Why not both? Well, of course someone can feel as if he belongs to multiple countries. No reason not to. And Giannis has multiple influences due to his amazing life story. But let’s hear it from him:
A great interview indeed. “A lot of people think my mom or my dad are from Greece, but no. Both of my parents are black. Both of my parents are Nigerian.”
“I grew up in a Nigerian home,” Antetokounmpo said. “Obviously, I was born in Greece and went to school in Greece. But at the end of the day when I go home, there is no Greek culture. It’s straight-up Nigerian culture. It’s about discipline, it’s about respecting your elders, having morals.”
Well that is pretty clear. In fact he throws shade on Greeks as people that don’t respect their elders and don’t have morals.
It was clear that the NBA wanted to promote into Africa using Giannis and other players.
But it didn’t work out and they retracted that whole effort. Africa is too focused on soccer. It just didn’t work. So Giannis redirected to Greece which was easier. Win win, sponsorship in both countries gallore!
Giannis confusion and lack of clarity is best described by the way he closes the interview: “There were a lot of times when I was in Greece where people said, ‘You’re not Greek. You’re Nigerian because you’re black.’ But then there have been a lot of times where it’s been the opposite, where people say, ‘You’re not African. You’re Greek. You’re ‘The Greek Freak.’ ’ But I don’t really care about that. Deep down, I know who I am and where I am from. That’s all that matters to me.”
Does it matter what Giannis feels like he is? Unless you are a racist, not really. But it does seem a bit hypocritical when he lays on the emotion for all three of his countries. Because now he is also American. That’s where he lives, that’s were he makes his money, that’s where he married and had kids.
“This is my home” and “this is my city”, right in the US of A. Again and again. A Greek politician wrote an interesting article on this topic that is worth reading in whole:
“IS GIANNIS GREEK?
The term “Greek-American”, I suppose we all know . I also assume we understand what it means: someone who is originally from Greece and lives in America. The term does not specify whether he or she was born in Greece or descended from parents, grandparents or great-grandparents who are Greek. It does not specify whether he or she speaks good Greek, goes to church every Sunday, visits Greece often, or owns property here. He does not specify where his ancestors lived in 1500 AD, 500 AD or 500 BC. He does not specify if all his ancestors were Greek or if there was a grandmother who was English, German, Irish. So, without defining the factors that shape ethnic identity, we can’t determine the percentage of Greek and American that make up John Pappas’ personality, can we? There is the 5th generation Greek-American who doesn’t even know where Greece is on the map, there is the Greek-American who left to the US to study, stayed and married there, comes back at least once a year, and keeps dreaming of returning. If the former is 5% Greek and 95% American, the latter is the reverse.
So, someone who was born to Nigerian parents in Greece and grew up, went to school, made his bones here and now has a career in America is both Nigerian to some extent, Greek to some extent, and American to some extent. At the same time. The ratio depends on many objective factors. If Giannis puts down roots in America, after 40 years “American” will greatly increase his percentages compared to “Greek” and “Nigerian”, does anyone disagree? But it also depends on a subjective: how he feels. And Giannis has told us how he feels: A Greek of Nigerian descent. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Could it be something else?
And because he has Greek nationality, he plays for the Greek national team and represents us like Mirella Maniani, Kachi Kahiasvili or Artiom Kuregian used to represent us, none of whom are natives of our country. Do we mind? I don’t mind at all. In a world without barriers, blood is stirring. George Papandreou has 37.5% Greek blood (25% from his grandfather and 12.5% from his Polish great-grandfather’s wife). But that didn’t stop him from becoming prime minister. So I can’t understand either those who launch fireworks like “Giannis is much more Greek than some people who…” or the others, on the opposite side, who resent him for wearing the national team jersey being the presumably best player in the world. And because many of them are also divine, I remind them that St. Moses, whose memory the Orthodox Church commemorates on August 28, is called “the Ethiopian” and was a currant, blacker than John. If God accepted him into the bosom of holiness (he was even a thief before he repented), why don’t you, my god, accept John into the bosom of Greek basketball?
