{"id":413128,"date":"2026-09-28T21:06:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T21:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/413128\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T21:06:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T21:06:39","slug":"iguanas-have-become-giannis-antetokounmpos-1st-opponent-in-his-miami-heat-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/413128\/","title":{"rendered":"Iguanas have become Giannis Antetokounmpo\u2019s 1st opponent in his Miami Heat era"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iguanas have become Giannis Antetokounmpo\u2019s 1st opponent in his Miami Heat era<\/p>\n

Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time NBA MVP, is adjusting to life in Miami, dealing with iguanas in his backyard while preparing for his first season with the Heat.<\/p>\n

\"TheMIAMI \u2014<\/p>\n

Giannis Antetokounmpo has a big problem. Unwanted invaders were spotted recently in the backyard of his new Miami home, and that wasn\u2019t an issue he had to deal with while playing in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

Iguanas aren\u2019t exactly a big problem in Wisconsin. In Miami, well, they\u2019re everywhere \u2014 including around Antetokounmpo\u2019s new pool<\/a>, which led to a viral moment this past weekend when the new Heat star posted about his family\u2019s encounter with the large lizard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the iguanas keep on coming, I\u2019ll probably move, maybe get an apartment. No pools, no grass, none of that stuff,\u201d Antetokounmpo said. \u201cWhen I came here in July somebody told me they were kind of cute. They\u2019re not cute. They\u2019re not cute. It\u2019s scary. But I\u2019ll get used to it, hopefully. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Heat hope that\u2019s the worst of Antetokounmpo\u2019s acclimation issues.<\/p>\n

The two-time MVP who led the Milwaukee Bucks to an NBA title in 2021 officially starts the next chapter of his career Tuesday, when the Heat open training camp in Boca Raton, Florida \u2014 about 45 minutes north of the team\u2019s arena. He was the centerpiece of a massive roster restructuring by Miami this summer, one that saw the Heat add Antetokounmpo, Klay Thompson, Bobby Portis and Tim Hardaway Jr., among others to a core led by Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Pelle Larsson and Davion Mitchell.<\/p>\n

The latest: Sports coverage from WPBF 25 News<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all new for me,\u201d Antetokounmpo said Monday at his first Heat media day. \u201cI\u2019m trying to learn defense. I\u2019m learning offenses. I am trying to fit in the locker room with new faces. I\u2019m trying to be able to play with players that I\u2019ve never played before. It\u2019s all new for me. It\u2019s exciting. I know that I\u2019m going to put in the work. Succeed or fail, I\u2019m going to fail by working, or succeed by working. And the goal is to win a championship. That\u2019s the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arena the Heat call home is a construction site these days. Dozens of workers in hard hats, orange reflective vests and steel-toed boots are all over the building, putting the finishing touches on new club spaces and other amenities that will greet fans in a couple weeks.<\/p>\n

Seems fitting that the team has gone through a refurbishing of sorts as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like there\u2019s a synergy from a lot of people in the building about this opportunity and the appropriate time,\u201d Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. \u201cSome things in this league really are about alignment. And then we\u2019ll see how it all plays out once we get into the competition and the games and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get the latest sports updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Antetokounmpo entered the NBA in 2013. His career totals to date: 21,531 points, 8,882 rebounds and 4,484 assists. The point and rebound totals are both fifth best in the NBA over that span, while the assist total is 13th best \u2014 and those numbers are just part of the reason why the Heat consider him to still be one of the five best players in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe brought him here for a reason. He\u2019s here for a reason,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cWe want him to establish himself as in that conversation of being the best player in the league and that can be debated in a lot of different ways. But we\u2019re not bringing him here to take a step back, so we\u2019ll try to maximize his strengths as much as we can and get him as comfortable as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if all goes to Miami\u2019s plan, iguanas will be Antetokounmpo\u2019s biggest problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really do believe that if not the best, I\u2019m one of the best players in the world,\u201d Antetokounmpo said. \u201cI know when I\u2019m at my best, when I\u2019m locked in, when my body is right, I really do believe that I can dominate the game and I can impact the game in both ways, offensively and defensively. I think I\u2019ve shown it over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iguanas have become Giannis Antetokounmpo\u2019s 1st opponent in his Miami Heat era Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time NBA MVP,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[25897,24675,40762,38421,1454,27205,163653,11977,123,125,124,163654,670,9387,14202,43752,13344,189],"class_list":["post-413128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-arena","tag-assist","tag-big-problem","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-heat","tag-iguana","tag-iguanas-have-become-giannis-antetokounmpos-1st-opponent-in-his-miami-heat-era","tag-league","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-nba-title","tag-other","tag-player","tag-point","tag-reason","tag-rebound","tag-wpbf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}