Giannis Anteotokoumpo Antetokumpo ...*looks it up for like the fifth time before copy and pasting off of Wikipedia* Antetokounmpo was born on Dec. 6, 1994, more than a month after Jason Kidd's NBA debut. And so he can be forgiven for not following Kidd's rookie season while still pooping in diapers, especially since he grew up in Greece and didn't start playing basketball until he was a teen.
However, according to a Sports Illustrated cover story that was released on Tuesday, The Greek Freak learned a new level of respect for coach Jason Kidd after he realized Kidd wasn't just some bum who lucked into his position as the leader of the team.
The story goes like this: during Kidd's first season as coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, he banned Antetokounmpo from shooting threes. Not surprisingly, this led the second-year Antetokounmpo to question this ban.
Furthermore, Antetokounmpo was angered when he was first sent to the bench by Kidd. "I was like, 'Let's see what this guy did in his career, anyway,'" Antetokounmpo told SI. At that point he pulled up his bio on his phone, and was in awe of the long list of accomplishments Kidd stacked up during his 19-season career. "I saw Rookie of the Year, NBA championship, USA Olympic gold medal, second in assists, fifth in made threes, blah, blah, blah," Antetokounmpo said. "I was like, 'Jesus freaking Christ, how can I compete with that? I better zip it.'"
Giannis himself currently has nightly averages of 23.8 points, 9 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.9 blocks and steals, which would seem to indicate that zipping it has worked out well for him.
