Milwaukee Bucks: Getting to know forward Thanasis Antetokounmpo
NBA/G League career
After opening the 2013-14 season with Filiathlitikos, Thanasis eventually joined his brother Giannis in coming stateside during that fall after being selected ninth overall by the Delaware 87ers in the 2013 D-League Draft.
Just as his brother was showing off the raw gifts that eventually became the basis for his awe-inspiring game on a lowly 15-win Bucks team that season, Thanasis was hard at work making an impression in the D-League for a struggling team in the Sevens.
On making the jump to the D-League when he did and trying to wrestle with the weight of his new surroundings, Antetokounmpo told this to Corban Goble of Grantland as he came to cover the expansion affiliate back in February of 2014:
"“I feel like it was the perfect decision for me to come here, to try to learn this basketball and play with other teammates,” he tells me. “Everyone is helping me learn. It’s been so difficult. I played overseas for like, five years … I have some habits. (He could be referring to a needless goaltending violation he committed in a recent game.)”"
The Sevens may have compiled a league-worst 12-38 record that year, but Antetokounmpo’s raw, yet electric game ended up in him locking down an invite to the NBA Draft Combine after declaring for the 2014 NBA Draft. This time, Thanasis kept his name in the draft pool and was determined to stand as his own person, rather than be in the long shadow of Giannis, as he told Jake Fischer of SLAM in May of 2014:
"“I just know I’m ready for my opportunity to come and get to play in the NBA.” Thanasis says. I’m really excited because people don’t really know me, people tend to put me in a standard because, if you don’t see me play against guys who are projected in the first round, guys who are projected No. 9 or No. 10 or No. 16 or No. 20, you can’t see, you can’t really see the things I bring to the court. So I’m really excited about that. “I’m really gonna try to show people who I am and who I can be.”"
A few weeks later, Antetokounmpo’s dream came to fruition: he was selected with the 51st overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft by the New York Knicks.
However, it was just the start of a roundabout two-year stint with the organization where Antetokounmpo spent almost the entirety of it with their affiliate, the Westchester Knicks. Despite the circumstances, Antetokounmpo continued to sparkle in the D-League setting, enough to the point where he garnered All-Defensive Second Team honors for the 2014-15 season.
Eventually, though, Antetokounmpo reached the NBA to play for the Knicks after signing a 10-day contract midway through the 2015-16 season. But after only two appearances, both of which were three-minute cameos, the Knicks elected to bypass inking Antetokounmpo to a second 10-day contract and he then finished out the rest of that year back in Westchester to help their playoff run at the time.