This article originally appeared onVICE GreeceLast week, rising Greek NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo—or Greek Freak as he's known in America—took to social media to announce that he'd found time in to fly home and host an impromptu basketball game in his old neighborhood in Athens.I was fairly certain it was a joke but I couldn't bare the idea of writing it off and later looking like a complete tool for missing it, so I made my way down to the neighborhood of Sepolia to see if the small forward for the Milwaukee Bucks would show up.
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Already from about a half mile away, you could hear the rumbling wall of applause. Obviously, it hadn't been a joke: Giannis and his brother Thanasis, who plays for the Westchester Knicks, were both there. And they were followed by several thousand Athenians, who were all collectively losing their shit over the fact they had a chance to watch their hometown heroes shoot some hoops.
Bleachers, telephone poles, curbs: If it was within 400 meters from the court and more than an inch above ground level, it was overflowing with young people trying to catch a glimpse of the game.When the game ended, Giannis signed a few basketballs and threw them out into the crowd. Which, thoughtful as it was, could've easily instigated a riot seeing how eager people were to grab them. Some of those lucky enough to get their hands on a ball, were members of Generation 2.0, a group that promotes the rights of second generation Greek citizens, like the Antetokounmpo brothers.Watch: VICE explores the weird and exciting world of eSportsObviously NBA stars don't grow on trees, so the excitement generated by the Antetokounmpos's visit was anticipated. But for a country where far-right party Golden Dawn is in parliament despite the fact that half of its MPs are currently standing trial for belonging to a criminal organization, that visit represented a kind of hope that for almost a decade now has been well beyond our wildest dreams.
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