Eurohoops is in Milwaukee for one week and chronicles the life, the games and the experiences of Giannis Antetokounmpo with a single purpose: So that the readers can have the opportunity to experience and get to know the 100% true and authentic Giannis!
In every day that goes by, regular people, basketball fans, players and… superstars of the NBA, realize that “Giannis from Sepolia,” like he’s written on his blog, is an unusual phenomenon of an athlete that is going to be discussed a lot in the future.
These days, from the moment of his first triple double and after, Eurohoops has been close to Giannis and through the process of real, simple conversation, it would like – like Giannis himself – the people to come to know who he is, how he thinks and the experiences that he has in their fully realistic dimension.
More posts are going to follow in the coming days and months. This blog by Giannis is dedicated to two major events! To the… anointment that he got from Kobe Bryant and the other he received from Jason Kidd.
Giannis writes about his encounter with one of the top athletes of all time in any sport, he reveals the exact words that were exchanged between them and describes how he received the advice that Kobe gave him in a… paternal style that gave him goosebumps.
During recent days, it’s the first time in the history of basketball that we see a player who is 2m.11 undertaking the duties of a playmaker. Giannis reveals how Jason Kidd asked him to undertake this role and writes about the conversations with his coach and the things he asked of him in front of the whole team. Enjoy Giannis, exactly like he is, exclusively on Eurohoops.
“Every day I thank God”
Whatever I say is not enough. Every day that goes by I thank God that I am able to live these kinds of experiences. It’s unbelievable. I started playing basketball when I was 12. Nine years later I’m playing against players like Kobe, LeBron, and Durant.
I’m happy for my first official triple double because it happened in an important game for me: Firstly because I wanted us to win it at all costs and, of course, because I would be playing against Kobe Bryant for the last time. When I was very little, he was one of my idols. I watched his highlights all the time. He said some very nice things about me. I wanted to show him how much I appreciated the way he spoke about me. The right way – aside from thanking him face to face like I did – was to show, on the court, that he’s right. That I can be a very good player in this league.
As time goes by, I too realize how much talent I have and the things I can do on the court if I’m focused, have confidence in myself and work non-stop, more and more every day.
“What I said to Kobe”
When the game was over we embraced. It’s a moment I’ll never forget. I told him, “We’re going to miss you a lot. Amazing job all these years OG.” It’s an expression that’s used in the NBA for only very few players. He smiled and responded, “Good job young fella.”
Then my family joined me and we all went into the locker room to see Kobe and talk. My mother took a picture that she wanted to take for… a long time! But, then, the funniest thing happened!
Jason Kidd and Kobe were talking. Bryant starts talking to me and at some point he tells me, “If you have somewhere you have to be, you can go, don’t worry.”
Go where? I’m in a room with Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd and you’re giving me advice! Leave and go where? That’s what I told him!
Jason Kidd with so many records in the NBA, Kobe and little Giannis from Sepolia (ed.note: his old neighborhood in Athens)
I think about it and I still can’t believe it.
Kobe gave me advice about my life as well as basketball. He told me that the secret is to surpass my limits every day and that one of the most important things is to work in the summers.
That this is the period in which a high-level athlete has the time to work on an individual level in order to become better. To add elements to his game and develop it. In the summers, Kobe would get up very early in the morning, train for many hours during the day and repeat it late at night, when he would deliberately go to bed very late. He prepared his body and his mind in the summer for everything he knew he would have to do during the season.
We play back-to-back games, we take flights late at night or early in the morning, we accumulate a lot of exhaustion and these are things that an athlete who wants to be great has to manage and overcome.
Kobe pushed himself in the summers and synchronized his biological clock with the… schedule that exists in the season, when we play one game right after the other with midnight flights in between! This is the reason, I believe, that he went as high as he did, but also managed to stay at such a level for 20 whole years.
“What Kobe said to me… It gave me goosebumps”
When he spoke to me, he emphasized the fact that I should never be loose when I’m training and that, whenever I’m working, not even a single second should go to waste.
