Feeling the stress, Giannis once almost quit the NBA. Now he wants to help as many people as possible with foundation
“Tell the story of the mountains you climbed. Your words could become a page in someone else's survival guide.” - Morgan Harper Nichols.
Giannis Antetokounmpo almost always avoids eye contact now, whenever he walks anywhere.
Sure, when he was young, it may have been from shyness, or the distrust the young have for the ugliness of the world. But now, at 28 years old, a global icon, league ambassador and franchise darling, the Milwaukee Bucks veteran must hold a steely gaze into a distant horizon that only he can see.
In order to be the best basketball player in the world, he better keep his focus – and he knows it. The work comes first. The demands. The obligations. The toll. The game will take no less than everything. It must remain in his frontal vision.
There are exceptions, of course. His partner, Mariah, and their two apple-cheeked boys. They buzz about like bumblebees to Dad – asking for attention, then out to explore the locker room, the hallway, the trainer’s equipment cart, so that they can return to tug at his legs and say, ‘Look what I found, Daddy.’ They are his reason, his purpose, the three of them; there’s no close second.
But being Giannis means something he never envisioned when he became the best player in the NBA.
Being Giannis is a spectacle. It’s noisy. It’s an approach, a wave, a hello, a camera in his face. It’s someone on the side, asking for a moment of his time that he doesn’t have to spare. He's always courteous and polite, and still, wildly approachable. But he’s on another dimension, squinting from this bright life.
This status makes him look ethereal at times, but thankfully for him, Giannis hasn’t lived in the glare for too long yet. He still knows that this is not normal.
He breaks his stride and lowers his gaze to answer a question with this:
“Mental health – it's big for me,” Giannis says.
When Giannis and his family created the Charles Antetokounmpo Family Foundation – CAFF – they threw a wide net over a great deal of the population, trying to catch so many people with so many needs in so many demographics. In the simplest of terms, CAFF is the family’s promise to help others with a hand up. It’s not a public relations stunt. It’s not a ploy for popularity. CAFF will help widows and refugees, young men and women, disaster victims and the oppressed, from Milwaukee to Greece to Nigeria.
But one of the biggest causes right now is a partnership with Antidote Health, which is in the middle of providing free mental health services to Milwaukee residents through the end of April.
Mental health hits home for Giannis Antetokounmpo
Sorry to intrude Giannis, but why mental health?
“OK, I am not trying to be vague here,” he begins.
His neck, shoulders, arms and even his triceps bear tiny nicks and marks. The scars are the reminders of clothesline tackles and hook-arm defenses. In 10 years we’ve watched him build himself into a superhuman, but even the body armor could not protect his observations, experiences, thoughts, feelings and emotions.
“Everybody – no matter where I am – everybody is watching me,” he said, allowing his Greek accent to come through a little more than usual. He’s comfortable, taking a seat in a chair and just talking, away from press conference tables and cameras, his family nearby. “I don’t think I have the time to turn it off. Be myself. Kind of just … be me.
“I was in Orlando. I was walking through the hotel and there was three little kids. We were in this hotel that was five minutes away from Disney World. This lady was probably with her grandkids. She’s was like 55, 60 – she was my mom’s age. And the kids were younger, like 5, 6, 7. And she said, 'Hey guys, you know who that is?' No, they had no idea; they was excited to go to Disney World. She turned and was like:
“ ’That’s the best player in the world.’
“Yeah, it’s good to hear that, but that’s a lot of pressure. Going through that … in order for you to be the best, you have to play like the best. You have to practice like the best. You got to carry yourself like the best. Which is not easy.
“As much as people say I’m handling it well, because that’s my personality…”
He pauses.
“It’s hard.
“It’s … not easy.
“In 2020, I was … ready to walk away from the game.”
Giannis continues talking, but it is now impossible to comprehend anything he’s saying.
“I had that conversation – yes – with the front office. I said…”
Wait, what? Walk away? From the game? Is there anyone who loves basketball more than him?
