked me if I’d be willing to represent the country and be the flag bearer, my first response was, ‘I want my captain, Kostas Papanikolaou, to do it.’ He had more national team appearances than me. But it was like, ‘No, we want you to do it because you represent everything that sports represents: the way you carry yourself on the court and off the court; we love you to do it.’
“And, I said, great. It’d be an honor for me to do it. And when I did it, as I said, the biggest honor that I’ve ever done in my life,” Giannis stressed. “… It’s something that might not happen again. I might win another [NBA] championship, I might win another MVP: who knows? But I might never carry the flag. So I tried those 45 minutes to soak it in as much as I could.”
It was quite admirable on Antetokounmpo’s part to want Papanikolaou to join world champion racewalker Antigoni DrisbiotiI as flag bearers for Greece. I think it was still more fitting for the Milwaukee Bucks star to get that honor, though.
Antetokounmpo does indeed represent everything that sports is about. He is a class act who has had to battle through incredible adversity to get to the top.
Giannis was born to Nigerian immigrants in Athens, Greece in 1994, and grew up in poverty. It was only when he and his elder brother Thanasis were spotted by a basketball coach named Spiros Velliniatis in 2007 that their lives started to change.
In a few years, Antetokounmpo became a sought-after prospect, and in 2013, he made himself available for the NBA Draft. The rest, as we know, is history. Today, the 29-year-old is regarded as one of the best players in the world and has won an NBA championship.
It was only right that after all that, Antetokounmpo became the first Black athlete to be a flag bearer for Greece. He was one of three NBA players to carry their nation’s flag at the 2024 Olympics, with the other two being LeBron James (USA) and Dennis Schroder (Germany).
The Olympics did not get off to a good start for the Greeks, to say the least. They lost their first two games against Canada (86-79) and Spain (84-77) and it seemed like an early exit was almost inevitable, as they headed into the final group stage game against Australia.
The Boomers were the favorites for that clash, but Antetokounmpo ensured that the Greeks stayed alive in the tournament. The eight-time All-Star recorded 26 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals to lead the team to a 77-71 win. It was the first victory for the Greek basketball team at the Olympics in 16 years.
With that win, Antetokounmpo and Greece now wait and watch how the game between Serbia and South Sudan pans out. If Serbia wins by at least three points or if South Sudan wins by at least 24, the Greeks will advance to the knockouts.