A post by a Greek professor from the University of UCL in London against Giannis Antetokounmpo has caused outrage. In a racially charged comment under a Facebook post showing the Greek Freak singing the national anthem with Greek-Americans after an NBA game, professor Evangelos Markopoulos used profane language and attacked Giannis for his decision to not play with the Greek national team during the recent Eurobasket championship tournament. “We have had enough of the black guy pretending to be a Greek. Enough is enough. We do not forget summer. He f**ed us all over, the national team and our flag”, he wrote.

His racist post immediately caused a barrage of posts defending Giannis and calling the professor out on his views. The person who had uploaded the video to her Facebook page called “Giannis meets Greek in Cleveland”, harshly rebuked the professor. “I do not permit you to express yourself in such a way on my wall. The black who pretends to be Greek???? And you use vulgar words and you teach? Honestly, I would like to know what exactly you are teaching!!”, she wrote.

Evangelos Markopoulos

Another person wondered whether he was teaching his students racism. “You should be ashamed of yourself. But honour is something that is apparently missing from your vocabulary”, another wrote. Despite the backlash, the professor doubled down in his initial comment insisting that “that person [Antetokounmpo] had provoked us enough especially in summer and we saw how much he cared about us”.