{"id":7613,"date":"2022-01-04T00:51:51","date_gmt":"2022-01-04T00:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/ng\/?p=7613"},"modified":"2022-01-04T00:51:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T00:51:51","slug":"the-inspiring-story-of-rivers-state-born-antetokounmpo-family-in-greece-parents-flee-nigeria-30-years-ago-over-death-threat-suffered-21-years-of-hard-labor-without-citizenship-greek-kids-relocate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/the-inspiring-story-of-rivers-state-born-antetokounmpo-family-in-greece-parents-flee-nigeria-30-years-ago-over-death-threat-suffered-21-years-of-hard-labor-without-citizenship-greek-kids-relocate\/","title":{"rendered":"The inspiring story of Rivers State born ANTETOKOUNMPO family in Greece: Parents flee Nigeria 30 years ago over death threat, suffered 21 years of hard labor without Citizenship, Greek kids relocate to United States to win NBA Finals after months of homelessness \u2026Costas Antetokounmpo won family\u2019s first NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers *\u201cI know I\u2019m a role model. My mother is everything in our lives. I know our Dad is looking down on us from Heaven. But this should make every person, every kid, anybody around the world believe in their dreams. No matter, whatever you feel when you\u2019re down, when you don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to happen for you or you might not make it in your career, be it basketball, might be anything; just believe in what you\u2019re doing and keep working, success is on the way\u201d-Giannis on behalf of Antetokounmpo brothers * BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/AMERICAN Foreign Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The inspiring story of Rivers State born ANTETOKOUNMPO family in Greece:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Parents flee Nigeria 30 years ago over death threat, suffered 21 years of hard labor without Citizenship, Greek kids relocate to United States to win NBA Finals after months of homelessness<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2026Costas Antetokounmpo won family\u2019s first NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

*\u201cI know I\u2019m a role model. My mother is everything in our lives. I know our Dad is looking down on us from Heaven. But this should make every person, every kid, anybody around the world believe in their dreams. No matter, whatever you feel when you\u2019re down, when you don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to happen for you or you might not make it in your career, be it basketball, might be anything; just believe in what you\u2019re doing and keep working, success is on the way\u201d-Giannis on behalf of Antetokounmpo brothers<\/b><\/p>\n

* BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/AMERICAN Foreign Editor<\/b><\/p>\n

THEIR TRUE LIFE story will inspire you into greatness, and reassure you never to give up on your aspiration since dreams do come to pass. They are the ANTETOKOUNMPO family, originally from Nigeria, Africa\u2019s most populous black nation in the world. The Nigerian parents left the shores of the country when their lives were under constant death threats. They migrated to Greece three decades ago and labored for 21 years in search of Greek Citizenship which did not materialize. In the course of the struggle, the head of this family died, living behind the wife-mother to four kids born in Greece. The kids\u2019 names are: Thanasis, Giannis, Costas and Alex in order to assimilate into Greek society.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

From escaping unrest in Nigeria into winning the NBA Finals and becoming champions at Finals MVP for the Milwaukee Bucks in the United States, this Nigerian family\u2019s story teaches determination, resilience and hope in the midst of all doubt.\u00a0 For the records, the Nigerian parents left the country in<\/span> 1992 <\/span>and settled into a suburb outside of Athens, Greece, thinking they were going to be offered citizenship by Greek authorities, but denied. The Nigerian parents worked different jobs for 21 years to try and make ends meet. They had four children: Thanasis, Giannis, Costas, Alex. The kids now play basketball in the United States.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Rising to the top of the sports world and winning a professional championship is a near-impossible feat on its own. Having brothers in the family play basketball back-to-back for years after the kids\u2019 grow up selling stuff in the street in order to secure the next meal seems incomprehensible. But that\u2019s exactly what the Antetokounmpo brothers just did with Giannis winning the NBA Finals and Finals MVP last night for the Milwaukee Bucks. Thanasis and Giannis began to play basketball in order to try and help their family escape poverty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI started playing basketball <\/span>just to help my family. Tried to get them out of the struggle, the challenges we were facing when we were kids,\u201d Giannis told reporters after his Finals win.<\/span><\/p>\n

Giannis wasn\u2019t granted Greek citizenship until he was 18. He and his brothers would sometimes sleep in the gym where they practiced together.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is for my mom,\u201d he said. \u201cShe works extremely hard every day for me to be in this position, and she never pressured me to do other things. This is for me dad. He\u2019s watching from above, and he can see it. This is for my significant other. Every day, she helps me be a better person. She lets me do what I\u2019m supposed to do. She takes care of my son. And for my brothers.\u201d Giannis said, fighting off tears at the post-game podium.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A family of champions<\/b><\/h3>\n

Last season, Costas Antetokounmpo won the family\u2019s first NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers which Giannis said did make the family dinner table a little awkward. Giannis\u2019 older brother plays on the Milwaukee Bucks with him, but because of COVID-19 safety protocols was forced to miss the second half of the NBA Finals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEight years ago, eight and a half years ago, when I came to the league,<\/span>\u00a0I didn\u2019t know where my next meal would come from. My mom was selling stuff in the street. Now I\u2019m here sitting at the top of the top. I\u2019m extremely blessed. I\u2019m extremely blessed. If I never have a chance to sit on this table ever again, I\u2019m fine with it. I\u2019m fine with it. I hope this can give everybody around the world hope. I want them to believe in their dreams,\u201d Giannis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know I\u2019m a role model. But this should make every person, every kid, anybody around the world believe in their dreams. No matter whatever you feel when you\u2019re down, when you don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to happen for you or you might not make it in your career \u2014 might be basketball, might be anything \u2014 just believe in what you\u2019re doing and keep working,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The inspiring story of Rivers State born ANTETOKOUNMPO family in Greece:\u00a0 Parents flee Nigeria 30 years ago over death threat, suffered 21 years of hard labor without Citizenship, Greek kids relocate to United States to win NBA Finals after months of homelessness \u2026Costas Antetokounmpo won family\u2019s first NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers *\u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}