Giannis' path has proven 'failure is part of success'
Antetokounmpo wasn’t at the event as he prepared for Game 6, but he has said how much he appreciates the mural’s existence.
“It’s amazing,” Antetokounmpo said after a recent playoff game. “When you play basketball, you never expect things like that to happen. You just play basketball because you love the game and you enjoy the game. I feel like once you dedicate yourself to the team and to the city, people feel that. They appreciate it, and things like that happen.”
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson attended Friday’s ceremony and said the mural was “a new reminder of who we are as a city and nation” and showed how “the American dream is alive and well.”
Antetokounmpo grew up amid poverty in Greece before coming to Milwaukee as the 15th pick in the 2013 draft and developing into one of the game’s top players. He signed a supermax extension with the Bucks in December 2020 rather than becoming an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2020-21 season.
Seven months after signing that extension, Antetokounmpo was named MVP of the NBA Finals after leading the Bucks to a championship.
“He was proud to do it the hard way,” Johnson said. “That’s how we do it in cities like Milwaukee.”