How the Antetokounmpo Family Became Greek

In honor of tonight's game - Evan and I are going - that pits Giannis Antetokounmpo and his Milwaukee Bucks against out hometown Wizards, I thought I would share my version of how the Antetokounmpo family ended up in Greece. Both Giannis and his brother Thanasis were born in Greece to Nigerian parents.

MY RE-CREATION

Mr. Antetokounmpo (after he comes home after a long day of work): Nigeria is a train wreck. No matter how hard I work our lives are still way too difficult. I can't imagine starting a family here either, under these difficult conditions.

Mrs. Antetokounmpo: Tell me about it, it's even harder for a woman!  But what can we do? I'd like to move the Europe, Canada or the United States, but I worry that our long last name is too hard to pronounce and will make it impossible to find meaningful employment, let alone fill out a job application!

Mr. Antetokounmpo:  Tell you what. I'll go to the library tomorrow and Google 'countries where citizens have very long last names.'  We can talk about it again tomorrow night.  Now let's listen to some King Sunny Ade while we eat dinner.

THE FOLLOWING EVENING

Mrs. Antetokounmpo: How'd it go at the library?

Mr. Antetokounmpo: Eureka! We're moving to Greece!

Mrs. Antetokounmpo: Greece? But we don't smoke, smell like garlic, dance in a circle OR bathe in olive oil!

Mr. Antetokounmpo: True, but the first name that came up on Google was Mr. Papaconstantinopoulou. Pack your bags!

Greece blows it against Spain

After being competitive the entire game against the defending world champs -  and then taking the lead in the 3rd quarter - Ellas lost their concentration and blew it against Spain this afternoon in the first leg of the knockout round of the 2010 World Championships in Constantinople.

Greece took a four-point lead late in the third behind the shooting and defense of Dimitris Diamantidis. But midway through the final quarter Greece turned it over 3 straight possessions to literally hand the game to Spain.  The turnovers were the result of incredibly sloppy passes, more unforced errors than turnovers.  

Down the stretch Greece looked uber-European in a basketball sense: no concentration, which manifested itself in a 7 for 16 night at the free throw line; and terrible decisions and bad passes, a simple lack of basketball sense that is the biggest difference between American and European players - we are just smarter and concentrate more than they do.

Greece bows out way too early, in the round of 32, instead of competing for a medal.  Both Greece and Spain underachieved in the group stage; that's why they met so soon. Greece ended up third in their group behind Turkey and Russia - a team they should have beaten.  Doing so would have meant a second place finish and more importantly avoiding Spain.

So instead of defending their silver medal from 4 years ago Greece goes home way too early.  It looks like Ellas really missed the back court play of Theo Papaloukas, a smart point guard who rarely made mistakes in leading Greece to the 2005 European championship and the silver medal in the 2006 world championships, including the semi-final win over the U.S.

The good news out of the world championships is the play of the U.S.  Spain may give US a  game, but the US has played very well and should win the gold in a walk.

Wide World of Sports

Lots of post-Strasburg sports news to focus on, including a smorgasbord of baseball, world basketball championships and more bad news, this time from Carolina.

Nationals Notes

Another weird week for the Nats.  The up side for me was the pitching of Jordan Zimmermann.  In his second start after "Steven Strasburg" surgery (formerly known as Tommy John surgery) Zimmermann was dominant is striking out 9 Marlins in six innings of one-hit, shutout ball.  It's only one start, but some good ju-ju for Nats fans contemplating Strasburg's return from the same surgery.

With Zimmermann's return, the signing of Bryce Harper, the September call up of Danny Espinosa, the minor league progress of Cuban pitcher Yunesky Maya and catcher Wilson Ramos, the second half progress of Ian Desmond, Roger Bernadina, Michael Morse, and Drew Storen, plus Gold Glove/Silver Slugger/Face of the Franchise Ryan Zimmerman there is legitimate light at the end of the Dr. Yoakum's scalpel.  

In 2012 Nats, fans could have a young, exciting and legit line up of CF Carl Crawford (would love to sign that guy from Tampa Bay), SS Desmond, 3B Zimmerman, 1B Dunn/Someone Like Him, LF/!B Morse, RF Harper, CF Bernadina, 2B Espinosa, C Ramos, complimented by a starting rotation of Strasburg, Zimmermann, Maya, Ross Detwiler and John Lannan, with Storen closing with help from set up men Sean Burnett, Tyler Clippard, Garrett Mock, and Colin Balester.  

