Over 26 games, he averaged 9.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.0 blocks per game.
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ĭuring the 2012–13 Greek A2 League season, Antetokounmpo shot 46.4% from the field (62.1% on two-point field goals), 31.3% from three-point range, and 72.0% from the free throw line, while averaging 22.5 minutes per game. A number of other major European clubs had been interested in adding him, including Barcelona and Efes. In December 2012, a few days after turning 18, Antetokounmpo signed a four-year deal with Spanish club CAI Zaragoza, reportedly including NBA buyouts after each season. In 2011, Antetokounmpo played with the senior men's team of Filathlitikos in the semi-pro Greek B Basket League (Third Division) during the 2011–12 season. Professional career Filathlitikos (2011–2013) Antetokounmpo also holds Nigerian citizenship, having received his Nigerian passport in 2015, and as such possesses dual citizenship. Because many could not pronounce his surname, he quickly became known as the "Greek Freak". Īfter gaining Greek citizenship in 2013, his official surname became Αντετοκούνμπο, the Greek transcription of Adetokunbo, which was then transliterated letter-for-letter and officially spelled on his Greek passport as Antetokounmpo. He was eventually issued Greek citizenship on May 9, 2013, less than two months before the 2013 NBA Draft. For the first 18 years of his life, Adetokunbo could not travel outside the country and was effectively stateless, having no papers from Greece or Nigeria. Īlthough Adetokunbo and three of his four brothers were born in Greece, they did not automatically receive Greek citizenship as Greek nationality law follows jus sanguinis. In 2007, Adetokunbo started playing basketball. His parents, as immigrants, could not easily find work, so Giannis and his older brother, Thanasis, helped by hawking watches, handbags and sunglasses in the streets. Adetokunbo grew up in the Athens neighborhood of Sepolia. Three years earlier, his parents had moved from Lagos, leaving their firstborn son, Francis, under the care of his grandparents. Giannis Sina Ugo Adetokunbo was born in Athens, Greece, on December 6, 1994, the son of immigrants from Nigeria.
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