ALL-STAR GAME

February 18, 2024

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Eastern Conference

Press Conference

East 211, West 186

Q. We'll start with Dame. Saturday night that you watched and then tonight, to start the way he did. So I guess just overall thoughts on him winning MVP, but also half-court?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: He stayed hot from Saturday night, the win that he had. You could tell he was going for it. All we had to do as a team was give him the ball, and he did what he does best: Make a lot of threes. How many did he have? 10, 11? He totally deserved it. All he had to do was play hard and give it his everything.

Q. You've been in this game a bunch of times with guys that do stuff like that, hit deep threes. What does it mean to have that guy as your teammate and you get to have the final third of the season with him?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: It's incredible. He was shooting a couple shots and they were going in, and he would see like the reaction of everybody, KD, Steph, KAT, Jokic, they were all looking like, and I'm like, dang, that's my teammate there. I'm happy that he's on my side, and I'm happy what he's capable of doing on the court.

We've just got to stay healthy, keep enjoying the game. Keep on getting together, getting closer. Build good habits as a team in the last 26 games that we have, and hopefully when it matters most, we can gain some edge. He can make tough shots like that, and I can do the rest to try to help us win.

To answer your question, it's nice to have him on our side.

Q. Tyrese Haliburton having that All-Star Game here in the hometown for his team, as a small-market guy yourself, someone who's embraced the franchise in Milwaukee, what is the pressure like to lift that franchise to the next stage to be a championship franchise in a small market?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: I don't know if I felt it. Maybe I did feel it a couple times. I don't know that I felt I had to lift and put Milwaukee on the map. I was just playing hard, doing what I love, being consistent with it, staying humble through the whole journey. I always wanted to get better.

I think by doing that step by step, I was able to -- people around the world know where Milwaukee is, and people talk about Milwaukee. Me being able to win a championship, in the last couple of years, we've been always competing for the championship. Obviously it takes a lot of hard work, a lot of time. But at the end of the day, it wasn't like my mindset being in Milwaukee, I wasn't thinking small-market team, small city, I've got to put them on the map, I've got to raise the whole thing.

No, I always was, I've got to get better. I've got to represent them the right way when I put on that jersey. I've got to respect the people and respect the people before me, and hopefully I can make my mark. By having that mindset, I think I've been able to do it.

Do I think Ty is able to make an incredible market in Indiana? He's already making it. The future is bright for him and the future is bright for the city of (Indianapolis). I'm excited for him. He was incredible tonight.

Q. Giannis, we talked about it yesterday how you were kind of feeling drained from just all the upheaval from the first half of the season. What has this weekend meant to you to kind of be able to recharge and have the next few days off before you guys play Minnesota?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: Yeah, I'm happy. I'm happy that I can spend a few down days with my family, getting my mind right, getting my body right. Getting in the gym and working out and getting ready for the game.

I think as a team, we all needed that. The last couple games we played before the break, you could see not only were we tired physically, but we played two back-to-backs in a row, four games in five days or four games in six days, I don't remember, but it's tiring.

Our shootarounds, our practice, we have to get closer as a team. It's always like we've got to catch up. Usually when you start off in training camp, you have game plan, the structure and you keep adding slowly, slowly, slowly. We don't have that luxury anymore. Every shootaround, instead of shooting around and messing around and getting ready for the game, we actually practice. And so now we're physically a little more tired than the other team.

Now we're adding things. We're adding more things. So I feel personally and our team, we need this little break, five, seven days, hoping to get back refreshed and go win some games.

Q. In a recent documentary, you go out into the streets of Nigeria and you buy something. The guy selling it to you doesn't know your face, but knows the name. In Africa, Nigeria or in the city, what do you think your name can mean for those places?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: I have no idea. It's a funny and a crazy story at the same time. I really don't expect everybody to know who I am or know my name. I'm not aiming for that. I'm actually aiming for the opposite, kind of stay as low profile as I can. Yeah, crazy, crazy story.

Going through the streets of Lagos trying to buy a Giannis jersey. I told my mom, if I see my jersey, I'm going to stop and buy it. I don't care if people mob me. I've never bought my jersey before. It's a good way to do it.

When I saw my jersey, came down, people are following me. I'm with a guy. I used to sell stuff. I tried to bargain. He told me, I don't know, $5. I'm like 2 1/2. He said, no, 5. I'm like 3 1/2. He had no idea who I was. Then I gave him 5, and I said I want the Giannis jersey. Gave it to me, and he turned his back.

