Graffiti art in Athens celebrating Greek superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo has been vandalized with Nazi symbols, as shared in a Eurohoops report.
The vandalism surfaced on the one-year anniversary of Antetokounmpo winning the 2019 NBA MVP award in his seventh season with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Unknown vandals defaced the tribute by scrawling out Antetokounmpo’s face and adding a swastika and S.S. symbols to the NBA star’s right arm. The graffiti art is located in the Palaio Faliro Municipality outside of Athens. It was created through an Athens initiative called “Pictures and Dreams.”
The vandalism marks the second known time that graffiti celebrating Antetokounmpo, a native of Athens, has been damaged with neo-Nazi iconography. A similarly styled graffiti tribute was vandalized in the Sepolia neighborhood of Athens in 2017.
There is an abundance of street art tributes to Antetokounmpo throughout his native Greece, including one that was recently updated in tribute to “The Greek Freak” participating in protests against systemic racism and police misconduct in the U.S.
The son of immigrants from Nigeria, Antetokounmpo was born in Athens on Dec. 6, 1994. He began playing basketball in 2007 and eventually starred with Athens youth team Filathlitikos in 2009. The four-time All-Star and 2019 MVP and All-NBA First-Team member was taken by the Bucks with the No. 15 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft.
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