The Greek Freak will represent his country on the largest international stage at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris
After defeating Croatia in the final match of one of the four FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments in Piraeus, Greece clinched a spot in the 2024 Summer Olympics before a friendly crowd not far outside Athens by defeating Croatia, 80-69 (sorry, Zach Lowe). Two-time NBA MVP, 2021 Finals MVP, 2020 Defensive Player of the Year, eight-time All-Star, and six-time All-NBA First Team selection Giannis Antetokounmpo now has another prestigious line to add to his all-time resume: Olympian.
Giannis scored 23 points plus eight boards on 8/17 shooting in 28 minutes, hitting six of his ten free throws and even adding a three:
Giannis shoots over Zubac and gives us the Michael Jordan shrug pic.twitter.com/NnR6il5Ml6
— Heavenly Buckets on youtube (@HeavenlyBuckets) July 7, 2024
He did this all while facing a style of defense perhaps even beyond what he’s seen in the NBA. You’ve heard of the wall, then there’s this:
Jesus christ dawg what is this https://t.co/MYEkq0okL4 pic.twitter.com/d2iaKBgl4r
— ³⁴ (@GiannisWorld) July 7, 2024
This clearly means a lot to Giannis. In what is certainly the most emotional we’ve seen him on camera since he won his first championship three years ago, we see him sitting on a folding chair after his victory holding back tears, with his son Liam patting him on the knee for a job well done:
What it means for Giannis #FIBAOQT pic.twitter.com/rpacKTH6PA
— FIBA (@FIBA) July 7, 2024
I get chills watching this. It’s a near shot-for-shot remake of what happened after the final buzzer of Game 6 in the 2021 NBA Finals. After being raised stateless in a poor neighborhood of Athens as the middle of five children born to Nigerian immigrant parents, he’ll now represent his homeland—who didn’t even grant him citizenship until less than two months before he was drafted—at the games of the 33rd Olympiad. He’s the only current Buck in the field of twelve teams, giving us American Bucks fans another rooting interest besides Team USA.
With 22.7 PPG on .625/.500/.640 shooting, 4.7 RPG, 2.3 APG plus a steal and block per game, he was named MVP of the Piraeus tournament. Here’s what Giannis had to say afterward, courtesy of our friend Harris Stavrou of SPORT24:
. @harris_stavrou asked Giannis Antetokounmpo to share his feelings on the possibility to be Greece’s flag bearer in the 2024 Olympic Games: pic.twitter.com/KPa3DXCJkF
— Vasiliki Karamouza (@karamouza_vas) July 7, 2024
Giannis: “I will enjoy the moment.” pic.twitter.com/5kRkqYo0HT
— Heavenly Buckets on youtube (@HeavenlyBuckets) July 7, 2024
After blowing out Egypt and the Dominican Republic in the Group A preliminary round, the Hellas similarly demolished Luka Doncic and Slovenia (eleventh in the FIBA world rankings, three spots higher than Greece) yesterday in what looked like their hardest test. To their credit, Croatia (30th and winner of Group B) put up more of a fight than any of the host nation’s other opponents. Paced by Clippers center Ivica Zubac (23 points) and now-Nuggets forward Dario Saric (also 23), the Croatians kept it close for the entire first half but never led by more than four points. Tied after one, a Giannis free throw gave his squad the lead for good, but it was only a six-point advantage at half. It wasn’t until the midpoint of the third quarter (note that FIBA quarters are eight minutes long) that Greece extended its edge into double-digits, where it stayed for the remainder of the game, despite never growing bigger than fourteen.
Speaking of Zubac, who is a quality NBA rim protector, he didn’t have much to stop Giannis today:
ZUBAC IS TOO WEAK FOR GIANNIS pic.twitter.com/c7kMfBwZPH
— ³⁴ (@GiannisWorld) July 7, 2024
Giannis just hit his 5th (!!!) midrange over Ivica Zubac and it was the most contested it’s been all night. pic.twitter.com/hCxeKptjs1
— Heavenly Buckets on youtube (@HeavenlyBuckets) July 7, 2024
And speaking of Saric, he didn’t stand much of a chance with Giannis on him:
Giannis vs Dario Saric pic.twitter.com/OlkqhNi05C
— Heavenly Buckets on youtube (@HeavenlyBuckets) July 7, 2024
Giannis was helped by longtime Greek national team point guard and former University of Florida Gator, then Memphis Grizzly Nick Calathes with 20 points in 34 minutes. Former first-round pick and Sacramento King center Georgios Papagiannis added 19. Those three, team captain and former Rocket/Nugget Kostas Papanikolaou, and Stephen F. Austin NCAA tournament hero Thomas Walkup make up coach Vassilis Spanoulis’—a Greek basketball icon who played 31 games for the Rockets in 2006–07—primary lineup.
This is Greece’s fourth appearance at the Olympics since first qualifying for the 1996 Atlanta Games, and their first since 2008 in Beijing. They made it out of group play and finished fifth each time, including when they hosted the 2004 games in Athens. Though this might be the Greek’s best squad ever considering that they employ one of the best 25ish basketball players of all time, they may struggle to equal those results. They will join a very tough Group A consisting of Australia (ranked fifth by FIBA with nine current NBA players, plus former Bucks teammates Matthew Dellavedova and Joe Ingles), Canada (seventh with eight), and Spain (second with two).
Their first matchup in group play will be in Lille versus Canada on July 27th at 11 AM local time, 6 AM Central back here in the States. They’ll take on Spain three days later on the 30th and Australia on August 2nd, all in Lille. Should they make it out of the group stage, the knockout stage begins on August 6th.
Congrats to our Greek god, who will become the thirteenth Buck to suit up at the Summer Olympics since NBA players became eligible to play in 1992. He joins 2021 2020 gold-medalist Khris Middleton and 2000 gold-medalist and assistant coach Vin Baker as current Bucks Olympians. As Greece’s biggest global star in any sport, it seems all but guaranteed he’ll be the one to carry (float?) the flag into the opening ceremony, which will take place along the Seine in Paris instead of inside a stadium, with athletes parading in on boats.
When that moment arrives, we’ll have full coverage of Giannis’ trip to Paris and his exploits on the court. In the meantime, we also have some bonus Greek national team content headed your way. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t shout out all our Greek readers and Greek Bucks fans: we here at Brew Hoop will be pulling for Giannis and your countrymen. Go Hellas!
Hellas are back in the @Olympics for the first time since 2008!
How far can they go in #Paris2024?#FIBAOQT pic.twitter.com/v7NO3Az6I0
— FIBA (@FIBA) July 7, 2024