By Giannis Antetokounmpo/ Follow @G_ante34
Giannis Antetokounmpo is back to carry on with the round of posts on his official blog for Eurohoops. The subject matter this time concerns the way he imagines himself in the future, when he will be complete as a basketball player and start reaching the peak of his career.
He feels grateful to the Milwaukee Bucks. He doesn’t forget that this is the organization that chose him and believed in him. Read Giannis’s very important phrase/wish and you’ll understand!
How does he picture himself in a few years?
You can never prejudge or predict the future. Hypothetically, if when I’m 25 I’m perfectly healthy, I have worked as hard as I’m working now and I have completed 7 full years of NBA presence, I believe that I’ll be ready to produce some very complete basketball on the court.
I’ll be in a position to do many different things at a high level. But in order to get to that level, you have to take advantage of every day that you’re living in the present, to the fullest.
I don’t want to think so far ahead into the future. Sometimes I think about the fact that everything is going so well in my life… I’m playing in the NBA and I’ve made a great start. Thanasis is working and is waiting for his chance. Little Kostas is already playing basketball, Alex is growing up, my parents are happy.
I think to myself, it’s not possible that everything is going so well. When is something bad going to happen? Not everything can be perfect. I think about the fact that I want my family and I to be healthy. That is what makes me more anxious, not basketball. If everything turns out the way I dream about in the coming period in my life, then I’ll be fine as far as basketball is concerned… The only thing that there is no chance I will have learned how to do when I’m 25 is to paint! I’m a terrible painter.
With the Bucks forever!
The Bucks and John Hammond chose me in the draft, got me in the NBA, kept me in the team with a role from my very first season and they are my basketball family. Not only that, but already at this young age, they have enough faith in me as a leader and they are doing everything in order to develop all of my potential. From my side, I feel that I want to be playing in the Bucks. I’m not talking about my next contract. The way I feel now, I want to keep playing for the Milwaukee Bucks for the next 20 years!
You never know how life turns out. Three years ago I was thinking that I might be playing for Filathlitikos forever! All of a sudden, the draft emerged, the NBA, the Bucks and everything that followed. I don’t know how I’ll be feeling and thinking in 2, 3 or more years. Right now I feel like I want to play for the Milwaukee Bucks forever.
Is he interested in big markets and franchises?
I’m a guy who doesn’t really care about glamour and big markets. I like to be home all day. I get up in the morning, I take a shower and I go to practice. When I’m finished, the only thing that’s on my mind is to go back home and spend time with my family. I usually feel that I prefer to hide from people.
The project in Milwaukee
The only consideration that will definitely affect me in terms of basketball, is to have a team in the future that will be able to be very competitive and to aim high. I think that in 2-3 years we will have matured as basketball players with Jabari Parker, Michael Carter-Williams, and the entire current body of the team will have made progress, guys who are really important.
Plus the additions that have been made and that will be made. We’ve also started the project of the new arena, there is a lot of enthusiasm in the fans as well. Everything seems ideal and I believe the conditions will be in place for us to play a leading role. It seems distant now, but in a few years we might reach the level to be thinking about a championship.
Okay, if LeBron said to me ‘Come to my team and play with me,’ I’d think about it! (laughs) He’s the best player in the world and a member of that exclusive group of the best that have ever played the game. Still, though, the Milwaukee Bucks would come first. They will always be the team that gave me my chance and opened up the doors to paradise.