Giannis as Greece’s flag-bearer at the Paris Games
Greek basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo will be, along with race walker Antigoni Drisbioti, the flag-bearer for Greece at the Paris Olympic Games.
There are other top athletes, such as long jump Olympic gold medalist Miltos Tentoglou and pole-vaulter Katerina Stefanidi, who were contacted about becoming flag-bearers, however the symbolism of the Milwaukee Bucks star holding the Greek flag is huge.
The fact that this world-class athlete feels and is Greek sends a powerful message inside and outside Greece.
Antetokounmpo has advertised our country like few have, with what he says, what he does, sometimes even with what he wears (such as the depiction of the Parthenon on the inside lining of his jacket).
Helping take the national basketball team to the Olympic Games for the first time in 16 years, he has not only impressed us with his sports career. The kid who started out in the impoverished Athens district of Sepolia and reached the top of the NBA, has moved us with his human side, his actions and initiatives, often away from TV cameras, but also the tenderness with which he talks about his parents and what they did for him.
As pointed out by Giannis’ spiritual mentor in his adolescence, who baptized him as an Orthodox Christian at the age of 17, Father Evangelos Ganas from the church of Agios Meletios, “in his gaze there was innocence, but also hope. No fear or bitterness, despite the suffering his family was going through.”
There were a lot of hardships and injustices he experienced in Greece – not all the moments he lived in Athens were so magical. He has spoken about the poverty of his childhood and the adversities experienced by illegal immigrants in Greece, as in all Western societies.
Still, Antetokounmpo shows his love and respect for the Greek flag at every opportunity, more than many “white Greeks.”
The best answer to the racism, nationalism, intolerance and hatred that, unfortunately, still exists in parts of every society, is the image of a world-class Black Greek athlete proudly holding the country’s flag.
Antetokounmpo does not owe us, we owe him. He has given Greece much more than he has received. Millions, or rather billions, of people around the world know “Giannis” and call him “Greek Freak.” What bigger advertisement for our country could one man offer?
In two weeks’ time, the spotlight at the start of the biggest sporting event in the world will be focused on the top NBA star, the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo, and on the Greek flag he will be carrying.
