Atop one sideline, a wall of cloudy windows allows the powerful sun to creep inside. A pair of stanchions took their place and now hold baskets with rims slowly beginning to rust. The two original hoops that once hung from the gym’s ceiling have been retired and permanently raised to the rafters. “His eyes, they were shining.”Īntetokounmpo learned the game of basketball on the aged hardwood of Filathlitikos’ court, its measurements, particularly in width, more fitting of a small soccer field. “I just hadn’t seen a kid like that before,” he says. “His legs were immense, but his torso was small in comparison to the rest of the body.” Zivas, a slender man wearing years of coaching under his eyes, still remembers the first time Antetokounmpo came into his gym. “He was like a cricket,” says Takis Zivas, head coach of Filathlitikos B.C., Antetokounmpo’s first team. Long before the world knew him as Giannis Antetokounmpo - the Eurostepping Greek Freak with the 6-foot-11, 242-pound body and mythical athleticism - the reigning NBA MVP played at the home of Filathlitikos Basketball Club. Behind them is where one of basketball’s best-kept secrets once hooped. Nestled between collections of abundant trees is a set of stairs leading to a ground-level entrance, where a small lobby gives way to the double doors of a basketball court.
ATHENS, Greece - The gym sits on the east side of central Athens in the densely populated suburb of Zografou.
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