Milwaukee Bucks celebrity Giannis Antetokounmpo has dedicated to taking part in for the Greek nationwide crew at EuroBasket 2022 later this summer time, Hellenic Basketball Federation president Vaggelis Liolios confirmed on Friday. As well as, Bucks assistant coach Josh Oppenheimer will be a part of as an assistant coach.
Giannis appeared to verify the information himself on social media when he posted an image sporting the Greek nationwide crew shorts and captioned it with a number of emojis that included a “quickly” arrow and the Greek flag.
EuroBasket is a quadrennial event contested between the nationwide groups of European nations. This upcoming version was speculated to be performed in 2021, however when the 2020 Olympics had been delayed a yr because of COVID-19, EuroBasket was pushed again as effectively. It’ll now be performed from Sept. 1-18, with group stage video games within the Czech Republic, Georgia, Italy and Germany. The knockout stage will probably be held solely in Germany.
Greece has been drawn into Group C together with Italy, Croatia, Ukraine, Nice Britain and Estonia. Every crew will play one another as soon as within the group stage, with the highest 4 groups advancing to the knockout rounds. From there, it is a single-elimination event.
This would be the seventeenth straight EuroBasket look for Greece, however whereas they’ve been traditionally profitable — champions in 2005 and 1987, runner-up in 1989 — they haven’t medaled in over a decade. In the latest event in 2017, they had been eradicated within the quarterfinals by Russia.
With Giannis now dedicated to taking part in within the event, Greece will probably be hoping to enhance on that end and get again among the many medals. The 2-time NBA MVP may even be on the lookout for some private redemption on the worldwide stage. His final look with Greece was the 2019 FIBA World Cup, the place he had some notably sub-par performances and the crew didn’t even make the knockout stage.