Finding Giannis | NBA on TNT

the first time that someone told me about Yanis it was your responder who's our our partner over there and he said you know I've got a kid who his mentality is makeup like he was going to be a player he was the first thing that told you you're gonna play in the NBA and you're like no way they didn't know who he was gonna play AAU basketball he wasn't on the radar I was 16 and we went to dinner and he told me look in a year and a half from now you're gonna get drafted ain't gonna be an NBA by the time I was I was making like $200 a month I'm trying to help my family I was like nah it's not happening I'm probably the time I think he believed me more than I believed myself [Music] his base motivation to start playing ball is with his big brother and it happens here in this Court though other pros in my neighborhood I grew up in I was our second home and that's how that's what we grew up we used to come back from school and so our mom not that double go play best gonna need some straight [Music] we are on political gym where Yanis was practicing and playing before you're being drafted she was working daily almost five five miles 45 miles to have a morning practice because usually they have two times per day practice and when they finished and she was usually tired she was coming and sleeping many times here with his brother Kostas because he was a younger one and you know they were coming together and she didn't want to risk to go back again by foot back home so if you come early around the lunch time you will see them you know sleeping there most of the times it was literally like the second house yeah dude man think about what we've we've grown since like 2010 like it think about in eight years like where it's gone you know Jurgis Pannu's my business partner in Greece and canals all the stuff that we do in Greece but he's known young as much longer than I have with URIs we used to come watch me play in my brother's play you know I was always coming back and what's my former team you know it was one skinny kid dangerous skinny and he was 14 to 15 she was ready 10 15 and I asked no where's the skill if I'm a grainy film of this six foot eight kid running up and down the floor playing against your local YMCA guys and I say yeah sure whatever like if he becomes something the first day that I met him I told him you know our first goal is to build up his body literally he wasn't hitting and the tough thing that was looks appealing to yan is that he has to it differently from his brothers and his family it's it's hard to say you know to one family with four kids that okay Yanis has to eat more has to be differently so we decide to everybody to eat the same what I am today is because of my family for me families it's everything [Music] the way that player is today in Europe pop up on to the NBA radar screen he's usually through FIBA tournament through the plane with our national team they go to the Nike Hoop Summit Yanis wasn't provided with any of those opportunities and so that made it challenging for NBA scouts to find him because they don't usually go to the second division of greece jonathan Cavani here because he was one of the guys that went over to greece and actually talked to us before we all knew who he was the summer before in July his agent emailed me and said hey Jonathan there's the guy here in Greece that you want to take a look at he's about six six skinny he's up Nigerian descent he doesn't have a passport right now we're trying to figure that out both with tenants our Nigerian his older brother was born in Nigeria the soccer player there and they moved to Greece and that's where you know him and his brothers were born and because they have different rules that we do here in the US he wasn't automatically given Greek citizenship and so he was essentially a man without a country until he was 18 years old come 2013 I start to get a lot of phone calls from m18 saying this is your kid right that's it yeah you've got something there you really need to start paying attention there be a deft respect after the baby oh I'd say probably about after five or six phone calls the next day I was on the plane right and I went to Greece and I went and I watched him play and I went to my partner I said okay no you you have something here we don't know what it's gonna be but at least in the immediate future you have something that is that can be good what is your goal for your career Oh it'll be an being and anybody in the NBA that you'd like to watch and maybe emulate I used to watch a lot of highlights of you know I had the takers corner Khan rose that's a point guard folks remember we used to play turn two yeah then I was just coming down and doing you know the crossovers acting like I was Iverson [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we are cable watch games I used to go to internet cafe yeah they like a $1 so I can watch for 30 minutes so that's what I used to do with that the first time we met New York you got off the plane yeah girl yeah yeah man for the dress it was weird you know because I know you would Greek didn't know I spoke Greek yeah nice beautiful anything okay in Greek we have this term Malacca which is it can mean anything from pole to friend to anything you can think of and he looks at me he's like my like I say Li nice it's like you're really Greek I was like ya know I'm really Greek Selina's about said like a lip that yeah at this point I speak four languages fluently I speak another one halfway decently that's English I think the strength of her relationship has been the fact we speak the same language that were from the same country if we're sitting in a meeting and he doesn't like something he could say to me in Greek we can keep a very straight face and no one has any idea right and I think that really good shooty Canadian goose that's how you know you've made you get the Canadian goose are you whoa I see welcome to the 2013 NBA Draft Milwaukee Bucks are on the clock right now and we're through the lottery now if you start you know you didn't want to come because your family couldn't come he's like I don't care about the draft I'm not coming over if my family's not coming yeah you're coming over so I that was a sick of time leaving the country I don't want to ruin the draft for everybody but we're at the point now where you have about a 10% chance to get in the starter because the first was just mute and then when they said okay son s can come to you felt better about going with it but he was not coming over there comes the Commissioner with the Bucks bit I didn't want to do it I didn't want to leave my family back you know because I R I didn't time for my family and my dad told me at the time look you gotta go this might be good for us and I was like okay they told me that I was gonna be there I was like okay let's do it the Milwaukee box select Yanis adecco khumba [Applause] [Music] you remember what the first thing you asked for before an interview started before anything he said I need my brother and are you gonna be more offense or defense I'll be both it was a really really nice feeling my family's sacrifice a lot of things that gave me the opportunity for me to be here and I can't thank them enough every day his nickname is the Greek freak what are you getting with him you know Jim we're getting somebody with tremendous upside I hate to say things like the sky's the limit but