What happened in 2020: the COVID-19 pandemic, the resumption of play in the Orlando "bubble," the public mandates, the empty arenas. The social justice protests. It was defined by mental health professionals as a global health crisis, too.
But Giannis signed the five-year, $228 million supermax contract extension in December 2020 to stay in unpretentious Milwaukee. He committed to it quickly, too, silencing all the coastal basketball fans (and media) and their speculations. He made at least one group – Bucks fans – happy, at least for a time. Outwardly, as usual, Giannis looked like he was in total control.
But at what cost was all of that to his mental well-being?
And what had he been carrying with him for years before? The unexpected death of his father. The exhausting, obsessive work to become MVP. The home country of Greece, needing him for the national team. The endorsement obligations, while fun and lucrative, are still more demands on his time. The only one who ever really hinted at this massive toll was his older brother Thanasis, who respectfully kept Giannis’ privacy while trying to get us to understand, in 2020, how insanely demanding it all was.
“I’m very stubborn human being,” Giannis continues, raising his eyebrows the way he does that sends creases across his forehead.
“If something doesn’t make me happy, I don’t do it. I don't want to do it. I’m just going to stay home, stay with my kids, stay with my family and try to be happy. I don’t care.
“And this was right when I signed the largest contract in NBA history.
“In 2020, I was ready to walk away from the game. I had that conversation – yes – with the front office.
“And, you know, very normally, everybody is looking at me like I was crazy. ‘You just signed the largest contract in NBA history and you want to walk away from the game and all that money…?’
“Mannnnn, you can take that money and shove it into your…”
His youngest son coughs; Giannis continues.
“...Sorry for my language.
“But. I don't care about that. I care about joy. I’m a joyful person. My father didn’t have nothing; he had us. He was the richest person on earth because he had his kids. He had the beautiful family; he had nothing. This – to me – doesn’t mean nothing.”
Talking with therapist helps Giannis deal with the stress and demands of being Giannis
This, is, of course, the extravagant byproduct of all his work: the fan worship, the attention, the obsession with him and the money. Giannis still seems content wearing the Nike hoodies and joggers he's issued from his sponsor.
“You see how I dress. It doesn’t mean nothing to me. I want to be joyful,” he said.
“And if, my mind, and if I, am not in a good place? How can I leave my family? You know, I can’t leave my family.
“So, you know, that’s when I realize – maybe – I need to talk to somebody.”
According to a report in Psychology Today: 21% of U.S. adults reported experiencing a mental illness. One in 10 youth report mental illness severely impacting their life. Yet, only one mental healthcare professional currently exists for every 350 people.
Giannis, for one, didn’t see himself needing help for the longest time. He is the proud son of Charles, who emigrated with wife Veronica to Greece to search for a better life. And it was still a hard time, so Giannis and his brothers, to be honest, didn’t have time to acknowledge a great range of emotions. Living in poverty and scrambling to put food on the table to a roof over their head put them in fight or flight mode indefinitely.
When Giannis made it to the NBA, he couldn’t even validate his own feelings in part because he didn’t know how.
“In 2017, 2018, DeMar DeRozan and Kevin Love came out public with what they were dealing with,” Giannis said.
DeRozan and Love spoke publicly about depression and anxiety, giving license to everyone to do the same. It was such a healthy and selfless thing for DeRozan and Love to do but Giannis was dubious.
“I was like:
“ ' I don’t understand what this is,' ” he said.
“I don’t.
“I just… I was young. ‘It’s just basketball; just play.’
“But then…you understand: being the MVP, trying to win a championship, trying to help your teammates be great, and then you understand all this…”
He pauses to embrace the buzzing bumblebees. It’s clear he adores them, he just needs a minute to speak clearheaded. "Go to mama; mama has candy. Babe, can you hold Liam for one second please? Give him YouTube kids."
When we respond to stress, it affects every aspect of our being: mind, body, behavior and emotions. Our mind is built so that our response works best for short-term challenges.
But longer-term stress can wear a person down. Feelings of discouragement, low enthusiasm, agitation, connection and irritability are just a few signs of too much stress and strain over too long of a period of time.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is usually the top recommendation for treating it. Giannis' good job and support network afforded him the chance to talk to a therapist instead of quitting basketball.
