{"id":762105,"date":"2026-06-26T18:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/762105\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T18:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:37:10","slug":"giannis-antetokounmpo-on-quitting-basketball-and-the-toughest-moments-im-unbreakable-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/762105\/","title":{"rendered":"Giannis Antetokounmpo on quitting basketball and the toughest moments: “I’m unbreakable now”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Stefan Acevski \/\u00a0info@eurohoops.net<\/a><\/p>\n

For the first time after the trade to the Miami Heat<\/a>, Giannis Antetokounmpo made a public appearance and it was at SNF Nostos 2026<\/a>, an international festival hosted by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation in Athens, Greece.<\/p>\n

The NBA champion and philanthropist joined Olympic medalist Emmanouil \u201cManolo\u201d Karalis in conversation with Stavros Niarchos Foundation Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos for a discussion about how the values that drive athletic excellence can also be used to inspire athletes to give back to their communities and create opportunities for the next generation.<\/p>\n

At the event, Giannis addressed those present, once again emphasizing that in 2020 he wanted to quit playing basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst moment when it was tough for me was when I was a kid and when I saw my parents struggle. Second moment was around 2020, when I was dealing with some mental health stuff, I wanted to step away from basketball. I\u2019ve said this in a past, I really like basketball, but I don\u2019t like being famous. I\u2019m more reserved, my brother is different.\u201d<\/p>\n

He highlighted that it was his toughest moment and that it shaped him and made him unbreakable.<\/p>\n

I had so much load on my shoulders, my dad passed away, I just had a baby, my mom is living with me, I have to be like a father figure to my brother, because we just lost our dad. I had to be one of the best athletes in the world, there was so much pressure on me, I wanted to step away. But I realize that no one can take away the joy from what I do. That moment made who I am today. I\u2019m unbreakable. Better father, better husband, better son, better person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Stefan Acevski \/\u00a0info@eurohoops.net For the first time after the trade to the Miami Heat, Giannis Antetokounmpo made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-762105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}