Giannis Antetokounmpo dropped a crazy 41 points in Greece’s match against Ukraine leading his national team on Wednesday afternoon to a 99-79 victory, securing the top spot in its group at Eurobasket 2022. Giannis Antetokounmpo ‘s 41 points were the most by a player in the tournament since Dirk Nowitzki’s 43 in 2001.
Giannis Antetokounmpo erupts for 41 PTS, the most in a single #EuroBasket game since Dirk’s 43 in 2001.The recipient of the message “the game is not played with words”
After the match against Ukraine, Giannis Antetokounmpo left a post on Instagram using the phrase “the game is played, not with words”.
One of the two photos attached by the Greek NBA star also revealed the recipient of the message who was none other than Ukraine guard Issuf Sanon, a Ukrainian basketball player who, a few hours before the game between Greece and Ukraine, said to a sports website when asked about Giannis Antetokounmpo that ” I don’t want to be rude to him, but I don’t care who is in front of me when I play. Every time I go out on the court, I don’t care who is on the other side. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but when we go out on the court, nothing matters. Who is a big name or something? None! When I get on the court, my mind is locked into the work I have to do. I don’t care what his name is, where he’s from or anything, how much money he has. He is like me, he has two arms and two legs.”
These statements apparently reached Giannis who “answered” on the court with 41 points in just 27 minutes.
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“I don’t want us to get puffed up”
Despite his impressive appearance, Giannis chose to keep a low profile at the post-match press conference that followed Greece’s victory over Ukraine.
“I don’t know how far the team can go. Day by day we try to get better. Sometimes we can relax after a win and think we are the best or we get carried away. I’ve been in this position before, in 2014, where we only won the group and lost in the first knockout round by a large margin. We have improved as a team. God only knows what will happen in the knockouts. If I knew, I wouldn’t play. We are not the team that will get puffed up, we will always give 100% on the court. No one guarantees us victory, we’ll see what we do. We have to go in focused against Estonia because if we are relaxed we will also go to the knockouts” said the Greek Freak.
The same modest appeared about his appearance saying “I’m not trying to rate my performances. I want to enjoy it, bring energy in every way and try to create. For me every game is a new experience. It is one of the years that I feel so good that I am with the National team. I don’t know if it’s because I have three years to play or the way coach Itoudis motivates me, but I’m definitely enjoying it with my teammates.
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