Of course, one name missing from that list of man of the hour, Nyjer Morgan. I'm all over the place with Nyjer.  

Frankly, he lost me on the inside the park home run he 'gave up' to the Orioles' Adam Jones by slamming his glove on the ground in disgust after missing a deep drive.  I say he gave it up because even though he failed to make the catch, the ball did NOT clear the fence.  But instead of finding the ball he slammed his glove down in a fit of pique. Morgan never found the ball, and by the time left fielder Josh Willingham came over to throw the ball back in Jones had an inside-the-park home run.  

Morgan's concentration and production seemed to go south shortly after than unprofessional play.  His on base percentage, base running, and fielding suffered but things really came unglued in the last few weeks.  First he was accused of throwing a ball at a fan in Philadelphia.  Of course, Phillies fans are pains in the Manasses, but a professional DOES not do that.  There have been a few eyewitnesses who exonerate Morgan, but MLB did suspend him 7 games.

That suspension was on appeal when Morgan collided with not one but two catchers. The first collision, against the Cardinals, was just odd.  He bumped the Cards' catcher Bryan Anderson even though there was no throw home. Of course, he connected with Anderson but missed home plate. Morgan was eventually ruled out after Ivan Rodriguez grabbed him and pushed him towards home so he could eventually step on the plate, which is against the rules. Morgan's play was at best odd, at worst stupid.

Instead of trying to bump the catcher, Morgan should have slid and scored.  But Morgan did not seem to learn that lesson; two nights later instead of trying to slide under a tag in the top of the 10th inning (of Zimmermann's gem) Morgan really slammed into Marlins' catcher Brett Hayes in an attempt to jar the ball lose.  It didn't happen.  Hayes made the tag but Morgan had separated the Marlins catcher's shoulder.  He's out for the season.

Morgan and Nats expected retaliation.  Nothing wrong with that as long as it's not at a player's head.  Morgan was plunked in the side, and it seemed like that was that.

But Morgan kept the flames going, at least to the Marlins, by stealing two bases and scoring on a sacrifice fly.  Though the Nats were down at the time 3-14, in Morgan's defense it was only the 4th inning and the Marlins were holding him on. The steals prompted the Marlins to do something you NEVER see - a player getting thrown at twice in one game.

The next time Morgan game up the Marlins threw behind him, and a massive fight ensued.

Like I said, I'm torn.  Morgan has been a below-average player this season, mainly due to mental errors and a lack of professionalism. In Miami, he is not solely to blame for the fight.  You don't throw at a guy twice in one game.  

But again, it goes back to the inside-the-park home run he game up.  A professional makes the smart play, and in this case it meant sliding in to home instead of trying to run over the Marlins' catcher.  Morgan does that - the Nats score and no one gets hurt - and a bean ball war does not start the next game. 

In each instance you can find a scapegoat - obnoxious Phillies fan, Ivan Rodriguez grabbed him, the Marlins threw at him twice in one game - but bottom line you need to be a professional and play with your head.  Perhaps a bad season - Morgan had been demoted to 8th in the Nationals line up - prompted him to take out his frustrations against two catchers.  But neither play made sense, and neither one was the smart baseball play.  

In firing obnoxious blow hard Rob Dibble from the booth and cutting malcontents like Elijah Dukes the Nats front office has demonstrated a willingness to fire employees who rhyme with pass moles.  We'll see how they deal with guys who are unprofessional and unfocused like Morgan has been the last few weeks.

Anyway, remember the good paragraph about the 2012 line up.

Time to Drop Football?

There is disheartening news out of Chapel Hill, too.  It's been hard to keep track of all the fires swirling around Carolina's football team.  Contact with agents, problems with tutors, and academic issues have plagued the Heels all summer.

My gut reaction is Carolina should stop trying to chase the fool's gold that is big time college football, which of course is incredibly impractical but does make sense.  For a great piece on the greed that dominates college football, and undermines a school's mission, check out today's John Feinstein column in The Post.  Ever since Mack Brown left football has suffered, but not from lack of trying. The Heels have never gotten over the hump despite spending millions on new facilities and expanding Kenan Stadium.  

And now 6 of the 11 starters from the famed Tar Heel defense are suspended, as are the Heels two best running backs.  College teams often rally in the face of this kind of adversity; it's almost a coaches dream scenario (at least for pre-game speeches).  But the Heels have so many top players suspended you wonder if there is enough depth to paper over the losses.  

