Athanasios Rotimi “Thanasis” Antetokounmpo known as the Greek freak 2 is a Greek professional basketball player who currently plays for the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA.
He is an NBA Champion.
He plays small forward and power forward and is listed at 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) and 219 pounds (99 kg).
He is the older brother of two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, as well as Kostas Antetokounmpo and Alex Antetokounmpo (with whom he won the 2021 NBA Championship as teammates with the Milwaukee Bucks).
Early Life
A son of Nigerian Immigrants, Antetokounmpo was born in Athens, Greece, to Nigerian parents, and grew up in the Athens neighborhood of Sepolia.
His late father, Charles, was a former Nigerian soccer player, while his mother, Veronica, is a former high-jumper.
His parents are from different ethnic groups in Nigeria, with Charles being Yoruba and Veronica being Igbo.
On May 9, 2013, he was granted Greek citizenship, with the formal spelling of his surname being Antetokounmpo.
Francis, his eldest brother, is a professional soccer player.
Career
Greek freak 2 started off his youth career in a Greek youth side Filathlitikos where he played for their junior side before starting professionally at the same sides’ senior team in 2012.
He participated in the Greek All-Star game as a special participant though his team was in the Greek lower divisions and competed in the slam dunk contest as players from the second division are eligible to compete in the dunk competition.
Thanasis was eligible for the 2013 NBA Draft along with kid bro Giannis but ultimately withdrew.
He continued to play basketball for Filathlitikos in the 2013-14 season as he played just the first 4 games averaging promising stats in his final season in Greece.
The Delaware 87ers selected Antetokounmpo with the ninth overall choice in the 2013 NBA Development League Draft on November 1, 2013.
He competed in the D-League slam dunk contest that season too.
The New York Knicks selected Antetokounmpo with the 51st overall choice in the 2014 NBA draft on June 26, 2014.
In five games with the Knicks at the 2014 NBA Summer League, he averaged 3.0 points and 1.8 rebounds.
The Westchester Knicks acquired him on November 3, 2014.
He was then waived by the Knicks leading him to return to the Westchester Knicks.
Thanasis has since been at Andorra in Spain helping the club to its first playoffs appearance only to be eliminated by real Madrid in the quarters.
Antetokounmpo returned to his homeland Greece and signed a two-year contract with Panathinaikos in the Greek Basket League’s top tier division.
He won the 2018 Greek All-Star Game MVP award.
Antetokounmpo and Panathinaikos won the Greek League championship in June 2018, defeating rivals, Olympiacos.
He was back in the NBA teaming up with his younger brother Giannis at the Bucks in 2019.
Becoming the second pair of brothers to feature at the side after Brook and Robin Lopez.
Thanasis has not played so much at the Bucks but his vocal presence from the bench has been of good use for the team.
He won the 2020 NBA finals after beating the Suns 4-2 in the series.
Antetokounmpo was named to the preliminary list for the 2016 Rio Olympics for the senior Nigerian men’s national team.
He turned down the opportunity and instead chose to play for the senior Greek national team.
He was named to Greece’s 12-man team for the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Turin in 2016.
He then went on to represent Greece at the 2017 EuroBasket.
He also represented Greece in the 2019 FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament.
Brothers
He has 4 other brothers, 3 younger ones; Giannis, Kostas and Alex Antetokounmpo.
He has an older brother called Francis Antetokounmpo.
Contract
Thanasis Antetokounmpo signed a 2 year / $3,607,937 contract with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Age & Height
The 29 year old Greek Elevator is 6 feet 6 inches tall (1.98m).
