Giannis Antetokounmpo Wanted to Wear Sweats to the NBA Draft

Giannis Antetokounmpo is posted up in a room at the Mercer Hotel. The 250 square foot space is meant for only two guests, and it’s not what you’d expect for a two-time NBA MVP, former NBA Champion, and one of the league’s 75 greatest players of all time to have—especially one who stands at 6’11”. There’s no personal bar, gigantic TV, or balcony overlooking Manhattan, just a bed and a small table with the free hotel chocolates on top, which is where the Greek-born pro athlete of Nigerian descent holds court.

“Mi casa es su casa,” he says in his Greek accent as he welcomingly spreads his 7’3” wingspan. He unwraps the packaging of the complimentary treats with his lengthy fingers and slides it across the table. “You want a chocolate?”

After some small talk about dad jokes and his time in New York so far, Giannis shares an anecdote that showcases his experience and general attitude when it comes to using stylists.

“I just got back from a shoot and there were eight girls outside of my room. And I asked them, ‘What are you guys doing here?’ They said ‘We’re your stylists for tonight.’ I was like, ‘Oh, shit. Free clothes? I’ll take it.’”

Giannis’s modesty isn’t just endearing; it’s also part of his global appeal beyond basketball. The athlete’s already graced the covers of magazines and NBA2K, earned four signature sneakers with Nike and counting, and now, he’s dabbling in stories that shine a light on his Nigerian-Greek heritage.

“There hasn’t really been another basketball athlete that’s impacted the Nigerian community since Olajuwon. There’s a sense of pride that we all have with him,” says Niyi Okuboyejo, Nigerian-born designer and co-founder of Post Imperial. Earlier this year, his clothing brand partnered with WhatsApp to create an exclusive hoodie for Giannis that celebrated his Nigerian roots. WhatsApp, which sponsors Giannis, also produced a short film about the athlete’s journey to America.

“He touches so many parts of the diaspora because of that immigrant aspect of his upbringing,” says Okuboyejo. “Giannis is telling a story that resonates with a lot of us.”

While Giannis may be a muse for designers, fans, and immigrants alike, the player believes that all of the trappings that come with being known as a really good basketball player come secondary to actually...being a really good basketball player. Although he’s already accomplished more in his nine years in the NBA than most players, with plenty more runway in front of him to accomplish even more, he prefers not to boast about it.

“There’s a typical archetype of how a pro athlete should be, and I think Giannis is the antithesis of that,” says Okuboyejo. “With Giannis, there’s this quiet humility that he approaches basketball. He’s delivering his best without having to be bold about it with his mouth, but with his actions and his play.”

Here, Giannis opens up about why he hasn’t switched to his Nigerian name on his jersey, what it’s like to become a meme, and how he almost wore sweats to his NBA Draft night.

As someone who’s worked press conferences, I wanted to say that I appreciate the jokes you start your sessions with.

You know what I say all the time? We have to make the environment light. I feel like the environment gets so heavy in press conferences and when you say a joke it gets lighter. I don’t take them so serious. I think I’m going to keep doing that.

You’ve been involved a lot in film this year, both in front of and behind the camera. What inspired you to get into movies?

It’s just something that I like. Me and my brother Thanasis always wanted to do great content and share our story. It’s something that people can see to get inspired and get motivated by, the same way my family and I used to be when we watched movies. They shaped me into the person that I am today. At the end of the day, it’s fun too.

Why was the story of your family, the immigrant story overall, important for you to tell?

It’s hard to be an immigrant in a country. It’s hard to do the right thing and to stay motivated to go out there and work hard to be obsessed with having a better life for your kids. It’s not easy when you go through those difficulties. In the movie [Rise], we wanted to show that.

There’s this tweet from 2014 where you expressed how you felt when you tried an American smoothie for the first time. You were very excited about it.

Yeah, that was from Costco. It wasn’t even a really good one.

There was also the gift you gave the Internet when you hoarded the complimentary water bottles while you were in the NBA Bubble.

Ah, when I stole all the water? There was a fridge with free waters, and in the hotel room I have to pay $7 for a water. Why would I not get free waters? I had to get those waters, man.

Those moments were funny to me because it reminded me of my family, who emigrated from the Philippines. Do you think there’s a different way that immigrants see the U.S. compared to people who were born here?