it really could be I grew up in the place that if you see somebody like get on a plane and like leave actually travel to somewhere and I go do what he loves to do make money doing it it was like crazy to me mother brother Kostas had to make sure he took over and like you know take care of me why he was wrong Thanks and good evening everyone no matter how many times you throw it there's something special about opening night ride because no matter where you are in the NBA specking water there's always that excitement and there's always that hope you know when I was 18 you know he had nobody here I was probably takes him every day call him every day like he was my only you know eyelid you know another rookie coming in from Milwaukee be honest a dates are cool ball I'll try and say that the same way every time tonight but he is quite a story he's not even 19 he's 19 what these from Greece used by himself so I did everything that I could to make sure that he was comfortable but I think he'd never been away from your family you didn't know if your family's in the comm he was vulnerable he was scared he would sleep in the gym because he had no reason to go home he didn't want to go home he was alone he looks about 14 his first game that was the most stressful thing for him and for me as well because I know how how much he wanted to have his family there with him but here we were trying to go apply for American visa we were stressed because the law says that the people declined three times it's done we were declined once second time again declined and then he started calling me to say euros is that gonna happen for time and they cannot come I'm living it was so hard for him and I was knew in the back of my nose like we're doing what every time we don't want every can and then when I called him that day and I said your parents got the visa and they can be on the plane that's when I think she's like okay I helped bring his family over right that was to me that was a very important moment how did the Kubo a very special night for his parents from right to left mother Veronica father Charles youngest brother Alex and on the lap 16 year old 6/7 Costa out of the tuple mean Alex you've seen me grown like when I came to the league I wasn't a man and I'm very excited and I'm just really happy you know so he knows me as a kid there's missing teenager he knows him as a man he's gonna know me when I'm older you know so that's why I think relationship is unique because he knows me number retired the team in Greece Demming yet but maybe might not be something you've got a TV commercial shoot finished a deal three days ago signed the contracts it's got an eight-hour production shoot so I've got about a hundred cast and crew here and drove up from Chicago make sure everything is going okay so in this instance they have a creative concept that he's going to be throwing the ball off the backboard into an in reverse dunk it's just a matter of like your comfort level with what you want to do when you play around with in see how it feels here okay so guys this is the MVP candidate there will be no dunking whatsoever no dunking at all and conversations where well we're paying him to dunk I said no you're paying him to be a brand ambassador you're not paying him to duck [Applause] okay here we go at the end of the day I made sure to set the expectations extremely low so that when he does do a couple dunks they love it and everything ends up being great when does it click you could be the best player in the world knocked away at stolen years Middleton Yanis trailing the LA [Applause] Chris Middleton I think into the league I saw other players LeBron Kobe KD they were special because they were consistent in tonight these are the type of pick that you won't work out if you're a box fan can I be consistent can I be mentally tough every night to help my team it was the beginning of my third year I had 27 in the first game [Applause] there was a look in his eyes that like I know I'm going to be unstoppable [Applause] but I talked to him in I told Mike I can do this every night [Music] marson-knight and one of the powers [Music] [Applause] Booth's MVP right now you're Amish you say Yanis yeah to me Yanis his boys I mean he's been there all season long Yanis posted out for us and uh we're showing that we could be one of the best teams in this league right now these two would be the ones doing the first-ever NBA all-star draft they would be the captains this gentleman will leave the box in here one in their new home Pfeiffer form yes economic impact like they called the Yanis effect in Milwaukee it's unbelievable you're talking ticket sales you can't find a seat you're talking all the way at the top it's full they're building an entire new stadium they're knocking down the surrounding areas building condos building restaurants hiring new people because of Yanis we have much and there was a lot of organization now community that help us provide us with food and my parents taught us what it means to give back and hope the guy that's thanks to you to have someone who is a player's courtesy honest is someone who is charismatic that the fans love him I mean you can't put a price on that so for the shooter come out everything gets locked in there I don't like to me I wouldn't even think about like worrying about overloading him or like you know how Jana says it doesn't do too much if you're telling them like this is where you're going this is when you're launching your shoot like this is the one time where like you do a lot the only time you're going to ever launch your shoot for the first time they've had 23 signature athletes and he's the first international one that they've ever had I really like this relation like is that like I have a lot of input in the shoe [Music] we almost did a deal with Nike before this one the other story goes he came up to me said okay Nike was I signed for a multiple year deal I said great great news I said yes give me the contract and I look at the contract and I said I'm not doing this he was panicking and stuff and I like I'm not doing it but then you said you go talk to them and I said well done but so we've agreed I have to go back and tell them hey guys yeah we had a deal but no we're not doing it you believe in yourself you like no no I know if I play the way I can I'm gonna make more you know and it's full circle we end up with Nike and it's a great relationship but you didn't believe it was gonna really happen No there was some day that I was playing so much that my shoes had holes in them there's other days I had to wear the same person as my brother but I came to the NBA we get 15 pairs of shoes every month his work ethic is unparalleled that's what I think has made him really successful here in Greece when they learned his story automatically they are getting motivated I strongly believe that the yarnís is the bastard home [Music] [Applause] with the first Pig Timmy is among the least after it bill in the NBA I always describe it like when you're dreaming and you do not want to wake up that's how I feel right now feel like I'm always dreaming you

Channel: NBA on TNT

Views: 4,724,738

Rating: 4.9457388 out of 5

Keywords: NBA on TNT, NBA, Inside the NBA, Charles Barkley, Shaq, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson, Giannis

Id: HrCU305tzmM

Length: 21min 25sec (1285 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 16 2019