I remember many darker players, who were cheered by the nation when they led the Greek teams and the National Team to distinctions: from the late Roy Tarpley, who had given Aris the European Cup in 1993, to Sophocles Schorsianitis, who is also blacker than Giannis. Not to mention many other legendary names of the Greek courts, basketball and football, who had no trace of Greek blood in their veins. In all the great Greek basketball teams, foreigners outnumber Greeks, but we don’t mind if they represent Piraeus, the Athens Trifylli, Thessaloniki, the Union of Constantinople. And even with annual contracts – today I am, tomorrow I am not – without speaking Greek. So if it is convincing for them to feel honoured, as Marcelo said (in English), wearing the red (green, yellow, etc.) jersey, why does it seem unconvincing that Giannis feels the same honour with the national team jersey?
There is, of course, a difference. The other players came to the country legally, not by crossing the border, as Giannis’ family did. This difference leads some to the bulletproof conclusion that those who are proud (I’m one of them) of Giannis striding half the court in three steps before he nails it are also pro-illegal immigration (I’m not one of them). Adding to the misunderstanding is the fact that the “solidarity” side uses a stupid argument: if Giannis hadn’t come to Greece, his talent would not have been showcased. So, we should let the Afro-Asian militias come in, in case some great basketball or even curling talent emerges, who knows! The reasoning is of similar wisdom to “if it hadn’t been for the Asia Minor Catastrophe, your grandfather wouldn’t have come from Ayvali, he wouldn’t have known your grandmother from Faliro, so you wouldn’t have existed.” Does that mean you owe a debt of gratitude to Kemal? Do you know how much talent is now lost somewhere in the depths of Africa?
Must all of Africa migrate to Sepolia to become known for their talents? However, we know very well how much Greek talent is leaving a country that has become a dystopian nightmare, and because of illegal immigration. If I had to weigh up the sporting, scientific, artistic, etc. talents that emerged from the mass invasion on the one hand, and the transformation of my country into a multicultural mob and Athens into Islamabad on the other, I would a thousand times rather we lost those talents, and Giannis included, and regained the Greece we had in the 1960s. Look at Omonia, Panepistimiou and Patision in movies of the era and do the comparison.
But because time does not turn back, John is a good case study. His family didn’t come to avoid war, but to find a better fortune. They tried to survive by working. Yes, by trafficking, but not by crime. They gave their four children, born here, Greek names. Yes, and Nigerian so as not to be cut off from their roots, but Greek prevailed. As Giannis he is known around the world, not as Sina Ugo. Greek Freak is his nickname, not Greek-Nigerian. That means assimilation. He didn’t go to the KNE to join the whole world’s infernos, he went to the Philathlete. He chose instead of walking up and down the Stadium protesting, he ran up and down the floor declaring – both in words and deeds – that he will try hard to escape his “fate”.
He was baptized an Orthodox Christian along with his brother Alexander, a significant Greek date: October 28 (in 2012, when he was 17 years old). The parish priest of St. Meletius was his mentor. “I don’t remember him ever complaining or feeling hurt by life and being aggressive towards society,” says the (highly regarded) Fr. Evangelos Ganas, and adds: “What I can’t forget was the look in John’s eyes. There was an innocence and a hope. There was no fear and resentment.” Certainly, a much more Christian attitude than that of the knife-wielding guardian, who, when, in his first matches with the national team, Giannis was trying to find his role, was rejoicing, along with his dark-skinned, African-faced protégé, that the national team lost but the “Nigerian” did not score a point, concluding from this that… God is Greek (and, of course, white), and apparently punished us for putting black on the team, so we lost. (I guess he saved it for us in the game against Germany, too.)
Giannis kisses the national flag, waves the Greek flag and refuses to… stain it with his signature, when his Greek-American fans ask him to do so, while some natives claim the right to burn it. He participates in films with social messages, offering his gold-plated image for free. He has charitable social work that keeps him away from the cameras. If that doesn’t show loyalty and devotion to Greece and its values, what does?
So, the path of this child proves that there are, among the bereaved, those who can integrate, want to integrate and, in doing so, benefit both our society and themselves. And it makes the need to separate the wheat from the chaff even more urgent.
