The almost unfathomable true story of Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo got the Disney treatment in Friday’s release of “Rising,” an compilation of his journey as the child of undocumented Nigerian immigrants in Greece. Years of history, famous for basketball.
This family-friendly film follows young Giannis and brother Thanasis as they try to make ends meet for their family as they discover the sport, the obstacles along the way, and the events that led Giannis to the 2013 NBA Draft.
Nine years ago today (June 27, 2013), the Bucks gambled on this raw and mysterious prospect with the 15th overall pick, a decision that would change the team and lead to a 2021 NBA championship.
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Some of the details are a little odd, but since Janis is one of the film’s executive producers, we can at least expect the essence of the story to be rooted in accuracy. Here are some key points.
Maybe we underestimated the miserable lives of Giannis’ parents
The film opens with a dramatic sequence in which Adetokunbo’s parents, Charles and Veronica, escape deportation in Turkey and manage to cross the border into Greece (their names are later changed to a different spelling as part of the citizenship process).
When Veronica and Janis gave birth together, she took a city bus to the hospital and had to sidestep questions about her residency. Veronica also explained to a Greek official the Catch-22 her family faced; they couldn’t get legal residency without legal jobs, but no one would hire them for legal jobs without residency.
Throughout the film, although Giannis and his three brothers (Tanasis, Kostas, Alex) were born in Greece, the parents are understandably wary of the brothers’ discovery of basketball, and they Fears the exposure could prompt government officials to deport the family.
Francis Antetokounmpo is at the heart of the story
The film also focuses on the emotional story of Francis Antetokounmpo, the eldest child in the family who stayed in Nigeria with his grandparents so Veronica and Charles could emigrate.
Usually, Francis – who pursued football like his father while living in Nigeria – is not mentioned in the same space as the other four brothers because he did not grow up in Greece. Giannis swears in the movie that through basketball, he can reunite his family in America, including Francis.
‘Rise’ is really about Thanasis, too
Those who follow Antetokounmpo’s story know that Thanasis’s role is much more than just hype off the Bucks’ bench, occasionally swapping in high-energy minutes and flashy dunks.
When the brothers were younger, Thanasis was considered a bigger basketball prospect, and he also served as a mentor to his younger brother.
more:Three Antetokounmpo brothers heading to All-Star Weekend: ‘It’s history’
In the film, Thanasis was offered the opportunity to play for a higher-level basketball club — earning a salary that would have helped the family tremendously — but the offer was dropped when the club learned of his family’s undocumented immigration status .
Thanasis did sign with Maroussi BV, although the details may be slightly different in real life. From Mirin Fader’s book “Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP”:
“Financial issues destroyed the team before Thanasis played a game for the team. Plus Thanasis had no citizenship papers, so he was ineligible for any games. Watching that glimmer of hope go awry was Devastating.’ That was “the first small success we saw,” Alex said, “and it put us in the lead and then knocked us down. ” “
The film also depicts Thanasis’ ankle injury, which forced Giannis to take charge of his Greek team – an unfamiliar position in which his younger brother thrived. Injuries also kept Thanasis out of the FIBA Regional Qualifiers for European scouts.
Fader’s book doesn’t specifically mention FIBA’s tryouts, although it does mention that Giannis didn’t get playing time in the preseason at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup. But Giannis did play in a couple of tryouts, including some that included NBA scouts (like Bucks GM John Hammond, who was depicted in the movie but didn’t make the trip to Greece) .
The selection in the film leads to a disturbing encounter with a Greek agent who threatens to inform authorities of their immigration status if Giannis doesn’t sign off on his Greek plan.
The draft affects families more than we thought
One of the protagonists in the second half of the film is an inexperienced agent named Harris Eleftherio, who vows to do everything in his power to secure career opportunities for the brothers, and in turn, even in the above-mentioned circumstances, The family also showed loyalty to him. Greek scouts tried to steal the family as clients.
An agent named Haris Eleftheriou has not been actually reported; it is speculated that he is a combination of agents Georgios Dimitropoulos and Giorgos Panou, who were the first agents to recognize Giannis’ talent and eventually lead him to agent Alex Saratsis, The latter officially started contacting NBA or Euroleague scouts.
In the film, the concept of the NBA draft is Eleftheriou’s proposed solution to help Giannis keep his family in the same place; Eleftheriou has negotiated Giannis’ game against Spain’s Zaragoza , the terms stipulate that if he is selected in the draft, he can travel to the United States. Eleftheriou suggested that the NBA team would help Giannis’ family get into the United States, while the Spanish team was reluctant to get visas for everyone in the family.
But with the Antetokounmpo family unsure whether he will be drafted, it was explained that Giannis could potentially play for Spain (his family is not allowed into the country) and could expose the family’s status to a wider audience.
Feder’s book outlines how many different forces are pressuring the Greek government to issue a visa for Giannis (and thus provide official Greek citizenship) because he is considered such an elite talent, and if this happens Greece would be negatively impacted by the situation it would not allow Giannis to play on the NBA stage, or play in Spain if he pursues a Nigerian passport.
In fact, Zaragoza did offer Giannis a contract and was willing to work on visa issues, but the NBA draft isn’t necessarily a late-game solution; many scouts from the US have flown to Greece to watch Giannis the match of.
Of course, the country did issue visas to the draft for Giannis and Thanasis, and the Bucks coordinated the move of all members of Antetokounmpo’s family to the United States.
Philadelphia 76ers trolling is strong
It’s hard not to have a laugh at the end of the movie when teams keep passing Giannis in the draft, including Philadelphia, who was deemed interested. “What’s a 76er?” asked one of the characters who gathered with their family in Greece to watch the draft on TV. “Seventy-six can’t play basketball.”
This comes after a joke in HBO’s “Hackers,” in which the two main characters discussed Philadelphia’s “trust the process” mantra as a spirit they could apply to their own situations, only to be told the Sixers didn’t, in fact, Follow the process successfully.
Milwaukee’s references aren’t many, but they’re still there
It’s a story about boys growing up, and Milwaukee is late into the picture. Hammond is indeed the only Bucks representative on screen that people will recognize, but the film does end with a montage of some very familiar moments from the 2021 NBA Finals. A clip of Giannis giving his speech after accepting his first MVP in honor of his late father still moves us!
JR Radcliffe can be contacted at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com.follow him on twitter @JRRadcliffe.