Giannis Antetokounmpo has taken the world by storm ever since he was moved to the playmaker position – Five triple doubles and a new (34pts) personal scoring record – and the Americans regard him as a Freak of basketball!
Nevertheless, he’s just a simple guy with dreams, insecurities, but also self-awareness and hard work, his greatest weapons!
He still has the same plan and he still makes his way according to this plan! Nonstop work – the only way there is to the top – the right mentality, self-awareness and daily struggle not just against his rivals, but his self.
The Greek Freak returns to his personal blog on Eurohoops and shares his thoughts with his fans: the elements that he’s lacking in order to reach an All Star level, whether he’s in a hurry to… grow up and reach the peak of his career and how he manages those days he’s feeling insecure.
Enjoy Giannis on his new fresh personal blog!
The elements that he’s still lacking in order to get to an All Star level
All the work I’ve been doing individually and in training sessions still hasn’t come out in my game. Official games are a different situation and it’s important to get to the point where I’m feeling very comfortable when I’m playing. This will come through hard work and with time. I know that John Hammond, the General Manager of the Bucks, whom I respect a lot, said in his interview to Eurohoops that I still lack certain elements to get to an All Star level: shooting from 16-17 feet and three-point shooting from the corners.
I constantly work on, not just those elements, but also on fifteen other things that I know better than anyone are missing from my game. I believe, though, that I’m on the right track (HERE you can read the exclusive interview of coach Jason Kidd with Eurohoops about Giannis) and I’m already doing many things on the court to help my team.
Is he in a hurry to reach his ceiling?
I don’t know if I’m in a hurry. I’m definitely somewhat impatient and I know that it’s going to take time for that to happen. There are several elements that I have to improve and add. I don’t care so much as to when that is going to happen, as much as how good I’m going to be at the peak of my career in terms of my performance and how many years that peak is going to last.
I’m willing to work as hard as I can and even harder, so that eventually I get to the point I know I can reach and should reach based on the potential that I have. No matter how many sacrifices it takes. Sometimes I certainly hope for that to happen soon. But when I’m calm, I can set the right priorities, focus on closer and smaller goals and I know there’s only one way. To go one step further every day and work hard to overcome my own limitations in terms of patience and exhaustion, with sacrifices in my personal time and my personal life.
Does he know how far he can go? There are days when…
No, I don’t know what my ceiling – in terms of basketball – might be. The only thing I feel, because of my age too, is that there is still a lot of… room for improvement in every aspect of the game. There is no element of my game, at this point, that can’t be improved upon and which I can’t develop even further, in relation to the level at which I play right now.
There are days when I feel very strong, that I can be good and competitive against any personal rival in the NBA, against any team. But there are other days when I don’t feel well, when training sessions and games don’t go as well as I’d like them to, and I wonder, “Can I make the next step”?
Can I get to the level of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, LeBron James, Paul George, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and so many other superstars? I ask myself, Can you, one day, be among the best in the league and if yes, when?
There are days when things affect me and I say to myself, ‘Giannis, can you go that far?’ Games might not go so well, I might not be good in practice, something might happen that will bring me down psychologically. My antidote for when I’m feeling this way is to go to our training center and work even harder.
You might often get disappointed and feel that the hours of individual training that you’ve put in are not coming out on the court as you might’ve expected. You can feel it, but it’s a thought that might lead you into error and down the wrong path.
The rule is simple and inviolable: whatever happens, the more you work, the better you become.
That’s the only thought that fills me with self-confidence in moments of insecurity, which I overcome by buckling down and going at it. I still have a long way to go, but I don’t allow myself to get distracted because I’m young.
I have to take full advantage of every single day and benefit from it, become better. Only in this way will my career have a steady growth…
I would like to thank you once again from the bottom of my heart and reiterate that, for me, every message at my personal blog, the positive energy that you send me, are very important things that fill me with even more strength and desire to make my dreams come true.
I’ll see you all again soon Bucks Fans, but also Greek people when I return to Greece. There, together with my brothers, we’d like to visit several cities to play basketball, and we’ll be expecting you there so we can have fun together!
Stay tuned, Giannis