Janet Manden

Giannis Antetokounmpo was born in Athens, and the Greek state registered him as a citizen of nowhere. Not Greek. Not Nigerian. Stateless, on the municipal register, from birth. He stayed that way for eighteen years. Tonight he makes his debut for the Miami Heat. Greek citizenship passes by blood, not by birthplace. His parents came from Lagos in 1991 and had no papers. So their son, born in the Sepolia neighborhood of Athens, belonged to no country on earth. Angelos Syrigos is the Interior Ministry official who handled the file. Here is how he describes it. They "had been registered as stateless in the municipal register." His school leaving diploma recorded his nationality as Foreigner. He could not leave the country, which meant NBA scouts could not watch him play anywhere but Greece. Here is how he describes that. "We didn't have the opportunity to be who we were destined to be, because we didn't have the piece of paper." "They couldn't deport me. But they could deport my parents." "So we were afraid as kids that one day we could wake up without our parents." Sean Gregory at TIME is the one who got him to say that. Now here is the part almost nobody tells. In 2013 the NBA started calling, and so did somebody else. The Nigerian embassy in Athens offered to issue him a Nigerian passport, so he could get an American visa and go to the draft. Greece moved in seven weeks. Here is what the Greek Interior Ministry said about it afterward. The state's "only intervention was to accelerate the procedures." He became a Greek citizen on May 9th. Milwaukee drafted him on June 27th. Forty nine days. A country that had him on file as belonging to nobody made him one of its own in seven weeks, once another country wanted him first. Then America said no. Twice. His brother Kostas has described it. "We were denied twice and if you are denied the third time, you have to wait like 10 years." So he played half of his first season alone. His parents and younger brothers finally landed in Chicago in February 2014. "I don't have to worry about nothing anymore. Not what I'm going to eat, not what I'm going to wear, nothing." Here is the part that says the most. His mother Veronica arrived in Athens in 1991. She did not become a Greek citizen until September 2021. Thirty years. Two months after her son won the Finals. He is one of the wealthiest athletes alive now, and Greece has since given him every honor it has. Plenty of stateless children never get a basketball career to force the question. But they had him down as nobody's for eighteen years, and it took another country's offer to change it. Tonight he plays in Miami.

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