NBA ALL-STAR MEDIA DAY

February 18, 2023

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Media Day Press Conference

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: Got to probably beat LeBron to play against LeBron. But no, I'm going to try to draft a really good team. We're going to play hard, and hopefully we can enjoy the game and try to take them down this time.

Q. What does this All-Star Game mean to you?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: It's the same. It never gets old. Every day, every time I step to my locker and I see my jersey with my name and I'm around all these great players, which are the best players in the world, it's always a great feeling. I never take it for granted. God has blessed me enough to be seven times an All-Star so far, and this might be my last one, so I try to enjoy to the fullest and appreciate every moment with the best players in the world.

Q. How do you get sleep in a hotel having the family with you?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: So what I do with my significant other, we give them a bath, try to calm them down. We kind of put them not in the bedroom, in the living room outside, because in the hotel room it's kind of hard. When they wake up early in the morning, I just give them the iPad. That gives me like an hour or two that I still lay in the bed without bothering me, so I get like six to eight hours of sleep.

Q. (No microphone.)

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: No, no, I think players got to protect their body and teams got to do what's the best fitness for them. Obviously I'm a guy that wants to compete as much as I can if I'm healthy. I want to be out there. I love basketball. I'm obsessed with basketball.

But at the end of the day, we cannot force people to compete if they don't feel like competing. So I don't think the NBA -- like you cannot penalize that.

But I feel like people are available. People are playing. But at the end of the day, so many games, 82 games, you've got to take care of your body. We play every other day. Sometimes we play four games in six days, four games in five days. You've got to take care of your body. It's very, very important.

Q. Should there be less games?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: No, I love playing games. I think 82 is perfect.