In a new biography, Mirin Fader skillfully tells the story of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s rise to NBA superstardom
Giannis Antetokounmpo is one of the best and most unique players in the NBA. At 26 years old, he has already made five All-NBA teams and is one of only five players ever to win both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. Last month, he further cemented his place atop the league hierarchy by leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their first NBA title in five decades, winning Finals MVP in the process.
It’s a series of accomplishments that not even the most optimistic prognosticator could have imagined when Giannis entered the league in 2013 as a lanky mystery man. In her debut book, Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP, Mirin Fader chronicles his unexpected rise from an anonymous player in a second-tier Greek league to NBA MVP. It’s a fascinating story, well-told in ways that make it feel entirely new and more impactful than ever.
Knowing the ending doesn’t make the story of Giannis any less enthralling
The outline of Giannis’ ascent is well-known: born in Greece to an immigrant family from Nigeria, he and his family lived in poverty until the Milwaukee Bucks took a chance on him in the 2013 Draft. Yet Fader adds innumerable shades to this basic outline. One of the things that makes Fader’s work here so laudable is her refusal to launder trite bromides about what a feel-good and inspirational story this is. Too often, when telling stories like these, writers either elide the suffering altogether or dramatize it so heavily that it becomes exploitative. Fader does not fall into either trap. She avoids it by drawing such fully human portraits of the Antetokounmpo family that one cannot help but emphasize; they are not abstract victims of prejudice and circumstance, but people one comes to know and care about.
Fader also does a very good job of contextualizing the poverty in which the family lived and the forms of xenophobia that they faced as a family of African immigrants. Interspersed throughout these sections are portraits of a white nationalist group called Golden Dawn and the ways that they fought against the inclusive and multi-ethnic Greek society that Giannis and his family have come to represent. Readers will get a feel for what it was like growing up in Greece as a young Black immigrant, and for the importance of a Black man proudly claiming his heritage in the face of those who would wish to deny it. These shadings do not keep Antetokounmpo’s story from remaining an inspiring one, but this honest, thoughtful telling is a nice corrective to the more popular and sanitized version.
Another way that Fader adds deeper texture to the traditional narrative is the way she recounts Giannis’ early years in the NBA, the period before he became a star. When he entered the league, he was presented to fans as a naive teenager who was humorously adjusting to life in America. Who could forget his effervescent Tweet about trying a smoothie for the first time? This was not necessarily a false picture, but a selective and romanticized one.
At the same time, Giannis was a young man overcome with loneliness as he waited for his family to be granted visas so they could join him in the United States and a player whose skills had not yet caught up with his ambitions. He was someone who had been shaped by poverty, someone who wore only two pairs of shoes his entire rookie season despite being given a new pair for every game because he wanted to save as many as possible for his brothers. Doing so, this book captures both sides of him, portraying him as fully human. It does not deny the amusing and affable public persona that has come to define him for many, but adds layers so that pain and longing and desire are included, making the joy and achievement that much more meaningful. Giannis often seems uncomfortable revealing too much of himself to anyone, which makes it especially impressive how clearly his character and motivation shine throughout this book.
Often when a book is written about a younger athlete, still in the midst of their career, it is done so as a cheap attempt to make some quick money and garner publicity while the star is in the limelight. That is absolutely not the case with Fader’s Giannis. While other, more complete books will be written about Antetokounmpo once he retires and his full life and career can be placed in a broader context, this book does a great job of capturing the story up to this point. It’s a valuable book that any future biographer will have to reckon with and struggle to top.
Fader has consistently been one of the most impressive writers of profiles for several years and her debut book reads like one of those stories expanded to book-length in the best possible way. Her passion for storytelling, along with her commitment to capturing the people she writes about as fully as possible, shines throughout the entirety of her debut. Rarely do fans get to see a star at the peak of their career covered so well and in such depth. It’s hard to imagine anyone interested in the NBA failing to enjoy this book. Though it just came out earlier this month, I’m already eager for a follow-up.