![]() ![]() And when I play in the NBA, I’m gonna be ready.’ ” “Like, ‘Listen, I know I’m playing in this gym, but I’m working to be in the NBA … because I know, at some point, I’m gonna be in the NBA. ![]() “The way Giannis would see things from a young age, the way he was so serious about things, the way he perceived … he had a different mentality than everybody else,” says Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Giannis’ older brother and former Filathlitikos teammate. By the time Antetokounmpo was 17, chairs were lined up against the wall on the near sideline for throngs of NBA scouts, general managers and owners to watch the promising prospect work out. After his two eventual agents came to see the phenom for themselves, they started to spread the gospel of his crazy potential. At 14, he began playing with the men’s team. Zivas drilled the kid at all levels of the club, including with the women’s team, while teaching him to navigate the court as a point guard with speed and discipline. ![]() I n the heart of summer, not even the five towering air-conditioning units mounted throughout the space can overcome the scorching heat after a few trips up and down the floor.įor two years, Antetokounmpo trained here multiple times a day before being selected to join Filathlitikos’ youth team. Atop one sideline, a wall of cloudy windows allows the powerful sun to creep inside. A pair of stanchions took their place and now hold baskets with rims slowly beginning to rust. The two original hoops that once hung from the gym’s ceiling have been retired and permanently raised to the rafters. “His eyes, they were shining.”Īntetokounmpo learned the game of basketball on the aged hardwood of Filathlitikos’ court, its measurements, particularly in width, more fitting of a small soccer field. “I just hadn’t seen a kid like that before,” he says. “His legs were immense, but his torso was small in comparison to the rest of the body.” Zivas, a slender man wearing years of coaching under his eyes, still remembers the first time Antetokounmpo came into his gym. “He was like a cricket,” says Takis Zivas, head coach of Filathlitikos B.C., Antetokounmpo’s first team. Long before the world knew him as Giannis Antetokounmpo - the Eurostepping Greek Freak with the 6-foot-11, 242-pound body and mythical athleticism - the reigning NBA MVP played at the home of Filathlitikos Basketball Club. Behind them is where one of basketball’s best-kept secrets once hooped. Nestled between collections of abundant trees is a set of stairs leading to a ground-level entrance, where a small lobby gives way to the double doors of a basketball court. ATHENS, Greece - The gym sits on the east side of central Athens in the densely populated suburb of Zografou. ![]()
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