Antentokounmpo 3 Brothers
Giannis, Thanasis and Kostas Antetokounmpo are now the first three brothers to become NBA champions in league history. Giannis, 26, and Thanasis, 29, helped the on Tuesday, receiving their first rings and joining their brother Kostas, 23, who won a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers last year.
When asked what it meant to be a champion alongside his two brothers, Giannis responded with resounding, "Woooo!"
"I'm just happy — a lot of people was making jokes when Kostas won his championship with the Lakers before me and the dinner table was awkward a little bit because he had the ring before me. But now, me and Thanasis have a ring," Giannis said in a post-game interview.
On Tuesday night, the two-time MVP scored 50 points while racking up 14 rebounds and five blocks to help defeat the Suns in Game 6. His performance helped the Bucks bring home their first championship in 50 years, the last coming in 1971.
Known as the "Greek Freak," Giannis and his brothers grew up in poverty in Athens, Greece.
Thanasis and Giannis used to join their parents on the streets of Athens, selling DVDs and CDs to make some money. They were always working. And when they weren’t working, Giannis and Kostas were walking five miles from Sepolia to Zografou, to get their reps in on the court. They’d regularly sleep at the gym rather than risk the late-night walk home. Thanasis and Giannis had to share basketball shoes, too, once they started playing. They’d switch in and out of a pair of Kobe 4s.
"We didn't have a lot of money. But we had a lot of happiness. So we wasn't broke happiness-wise," Giannis told "60 Minutes" in 2018. "When we were struggling back in the day, we were all together in one room, same room. We were having fun. We were smiling. There was some tough times."
It was in a small, Greek gym in Zografou where someone uploaded a video of 18-year-old Giannis playing. That clip led to Giannis' becoming the 15th overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft and kickstarted the brothers' amazing journey to NBA superstardom.