Perhaps most frustrating is the contact with agents.  Why did these guys come back to Chapel Hill for another season - at least four Carolina defensive players were projected as high draft picks in the spring - only to allegedly start taking money and gifts from agents?  And now in addition to not playing they are tarnishing the reputation and embarrassing the university.  

But at least they did not try to steal a pass in the 4th inning.

World Basketball Championships

The U.S. has looked pretty good in the World Basketball Championships in Turkey.  Despite having Krzyzewski as 'our' coach Kevin Durant and Derek Rose have looked great in leading the US to a 5-0 record.  We play Angola in the knock out round tomorrow in what will likely turn out to be another 40-point rout.

Greece, on the other hand, has yet to get their groove back.  Ellas was blowing out teams prior to the bad-karma-inducing game and fight with Serbia a week ago in the Acropolis Tournament.

After winning their first three games - versus China, a good Puerto Rico team, and Ivory Coast - Greece lost to Turkey (no shame there; the Turks have 3 NBA players on their roster and are playing at home) and Russia by 3.  The greater shame is losing to two nations who WE civilized. 

Anyway, that two-game losing streak means Ellas has to play Spain, who also under whelmed in the first round of play, on Saturday in the knock out round.  Instead of playing - as expected - for a medal Greece and Spain are playing for their lives tomorrow. It should be a great game between two of the four best national teams (widely considered to be the U.S., Argentina, Spain and Greece), and I think it will be on NBA TV live at 2:00 pm eastern if you want to tune in.

 

Desperation and a faint silver lining

Any time Greece and Turkey play each other - Constantinople in 1453, 1821, Second Balkan War, Anatolian Disaster 1923 - it's a big event (after all, how many countries claim they won their independence from each other?). But yesterday's win by Ellas over Turkey in the quarter finals of the European Championship was big without any historic build up or perspective.

One, the win puts Greece in the Final Four, where they play reigning world champs Spain this afternoon. And two, finishing in the top six automatically qualifies Greece for the 2010 World Basketball Championship in Turkey. The U.S. has already qualified by virtue of being Olympic champs and should win next year in Constantinople but with Krzyzewski at the helm of Team USA you never know.

It seems like every Carolina football game is big, but today's game against ECU really is. The Heels got their act together in the fourth quarter to defeat a good UConnn team on the road last week.

The come from behind win obscured the fact that the offense was listless for 45 minutes. Against the Pirates it will be interesting to see if Carolina's offense plays well early, especially the patched together offensive line. Carolina's defense, on the other hand, looked great against the Huskies. But offensively the Heels have not done anything of note against a Division 1-A team this season.

Finally a few baseball notes.

One, Evan plays his first Major League Little League game today. He moved up a league to play with 10 to 13 year olds, so we'll see how he fares against older kids who can pitch.

And two, I thought this paragraph from today's story about the Nats, by Chico Harlan, captured the season well:

Deep into what will soon be a 100-loss season, Martin has come to represent -- perhaps better than anybody -- both its desperation and its faint silver lining. He is not a star. He probably never will be. He is part of what General Manager Mike Rizzo calls "the inventory," and if that conveys an industrial arms-as-widgets mind-set, it's only because so many arms have already been cast aside.

Desperation and perhaps a faint silver lining. That's what it's like as a Nats fan, and fandom in general.

Road games

For the second Saturday in a row, a Carolina Hellenic blue football team goes on the road for a big game.

Last Saturday, Greece played well but lost 0-2 to Switzerland, in Basel, in a make or break 2010 World Cup qualifying game. Greece extended their bad week on Wednesday when they only came away with a tie in Moldova. So hoping for a tie and a win, they only came away with 1 point and are now tied with Latvia for second place in their qualifying group.

The Hellenes need to win their final two home games and hope that the Swiss end with a tie and a loss in their last two games.

Carolina's game today at UConn is a similar 'make or break' style game. Since it's not an ACC game it's not technically make or break, but a road win over a quality Huskies team would be huge. It would give the Heels proof that the hype is real, that this is a quality and substantive team. And two, it would give the team loads of confidence. It's easy to forget that until last season's win at Rutgers, the Heels had not won a game outside the state of North Carolina in years.

GO HEELS!

