Following his MVP-winning performance during the 2018-2019 NBA season, Milwaukee Bucks star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and two of his four brothers will compete with the Greek national team in the 2019 FIBA Championship.
Antetokounmpo, 24, will be joined by his brothers Thanasis and Kostas, both of whom bring extra talent to Greece’s basketball squad.
Thanasis, 27, plays for Greek league team Panathinaikos while Kostas plays for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. This year will be Kostas’ first appearance with the Greek national team.
“We finally decided to have Kostas Antetokounmpo on the team,” head coach Thanasis Skourtopoulos told Agence France–Presse.
“He is a young player whose development we expect a lot from. We felt that we would only start to see the benefits by gradually introducing him into contact with the national team.”
The 2019 FIBA World Cup will take place in China from August 31 to September 15.
Greece will play in Group F against Brazil, New Zealand and Montenegro. The team needs to finish in the top two to advance to a second round group.
That second round group will include the top two teams from another first-round group which consists of the United States, Turkey, Japan and the Czech Republic.
Finally, the top two teams from that second round group will advance to the quarter-finals.
Giannis, born in Athens, Greece to Nigerian parents, played for the first time with Greece’s national team in July 2013 at the under-21 level. That same year he also signed with the Milwaukee Bucks.
In 2014, the “Greek Freak” made his debut with the senior Greek national team, helping them to finish ninth place in the 2014 FIBA World Cup.
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