It has been confirmed for several weeks that Giannis Antetokounmpo would represent Team Greece in this summer’s EuroBasket tournament, but to this point, the Greek star has been unable to be present for the team’s exhibition games or activities as he reportedly awaits the Bucks‘ written sign-off on his participation.
However, there was some good news on that front yesterday, as the Eurohoops team reported that Greek national team head coach Vassilis Spanoulis had confirmed that Antetokounmpo’s work with the team will begin this weekend.
“He already had a training session with contact with some guys from our team. On Saturday, he will start training normally,” Spanoulis said.
Antetokounmpo had reportedly been required to obtain Milwaukee’s permission due to the size of his NBA contract exceeding FIBA’s insurance policy.
Because of that delay, he missed each of the team’s first four warm-up games, which caused some disappointment among rival coaches. Greece went 2-2 in those contests, beating Belgium and Montenegro while losing to Israel and Serbia.
The team will host Latvia, Italy, and France at the Acropolis Tournament in Athens, which runs from August 20-24 before the group stage of EuroBasket begins for Greece on August 28.