My mom told him, hey, you know who that is? That's Giannis Antetokounmpo. That's actually the guy. Then he realized. It's funny.

I want to be down there more. I enjoyed my time down there. I enjoyed meeting my relatives for the first time. I think in my few days there I impacted a lot of people in the communities, and I want to keep doing good stuff with my foundation.

Q. I've been asking a lot of coaches, a lot of players about the threes. 60 threes were made in this past game right now.

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: 60?

Q. More than that, both teams. A lot of people decided your Milwaukee Bucks defense, they used to give up a lot of threes but be one of the better defensive teams in the league. As a defensive player who's had to lead a team defense, what's your philosophy on defending threes besides just hoping guys miss?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: You cannot hope guys miss. The players are too good. Guys are making shots from half-court. You saw that today. Last All-Star Game before that, I think in Cleveland, I think Steph was doing the same thing. Even guys that are not as good at three-point shooting, they can still shoot the ball. You can't just hope. You have to make it tougher, contest.

My philosophy is kind of drive them off the three. I think that's what we've been doing the last couple of years. Try to make them shoot a tough two. No layups. Protect the paint. We have a great Defensive Player of the Year candidate, Brook Lopez, on our team. Send as many people as you can to the paint. No easy layups. Whenever a guy is at the three-point line wide open, you've got to fly out to him and make him put the ball on the floor. If he's going to take a dribble, dribble, dribble three, the chance of that going in is better.

If you allow him and force him to take a tough two from the free throw line or a floater, it counts for two. I feel like that's been our philosophy the last couple years. That's our game plan. We still are going to allow a lot teams to shoot threes because they still play basketball. They play basketball. We play basketball. You cannot guard everything. But to be a good defensive you team, you have to make the other team shoot tough twos, and that's the way.

Q. I saw you had a moment in pregame with your son where you lifted him up so he could dunk the basketball. What does it mean to you to have your family around in a weekend like this, and how do these moments help build that family for you?

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: It's fun. At the end of the day, we don't get as much time as we probably want to get with our family because of our profession. Our program is very, very busy, and whenever I can spend some time with my kids and kind of make them understand what I do, I try to take the time.

Mostly in the past I kind of kept my kids out of the spotlight, to allow them to choose this life for themselves and not this life choose them. Whenever they can understand and want to jump into the spotlight, great, but I wanted that to be their decision. But I feel like that kind of created a disconnect between me and my kids. Like when I was on the basketball court, I kind of stayed away.

But now I'm like, this is who we are. This is my family. I want my kids to be great men and understand what I do. I want them to have fun and see that their dad is having fun also. They enjoy basketball, and now I cannot keep them away from basketball.

So I'm excited. I'm excited to be a father. I'm excited to make a future with my kids, and I hope that I can be a good father.

Q. The Freak 5s that you wore as a tribute to Thanasis. I want to use this time to maybe give you the platform and talk about that story and the decision-making into putting that shoe and what that means to you to be able to honor your brother on a big stage like this.

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: I'll say many times if you could like create the perfect brother, Thanasis would probably be the person. He always like looked after us, took care of us, be supportive of us. He's always been there for not just me, but all our brothers.

Back in the day, my brother Thanasis went viral with the Shammgod move. He basically shared shoes with me. He shared the Kobe five, Kobe six, something like that. It was the same colorway that I wore today, white and red. I loved them. Whenever he played, he'd take them off and then give them to me and allowed me to play. So we used to share our shoes.

Then in 2019 in Charlotte, I got exactly those shoes, and I wrote on the shoes, "Thanks, Thanasis, for sharing." And I kind of paid tribute to him for sharing the shoes with me ten years ago. He never thought I was going to be an All-Star or the person that I am today. He was just with me because he loves me. I love him, too, so I wanted to pay respect for him.

When I work with companies or Nike specifically, I want my shoes or anything that comes out to have a story that's authentic to me, something that people can relate to. I don't want to say a story about the shoe about something -- I don't know. What's popular right now? Give me something that's popular right now. FIFA, just put a shoe out there, no. I want all my shoes to have a story, which most of the stories include my family because that's what I'm about. Everybody who knows me knows I'm about my family.

Today was an opportunity to wear them again, and I did. So I hope he's able to watch the game. I got 20 points today. I got them for him. So, yeah, that's it.