Sepolia and the children of immigrants

Charles Antetokounmpo and Veronica Adaobi (Giannis’s parents) immigrated to Greece in 1991 from Lagos, Nigeria. They settled in Sepolia, a working-class district of Athens about 4 miles north of the Acropolis. The family lived in a small apartment with no phone, no consistent income, and (for years) no legal residency status. Charles worked as a handyman; Veronica cleaned offices and sold goods at street markets.

The Antetokounmpo brothers — Francis (oldest), Thanasis, Giannis, Kostas, Alexandros — slept multiple to a room. The family struggled with food security; Giannis later said in 2018 interviews that they sometimes had only one meal a day. The five sons sold sunglasses, hats, and DVDs at the Monastiraki Square flea market to bring money home. None of the children had Greek citizenship; all were stateless until adulthood (the oldest two, Francis and Thanasis, became Greek citizens later than Giannis).

Filathlitikos and the path to the NBA

Giannis started playing organized basketball at age 13 with the local Filathlitikos Athens youth program — a small club in Sepolia where his older brother Thanasis already played. The Filathlitikos coaches recognized Giannis’s frame (he’d grow to 6’11” by age 18) and his unusual ball-handling for a tall player. He played his first senior team game at age 16 in Greece’s third division.

By 2012-13 he was a regular in Greece’s second division. NBA scouts started watching him in late 2012; he was widely considered a project. The Milwaukee Bucks took him 15th overall in the 2013 NBA Draft. The pick was widely panned at the time — analysts couldn’t understand why a 17-year-old from a Greek third-division team was being taken in the lottery. Giannis flew to Milwaukee in summer 2013 with his parents, granted Greek citizenship just weeks earlier.

Sepolia and the Bucks today

Giannis returns to Sepolia each off-season. The family no longer lives in the original apartment, but Giannis bought several apartments in the building in 2017 to house extended family and donated heavily to local schools. The Filathlitikos youth program received a new gymnasium in 2019, paid for by Giannis. The Antetokounmpo brothers — Thanasis (Bucks), Kostas (Lakers, Greek League), Alexandros (Greek League) — all play professionally.

Giannis won the 2019 and 2020 NBA MVPs, the 2020 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, and the 2021 NBA championship + Finals MVP — the first Greek player ever to win an NBA championship. The Bucks retired Giannis’s father Charles’s amateur soccer jersey number (Charles played in Lagos before immigrating; his Nigerian-league #34 shirt now hangs at Fiserv Forum, the only non-pro jersey honored by an NBA team).

Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Giannis Antetokounmpo and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records. Lead image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).