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Giannis Antetokounmpo loves his 'Greek Freak' nickname
Giannis Antetokounmpo is a fan of his "Greek Freak" nickname.  Quinn Harris-USA TODAY Sports

Giannis Antetokounmpo loves his 'Greek Freak' nickname

Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is just fine with you calling him by his nickname.

On Thursday, the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player and Milwaukee teammate Pat Connaughton appeared on ESPN Wisconsin for the Capture Sports Marketing's Athletes Doing Good Radiothon.

As ESPN's Eric Woodyard wrote, Antetokounmpo enjoys that he's known by many as the "Greek Freak:"

"I don't remember the first time I heard about it -- it was probably my rookie year -- but I really don't know who came up with it," he said. "I just went on the court one day and I had like a crazy dunk or a crazy block and after that everyone started calling me the Greek Freak. So it stuck by me, I love it and it's a cool nickname."

Antetokounmpo added: 

"The most important thing is you cannot lose yourself in it. There's a lot of pressure, there's a lot of things that are going to try to pull you from 'come this way, do this.' For example, this event with Nike, or tomorrow you've got to do this event with T-Mobile. Like, there's so many things that you're going to have in front of you that you've got to do, but you've just got to be able to balance your personal life with the Greek Freak life. Giannis and the Greek Freak are two different people. I hope that doesn't sound arrogant -- I'm not trying to sound arrogant -- but that's how I'm trying to think. I'm trying to think when I'm with my family, I'm with my family. Sometimes when you're the MVP, you're the leader of the team, you've got to do a photo shoot and all that, you lose yourself, and whenever I'm with my family, I'm myself."

Antetokounmpo hails from Greece, he's a 6-foot-11 unicorn who can play any position on the court, including point guard, he can legitimately dunk over humans, and his name is difficult to pronounce for some: 

As Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote, Antetokounmpo also said he'd love to take the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy to the Greek island of Mykonos for a post-championship celebration.  

People there likely wouldn't have any difficulties saying his name throughout that vacation.

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