Meet Kostas and Alex Antetokounmpo: Giannis’s Uber-Athletic Younger Brothers
Forget the Ball brothers—let’s talk about the Antetokounmpo brothers.
Yes, Giannis has brothers. You may have heard of Thanasis, the eldest Antetokounmpo brother who possesses extraordinary explosiveness and once played for the New York Knicks. But the Greek Freak also has a pair of younger brothers. To make matters more enticing, both Kostas and Alex Antetokounmpo are a spitting image of the Milwaukee Bucks’ superstar. They both have arms as long as airplane wings. They both have dynamite athleticism. No one’s saying they’re going to be the next Giannis, but they’re incredibly intriguing prospects in their own right.
Let’s start off with Kostas, the older of the two younger brothers.
He looks like a mini Greek Freak, right? It doesn’t feel quite right to say “mini,” though, considering Kostas measures in at 6-foot-10, 190 pounds. Giannis says Kostas has “got a great body to be in the league.” He’s also reportedly the best shooter in the Antetotkounmpo family.
Kostas attended Dominican High School (Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin), playing sparingly until his senior year. That’s mostly because he was stuck behind Diamond Stone on the depth chart, who went on to get selected 40th overall in the 2016 NBA Draft.
Kostas made the most of his senior season, averaging 12.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game en route to first-team All-State honors. That showing was enough for 247Sports to rank him the number nine small forward in his class, and he eventually committed to the University of Dayton. He was a partial qualifier at Dayton last year, which meant he had to use a redshirt. But that also gave him extra time to hone his game and get in the weight room. Check out this photo Kostas posted in February showing off his gains:
Giannis is continually encouraging Kostas to play position-less basketball to take full advantage of his dynamic skill set. “He goes and passes it to the point guard. I’m, like, Kostas, ‘Why are you passing? Take it yourself!’ But he’s, like, ‘I’m the 3 man.’ I’m, like, ‘Kostas, in basketball right now, there is no such thing as a position; it’s all about your skill set. If you can bring the ball down, bring the ball down; it’s simple. But you’ve got to take care of the ball.’,” Giannis told NBPA.com.
It’s impossible not to see shades of Giannis when watching Kostas’s highlight tape:[youtube video=”M8D0WBVN3Nw”]
Then there’s Alex.
A sophomore at Dominican High School, he already boasts a 7-foot-2 wingspan. That’s just one inch smaller than Giannis’s, despite Alex currently being six inches shorter.
Alex played sparingly during his freshman season at Dominican, averaging 3.4 points per game. The program has won five state championships in the past six years, so it’s rare for freshmen to get much playing time. What’s especially encouraging about Alex is that he already possesses a tremendous motor, a trait that can be difficult to teach. “I come into the game; you’ll see me diving for balls; you’ll see me going and getting a rebound. I do the dirty work,” Alex told Bleacher Report. Giannis had a similar game as a young player. “(Giannis) was the team worker. The team expected him to rebound, block. (Scoring) points did not interest him,” Panagiotis Zivas, who coached Giannis on the Greek team Filathlitikos, told OregonLive.com.
Giannis has already proclaimed that Alex will one day be better than him, and the two train together regularly. In this recent clip from Alex’s Instagram page, you can already see he has the potential to be a dynamic force on both ends (yes, that’s Giannis talking to him before the game):
“The way that he mentors all of his brothers is amazing,” Charles Antetokounmpo, the brother’s late father, told NBPA.com. “He will do anything for them. He will spare nothing to make sure that they have exactly what they need. He teaches them about basketball, about life, about priorities. It’s really great to see all of the things that I am passing on to Giannis he is passing on to them.”
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Meet Kostas and Alex Antetokounmpo: Giannis’s Uber-Athletic Younger Brothers
Forget the Ball brothers—let’s talk about the Antetokounmpo brothers.
Yes, Giannis has brothers. You may have heard of Thanasis, the eldest Antetokounmpo brother who possesses extraordinary explosiveness and once played for the New York Knicks. But the Greek Freak also has a pair of younger brothers. To make matters more enticing, both Kostas and Alex Antetokounmpo are a spitting image of the Milwaukee Bucks’ superstar. They both have arms as long as airplane wings. They both have dynamite athleticism. No one’s saying they’re going to be the next Giannis, but they’re incredibly intriguing prospects in their own right.
Let’s start off with Kostas, the older of the two younger brothers.
He looks like a mini Greek Freak, right? It doesn’t feel quite right to say “mini,” though, considering Kostas measures in at 6-foot-10, 190 pounds. Giannis says Kostas has “got a great body to be in the league.” He’s also reportedly the best shooter in the Antetotkounmpo family.
Kostas attended Dominican High School (Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin), playing sparingly until his senior year. That’s mostly because he was stuck behind Diamond Stone on the depth chart, who went on to get selected 40th overall in the 2016 NBA Draft.
Kostas made the most of his senior season, averaging 12.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game en route to first-team All-State honors. That showing was enough for 247Sports to rank him the number nine small forward in his class, and he eventually committed to the University of Dayton. He was a partial qualifier at Dayton last year, which meant he had to use a redshirt. But that also gave him extra time to hone his game and get in the weight room. Check out this photo Kostas posted in February showing off his gains:
Giannis is continually encouraging Kostas to play position-less basketball to take full advantage of his dynamic skill set. “He goes and passes it to the point guard. I’m, like, Kostas, ‘Why are you passing? Take it yourself!’ But he’s, like, ‘I’m the 3 man.’ I’m, like, ‘Kostas, in basketball right now, there is no such thing as a position; it’s all about your skill set. If you can bring the ball down, bring the ball down; it’s simple. But you’ve got to take care of the ball.’,” Giannis told NBPA.com.
It’s impossible not to see shades of Giannis when watching Kostas’s highlight tape:[youtube video=”M8D0WBVN3Nw”]
Then there’s Alex.
A sophomore at Dominican High School, he already boasts a 7-foot-2 wingspan. That’s just one inch smaller than Giannis’s, despite Alex currently being six inches shorter.
Alex played sparingly during his freshman season at Dominican, averaging 3.4 points per game. The program has won five state championships in the past six years, so it’s rare for freshmen to get much playing time. What’s especially encouraging about Alex is that he already possesses a tremendous motor, a trait that can be difficult to teach. “I come into the game; you’ll see me diving for balls; you’ll see me going and getting a rebound. I do the dirty work,” Alex told Bleacher Report. Giannis had a similar game as a young player. “(Giannis) was the team worker. The team expected him to rebound, block. (Scoring) points did not interest him,” Panagiotis Zivas, who coached Giannis on the Greek team Filathlitikos, told OregonLive.com.
Giannis has already proclaimed that Alex will one day be better than him, and the two train together regularly. In this recent clip from Alex’s Instagram page, you can already see he has the potential to be a dynamic force on both ends (yes, that’s Giannis talking to him before the game):
[instagram src=”https://www.instagram.com/p/BaX03FFnDiV/”] The athleticism, length and bloodline of Kostas and Alex is exciting, no doubt. But what really makes them such intriguing prospects is the fact that Giannis plays a huge role in their everyday lives.“The way that he mentors all of his brothers is amazing,” Charles Antetokounmpo, the brother’s late father, told NBPA.com. “He will do anything for them. He will spare nothing to make sure that they have exactly what they need. He teaches them about basketball, about life, about priorities. It’s really great to see all of the things that I am passing on to Giannis he is passing on to them.”
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