These Olympic Games are already historic for the Greek national basketball team. Giannis Antetokounmpo also had the honor of being the flag bearer for his delegation.

And yet, he admitted that he initially hesitated to take on this role.

For the very first time in his career, Giannis Antetokounmpo is participating in an Olympiad with Greece.

The double MVP also obtained his first victory (77-71) in this competition against a very serious competitor, namely Australia.

The Greeks had to win this match to hope to continue the adventure, and that’s when the Bucks superstar once again pulled out all the stops.

Not only did he deliver a great performance with his 20 points on 8/11 shooting, 7 rebounds and 6 assists, but he also allowed his team to qualify for the quarter-finals, despite its two initial defeats in the group stage.

This is another feat for the standard-bearer of his country, who was not really inclined to wave this flag in the first place, as reported by Basket News.

Giannis’ confession on his role as flag-bearer
The day they asked me if I would accept to represent the country and be the flag-bearer, I said that I did not want to be the flag-bearer.

I wanted my captain, Kostas Papanikolaou, to do it. He had more caps for the national team than me. But they told me: “No, we want you to do it because you represent everything that the sport represents: the way you behave on the court and off the court, we love you very much. »

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I answered that it would be great, that it would be an honor for me to do it.

And when I did it, as I said, it was the greatest honor of my life.

It’s something that may not happen again. I could win another NBA championship, I could win another MVP, who knows? But I may never carry the flag again.

So I tried to make the most of those 45 minutes.

Obviously less known than Giannis, Kostas Papanikolaou is however a Euroleague star with Olympiakos as well as the captain of the Greek selection.

To this end, the DPOY 2020 initially preferred to refuse to be named flag bearer to see this role assigned to the 34-year-old winger.

In the end, the Greek Freak came back on his decision and he doesn’t seem to regret it at all today.

In any case, we can easily say that the NBA champion fully deserves this honorary title.

Because even if the chances of leading his country to a medal are a priori quite reduced, we can’t blame the latter for giving his all.

He is in fact the best scorer of the tournament with his 27 points on average, but he will have a lot to do in the next round against the world champions, the Germans.

Since the beginning of these Olympics, Giannis Antetokounmpo has demonstrated his dedication to his country with colossal performances.

And although he initially said he preferred Kostas Papanikolaou to be the flag bearer, the Bucks superstar ended up accepting this role and embraced it wonderfully.