I don’t want to be misunderstood: for those who have already come! Our borders (and incentives) must be closed tightly for any new invaders, even if we lose new talent. I won’t mention how here, I’ve written dozens of articles on the subject, but I’ll emphasize once again that those who want to integrate show it early and in the details.
These details will determine whether they will be naturalized as Greek citizens (i.e. obedient). Because for every Yannis who wants to be Greek, there are thousands of Ahmed and Mohamad who don’t. When you give citizenship, without any criteria, to Afro-Asians, 99% Muslims, with the only condition that they have lived 4-5 years or have been born in Europe, at some point, the whole of Europe will become an Islamic caliphate, through democratic procedures. So, rightly, John did not get Greek citizenship when he was a child, even though he was born here. The same should apply to all immigrants. The concept of citizenship should also be legally separated from nationality, with the main difference being the right to vote. (Other differences could be the degree of access to social and welfare programs and to health care benefits.)
An immigrant, even if he becomes a European citizen, will not vote and, of course, will not be elected. This right will be granted, from the second generation onwards, if certain criteria are met. If they are not met, not even for great-grandchildren! Why should the 3rd descendant of a Pakistani family living in an Islamic ghetto get the right to vote, the same or worse than his grandparents? European experience (and relevant research) proves that 2nd and 3rd generation Muslim immigrants are twice as likely to be more bigoted and live more marginalized lives than the 1st generation. Why should they vote? To send Islamic parties and crypto-jihadist MPs to European parliaments?
John’s family was not Muslim. His mother dressed fashionably, she wanted to look European. She left her children free, to be kneaded into the society of their new homeland. They made Greek friends and had relationships with Greek women. They made these multi-racial but ONLY-POLITICAL couples, who I said I was happy to see living as Greeks, in a speech I gave – about the danger of Islamism – and I was attacked by the whole cesspool of uneducated patriots. Yannis’ brother Kostas is preparing, I hear, to marry one of “our” girls. Good crowns! Why not rejoice in the joy of people who loved not only Greece but also its culture, our way of life and want to live like us, here? Because their skin is dark? A little darker than Skourletis’, are we going to make an issue of it?
But there is another parameter, which I have to touch on and I leave it last: the percentage of foreign elements that are assimilated. A society has a limit of resistance to the incorporation of foreign elements. If it exceeds it, it loses its cohesion and its identity. I would not want the country to be flooded with Nigerians, even if they all had John’s intentions and good nature. Nor by Monegasques. A society with Greeks, with all its vices, is a recognizable and largely predictable society, and that gives you security. It’s your home, where you know its “houja”. Like when the ceiling is dripping and you know where to put the plastic bowl if it rains heavily. Being around strangers is intimidatingly unpredictable. And that limit of endurance has long since been exceeded.
That is why we are happy every time John “shoots” the opposing basket, but we are deeply concerned about the spike in crime caused by those who did not choose his path. We protest that they are not being deported and we regret that John has left the country, voluntarily. He too is a Greek boy (of Nigerian origin, at least) who had to emigrate to live his dream. Because the Greek taxpayer also paid for his own development, education and health, but now this investment is paying off in another economy. Just like the huge investment lost due to the brain drain. How many of the 300,000 or so young Greeks who “score” in technology and science in other countries will return to Greece at a productive age and how many will become the new generations of Greek-Americans, Greek-Australians, Greek-Canadians, etc. permanent residents abroad?
So Giannis declares himself to be Greek. But, we all know, that every year he will become more American. That is, less Greek. Like the 300,000 Greek refugees of the crisis. Therein lies the problem.”
For anyone that lasted reading all that but, more importantly, for those seeing how Giannis promotes himself, the conclusion is clear: Giannis is like the wind. He will say whatever it takes depending on the situation. He will pretend to be emotional about being Greek one day. Hey they let him lead the Olympic team even though he hardly ever turns up for the national team during the year. “Milwaukee is home” the next minute. And he will wax lyrical about his Nigerian roots if the NBA tells him to or some sponsor there pays enough.
