Giannis Antetokounmpo has won back-to-back NBA MVP awards, but it was a long road to get there.
Antetokounmpo is Nigerian but was born and raised in Greece. The 25-year-old Milwaukee Bucks star was the No. 15 overall pick by the team in 2013 and was not well known back then.
Giannis was the subject of an in-depth podcast exploration on “The Woj Pod.” During the podcast, Giannis talked about how malnourished he and his brothers were before the NBA.
“I did not eat … looking back with the way we eat now, and what you have to do to take care of your body, we didn’t eat enough,” Antetokounmpo recalled. “Sometimes I used to go to school, no breakfast. Not sometimes, every time. Come back, there was sometimes food, sometimes no food. So now you have to go to practice. I used to come back from practice at 11 and have my first meal then.
“We definitely didn’t eat right.”
Antetokounmpo’s agent set him up with a nutritionist, who put the young player on an eating program. Giannis says that he got so much food through that program but he split it with his four brothers.
“He thought I was eating the food,” Antetokounmpo said of his adviser. “I was not eating the food. I was eating 1/4 of the food. I was raised that if my brothers don’t eat, I don’t eat.”
When you think about the kind of beginnings Antetokounmpo came from, his ability to develop into an MVP is one heck of an accomplishment. It also signals that he might be more appreciative of the monster contract he is poised to sign.
Three of Giannis’ brothers play basketball, including one who just won the championship.
