The “Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo described his decision not to play with the Greek National Team in the Europbasket 2017 by saying that “[I]t was not that I did not want to play, I could not play”.

“Day after day I get better. My knee is constantly improving”, said Giannis and added that:

“The decision was one of the most difficult, especially when you know that you have a whole country behind you waiting for you to play. It was one of the toughest decisions as an athlete. But it was the best choice for me and my family. It was not that I did not want to play, I could not play. There is a lot of people who support me, people from Milwaukee and Greece. They are always next to me on social media and support me and I want to thank them for it.”