Of course. To us, this is the land of opportunity. When I look around, you can be whatever you want to become here. It’s not the same everywhere. Here, you can do whatever you put your mind into, if you do the research and work towards that.

People like your family or my family saw the opportunity to come here and I believe that being an immigrant helps you become stronger. You become tougher. Being able to thrive somewhere that you’re not comfortable with and coming from a place that doesn’t allow you to grow to your full potential helps make you tougher.

It would’ve been easy for my parents to stay home in Nigeria and accept the way their lives were going to be. But, they decided to take a risk and go to Greece and were able to thrive and they created five monsters that are able to go somewhere else and thrive. You know I’m not American, but I think being an immigrant makes you tougher.

Speaking of being tougher, just six months before you came into the NBA you were selling sunglasses on the streets of Greece. What about that experience helped develop your character?

Yeah, I was 17. I was trying to survive and help my parents. I was playing in the fourth division in Greece and you don’t get paid when you play there. If you’re lucky enough and if you’re good enough, they’ll give you $100 a month just to be able to buy the bus tickets to come home.

We were trying to survive. My parents were without the right paperwork and didn’t have a work permit so they couldn’t work a secure job. Sometimes they’d get a job and after a month the guy would say: “We won’t pay you.” And there was nothing we could do about it.

Coming to America and jumping into the NBA must’ve been a big leap.

I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone: The transition was so quick that the mentality never changed. I wasn’t really known at the time, so it wasn’t like people were saying: “You’ll make it to the NBA in two to three years.”

It’s like taking a homeless guy and then suddenly putting him in a 20,000 square foot home. He doesn’t feel homeless because he’s in the house and all of that, but his habits and mentality are still the same.

And when you made that transition you were completely by yourself. How’d you stay connected to your roots?

WhatsApp. It’s true. My mom and my dad didn’t know how to work anything else. They didn’t know how to call me on a regular phone. But I went to Milwaukee and I was by myself for about seven to eight months. So it was the only way to keep in touch with my brothers back home in Greece and my family in Nigeria until we were all reunited.

Your Nigerian name is actually Adetokunbo and Post Imperial and WhatsApp made a special hoodie for you with this spelling for All Star. Why was that version of your last name important to you?

That’s my real last name. That’s how my last name is spelled, but with the Greek alphabet it had to be spelled differently. It’s like getting a Chinese passport.

You had to show them the first document that you had. If it’s your birth certificate in Greece, that’s how they take your name and that’s how they’ll write the name on your jersey.

At the end of the day, I know how my name is actually spelled: A-D-E-T-O-K-U-N-B-O. That’s the name that my dad gave me. It was important for me to have it on my back. I don’t have a lot of opportunity to wear my last name in that way, so it was a cool experience to have it on a hoodie. My mom loved it.

Would you ever consider using it on your NBA jersey?

I don’t think I can.

Because of the way the NBA rules are set up?

They can only use whatever name that’s on your passport, and you can’t just change it.

Even if I could, I would have to buy every jersey that’s not sold out of my own pocket. I don’t think I want to go and buy all of those jerseys. I’d rather save my money and take all of my kids to Disney.

That sounds like a smarter move since you’ve been in the league for some time now and your jersey is a top-five seller. With all these achievements in the past nine years, how has your style off the court changed?

It has not changed at all. I still try to stay as humble as I can.

To be honest, I don’t really care about all of the outside things. I just care about basketball because all of those things that I do right now wouldn’t come if I wasn't a good basketball player.

Some people say I’m obsessed with basketball. To the core of who I am, I’ve tried to stay the same. I’m just trying to navigate life and what comes with being a good basketball player.

My life has definitely changed a lot since I joined the NBA. A lot of people join the NBA, but they don’t improve. Since I joined the NBA, I’ve tried to improve every single year, and a lot of things have come with it. It’s a kid living his dream and it’s also a kid still trying to figure out all of the things that happen because of it. I’m just like everybody else, I’m trying to navigate life.

So, no NBA stylist anytime soon?

You know what’s the crazy thing? On my draft night I was about to wear sweats and my agent grabbed me and said: “There’s no way. There’s never been a guy to wear sweats to the NBA Draft and you’re not going to be the first one.” Blah, blah, blah. So, he got me a suit, I forget which company it was, and I was one of the most well-dressed of the night.

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