He told me that it’s up to me to make big appearances, to play complete basketball, get triple doubles often. That it depends on me, my… mind and how determined I am.
You have to be tough and determined to make a lot of sacrifices if you want to get to the top.
Kobe told me the following telling words and, honestly, I was listening to him, we were looking into each other’s eyes and I felt how much he meant his every word. I got goosebumps…
“The most boring training session, you’d be appalled!”
“If you came to watch my training sessions in the summer, after a given point you’d be appalled! I did the most boring workout in the world for endless hours. Dribble, move to the right side, shoot. Thousands of repetitions. Then, dribble, move to the left side, shoot. I did nothing else, like dribbles or complex moves. And I worked on that over and over again until I perfected the moves.
When someone managed to stop me with these moves, then I would add more to my game with extra work in order to be unpredictable.”
“This is why Jordan and I achieved so much”
“These moves and the fact that we perfected them through endless work on the court, I believe they are the reason that Jordan and I dominated in the last decades in the NBA.”
I’ll always keep in my mind the words that Kobe said to me. I’m 21 years old, I know that I have many years of basketball ahead of me. But, already I’m thinking that, if I could, I’d go back in time to when I started playing basketball at the age of 12 and I would have worked much, much harder until now!
Jason Kidd’s anointment: The ball in Giannis’s hands
Since I started working with coach Zivas in Filathlitikos, I began to realize that I can participate in many areas of the game and that perhaps, in the future there is not so much a specific position for me, as a goal to get to a point where I’m able to do everything on the court at a high level. He is the first person to believe in that and he passed it on to me, even though at the time I was completely unprepared, just a lanky kid.
Even then I had a good perception of the game and I could see things on the court that others couldn’t. I believe that, what was happening then with Filathlitikos when I was playing as a playmaker, is happening in the last games of the Bucks. Of course, the level is… quite different! (laughs).
Coach Kidd’s question and the response
I remember that, when coach Kidd had come to the club, after one or two training sessions he took me aside and talked to me. He knew me as a player from my first season, but it’s different to see a player every day at practice unfolding every facet of his game.
He came up to me and asked me: “Hey, Giannis, what do you think you are?”
I responded: “Coach, I’m a playmaker, that’s what I’ve always been. That doesn’t mean that I should be playing in ‘1’. Just that, my game is to create plays for my teammates.”
To produce plays, independently of the position in which I play. This is what a playmaker is. I’m not a scorer, I’m more of a creator. But if it’s necessary for me to score and this is what you want from me, then I’ll do it. This happened at the beginning of my second season at Milwaukee, shortly after coach Kidd had arrived.
In the Summer League last summer, he had me playing in ‘1’ a lot and he seemed like he had faith in me for this position. Now, it’s the first time that he’s clearly asked me to have this role in the team. When we concede a basket, or when we get a rebound, for the ball to go to Giannis’s hands.
“He allows me to create, without any added pressure”
It’s the first time he has said this in front of the entire team. The ball in Giannis’s hands and we start our game in offense from there. This happened a few days ago.
The thing is, he did this in a way that didn’t add any pressure for me. He hasn’t said officially that Giannis is our point guard now. If he said that, a panic would be created and a lot of pressure would accumulate around myself.
The media would enter into the process of addressing this and analyzing the fact that coach Kidd made me a point guard. He never said that, from now on Giannis will be playing as a playmaker from the ‘1’ position.
He just said that the ball should go in Giannis’s hands when launching our possessions. We had two wins in Atlanta and in Milwaukee against the Lakers. Hopefully, things go well. I’m very excited and ready for any challenge.
That’s all for now, we have much more to share: Regarding my dream, this mission I feel that I have with the Bucks, the Greek national team, the way I feel about people’s comments, when I expect to become an All-Star, how high I can go…
Stay tuned and more posts will follow. I thank you from my heart for following my personal blog on Eurohoops and, like I promised from the first moment I chose to share things with you here, I’ll be reading all the comments.
Be well,
Giannis