CAROLINA AND HELLENIC HOOP NOTES

• I've always loved, and always will love, Michael Jordan. Despite the Nike branding, the failure to help Harvey Gantt, etc. etc. he's MICHAEL JORDAN. As a North Carolinian I thought it was pretty cool and eloquent to have N.C. State's David Thompson present him (how silly is that idea though?; it seemed awkward as a device to have one other Hall of Famer on the stage with you). But I was not crazy about his speech. It was all over the place, and was a little short in the grace department.
• The baseball hall of fame ceremony is much cooler. I think that owes to two things. One, the players on the stage, literally behind and welcoming the new inductees. But most of all, the fans in jerseys and caps in the audience. Just having it outside reenforces baseball's pastoralness, but also makes it a more welcoming ceremony. Leaving aside Jordan's speech, the entire ceremony was underwhelming and not impressive.
• Finally, the Greek basketball team is cruising through the first and second rounds of the European basketball championships in Poland. Greece is 4-0 after defeating a Dirk-less German squad yesterday.

Mega Sports Updates

It’s been a busy - and random - sports week since the last post on Carolina Hellenic Blue. In the last four days we've been to two Nats games, one United game, and watched some Greek soccer and basketball. Here’s a quick rundown, in no particular order:

Hellenic Hoops

As part of the preparation for the 2009 European Championships in September, the 'new' Greek basketball team is playing a series of exhibition games and tournaments. Thanks to our new dish, I was able to watch Greece lose to Serbia last week 82-83 in Athens.

It's considered a 'new' team since - for the first time in years - the Hellenic squad is without Theo Papaloukas and Dimitris Diamantidis, arguably the two best Greek hoopsters on the planet.

The new team is also notable for having two Greek-Americans on their roster: THE Ohio State University's Kosta Koufos, and Nick Calathes (whose last name roughly means 'person with basket' or ‘basket maker’ in Greek). Koufos left school early, and had a decent rookie season last year for the Utah Jazz, and is the only Greek or Greek-American in the NBA. Fans may remember that after years of having at least one and usually two Greeks in the league, there were no Hellenes in the NBA during the 2007-2008 season.

Koufos was one of only two active NBA players in the game versus the long-time European hoops power, with Nenad Krstic of Oklahoma City playing for Serbia.

Neither Greek-American had a great game, though each had their moments and Koufos started. Calathes looked a lot quicker than anyone else on the floor and had a number of nice takes to the basket. His scoring though was off set by 5 turnovers while running the point as Greece’s back up one. Spanoulis led Greece with 21 points, and Sofoklis Schortsianidis had a great game off the bench. Greece's 'Baby Shaq' looks like he has lost a lot of weight.

Though they lost, Greece looked pretty good especially when former Houston Rocket Vassilis Spanoulis was running the point. Greece’s starting five – Spanoulis (Panathinaikos), Nikos Zisis (CSKA Moscow), Efstratios Perperoglou (Panathinaikos), Antonis Fotsis (former Memphis Grizzilies, currently Dynamo Moscow), and Koufos – make them one of the favorites to medal or win the European Championship next month in Poland.

Nationals

As noted a few blog posts ago, my Nats fever was cured by two moribund losses this week (witnessed in person on Wednesday and Friday nights). Let's hope the offense – which finally scored some runs on Saturday and Sunday - and John Lannan get back on track.

I went to the Strasburg press conference on Friday, which was kind of dull and staged (actually, they were ON a stage near third base). But I was impressed that about 1,000 fans showed up. Like the Caps until a few years ago - the Nats only draw around 20,000 a night - the Nats have a small but dedicated fan base, one that seems energized by Strasburg's signing.

DC United makes the blog!

Evan and I went to see David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy take on our hometown DC United on Saturday night. Unlike the last time he visited, a packed house of 40,000 to RFK to witness his MLB debut two Augusts ago, last night's game drew around 20,000 fans. Not only that, Beckham was consistently booed and mocked by the hard-core DC United fans (Screaming Eagles and Barra Brava, etc.; we had seats directly behind them.). Beckham made a few nice passes but overall was no big whoop, and the game itself did not have much flow or rhythm. DC United kept Landon Donovan, who played despite having the H1N1 virus, in check and he only had one or two nice runs but that's it. In general, the excitement generated by that game matched the final score, 0-0.

But United will take the tie; they’ve been struggling of late.

One more football update, then I’m off to bed.

Panathinaikos lost at home to Athletico Madrid, 2-3, on Tuesday in the play offs of the European Champions League. The Greens dominated the first half but still trailed 0-1 after 45 minutes. In the second half, Athletico Madrid scored two nice goals where they simply schooled – embarrassed - the Panathinaikos defense and keeper.

Sebastian Leto scored a nifty goal to get Pana back in the game, but Athletico tightened up their defense and that was that.

Game two is Tuesday in Madrid. Panathinaikos has to score at least 3 times and keep Athletico to one goal or less to advance, so the Champions League season in probably over for the Greens.

In contrast to Panathinaikos, who drew a match against a team from arguably the best league on the globe, Spain, Olympiacos easily defeated a team from Moldova in game one of their series. Game two, in Pireas, is Wednesday.

Punk Rock Americana

A brief respite from Carolina basketball to blog a bit about two great American - and punk rock - institutions: Habitat for Humanity and Alcoholics Anonymous.

As many probably heard, Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, died this week. Since it was founded in 1976, an auspicious year for America and punk rock, H4H has housed more than 1 and half million people in 3,000 locations (including Tallahassee, Florida where I worked on two houses in the late 80s) around the world.  Families living in Habitat homes do not pay interest on their mortgages and the homes are built by volunteers with donated materials.

Fuller, like his most high-profile supporter Jimmy Carter, was an evangelical Christian.  Unlike most of that ilk, he was not a hypocrite and put his beliefs into action . . .  rather than spend his time say, bashing gay people.  

But what he really was was a punk.   What could be more punk rock, more do it yourself, than building someone a house who doesn't have one?  He didn't wait for corporations or government to solve the problem of low income housing (though to be fair the U.S. government has probably built more low-income housing than any entity on earth), he did it himself.  He didn't sit around lamenting the problem; he identified it and tried to solve it.

DItto Alcoholics Anonymous.   A complete DIY operation - identify problem, identify solution - run by volunteers reaching out and helping their peers.  And it works!

In addition to being punk rock operations, H4H and AA are excellent examples of American participatory democracy. Citizens organizing themselves to make their society and country better on their own.  One of the things that makes American better than Europe (take your pick actually: baseball, Bill of Rights, better pizza, rock and jazz vs. opera and classical, etc.) is that we don't expect the state to fix everything. Here, democracy means more than voting. It means civic institutions and being involved in your community, and that's what these two organizations do (punk rock style).

Random Thoughts

• Good article on Bobby Frasor in today's N&O. With Graves out for the rest of the season I hope we'll soon see the 2006 Frasor reemerge for the Heels.  Also worth checking out the N&O's midseason report on ACC basketball.
• You heard it here first: watch Maine moderate Senator Susan Collins.  She knows the Dems don't get to 60 filibuster-proof votes without her and fellow Maine Republican - and Greek-American - Olympia Snowe.  Collins just got reelected and is already asserting herself as a key power broker. Witness her deal making on the economic stimulus bill last night.  Expect more of that to come.
• I was in Whole Foods last night; I'm always struck by how bad the music is in there.  It's usually a mix of boomer-dreck: Fleetwood Mac, Bob Seger, "Do You Like Pina Coladas . . ." . etc.  Shouldn't we hear more Pete Seeger than Bob Seeger at a store like that?  Anyway, last night they played "Lie to Me" by Chris Isaak.  I came home and have been listening to his second (self titled - 1987!) and third (Heart Shaped World) records ever since.  Both still sound great and unique twenty years later.  
• Some Hellenic hoops news.  Greece replaced coach Panagiotis Yannakis with Lithuanian and former Olympiacos coach Jonas Kazlauskas.   Coincidentally, Yannakis is the current coach of Olympiacos. Kazlauskas recently coach his national squad at the Olympics.  Yannakis is the Dean Smith of Greek hoops. He won a European championship as a player with Greece in 1987, defeating the USSR in the title game, and coached Greece to the 2005 European championship and a silver medal in the 2006 World championships (defeating the U.S. in the semi-finals). Kazlauskas takes over as Greece prepares for the 2009 European championships in Poland.
• One final final Hellenic hoops news.  If you have NBA TV you can watch Olympiacos play today - Feb. 7th, live - in the Eurobasket tournament.  American Josh Childress is hurt but you can still watch Theo Papaloukas hoop it up Hellenic style.
• In case anyone is wondering, 1976 was the U.S. Bicentennial and the year The Ramones released their first album.