“I gave it a chance. I started talking with someone,” he said. “Somebody helped put me in a place, again, to appreciate all of the things that I have, that comes with being who I am. To be OK with myself. To – no matter what the outcome is of the game – understand that I can’t control that. I can only control my effort. How hard I work. How I make people feel around me. How I try to, hopefully, inspire people from what I do.
“Then I started watching a lot of documentaries of Michael Phelps, Naomi Osaka. I watched "Breaking Point." And then I see, a lot of people are dealing with this.
“I kept talking with this (counselor). He helped me a lot – not just being a better basketball player, being able to deal with it; but being a better partner, better father, better brother, better son. Better person. Being not locked into myself, being able to give people what I feel. Because at one point, I was trying to get away from everybody. And that’s not me; I’m very social. I like to interact with other people.
“And I started talking to him and he helped me. Then I had this event in Saint-Tropez with Kevin Love. And we talked about it.”
Giannis found the entire experience of counseling so enlightening that when the Antetokounmpo family talked about what they each envisioned for their foundation, he decided he would talk about mental health, too.
Giannis honors father with Charles Antetokounmpo Family Foundation
“We sat down as a family and said, ‘Mom, what do you want to do,’ ” Thanasis said. “And she said, 'help widows.' Alex said, ‘I want to help the next generation and help the kids, education.’ Same with Kostas.”
Giannis and Thanasis were likeminded. They want to build centers and support facilities that help people survive their crisis in the short term and then work on their future education, or jobs, to thrive in the long term.
“And mental health – that aspect very big,” Thanasis said.
If we don’t talk about mental health, we add to the stigma that surrounds it – and that can be harmful, says the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. How? Discrimination, lack of understanding by family, friends, co-workers or others, fewer opportunities for work, school or social activities or trouble finding housing; bullying, physical violence or harassment; and health insurance that doesn't adequately cover mental illness treatment.
“I feel like a lot of people deal with it, but they’re not willing to talk about it,” Giannis said. “They’re not willing to improve, because this stigma is behind it. 'You talk about it, then you’re soft, you’re weak; this is a sport, you’ve got to be tough. You’ve got to fight through everything.’
“The moment I started talking about it, I improved as a basketball player. Because I am OK with the outcome.
“I am OK with myself.
“I can leave everything on the court and go back to my family.
“And I talked to Kevin Love and told him how he inspired me to open up and helped me to kind of better myself and he was literally tearing up when I was telling him that. He never imagined he would be the one to kind of help me figure out a way to cope with all this.
“And then I tried to help as many people as I can.”
Two and a half years later, Giannis won another MVP, but also an NBA championship here in small market Milwaukee. His accomplishments are like his style of play: amazing, historic, surreal. So it drowns out some of the other stuff he says sometimes.
"Help as many people as I can."
This is real talk. This is what it says on the CAFF website: “Each of us has a responsibility to help others achieve their dreams.”
The CAFF team is seven strong: Giannis; older brother Thanasis; younger brothers Alex and Kostas; their mom, Veronica; and Giannis’ significant other, Mariah Riddlesprigger. Her family is supportive as well.
The seventh member is the ingenious Emily Vennerstrom, who pulls it all together with Foundation X, a philanthropic support company that provides guidance, financial structure and quality links between charitable needs and information to the Antetokounmpos. When she met with the family, she pulled out the tape recorder and that’s where that quote about responsibility comes from.
It helped us understand the mission of CAFF:
"To help refugees and immigrants, with support to improve living conditions and open pathways for self-sufficiency; to help the youth, closing persistent opportunity gaps facing youth around the world; to enhance the world of sport, empowering players to expand possibilities for themselves and their communities; and to assist with living necessities, like food and shelter, meeting basic needs that make these achievements possible."
Antidote Health is the company assisting families and individuals with mental health who don't have access to private insurance but don't qualify for government programs to cover therapy and counseling.
“It's an innovative health insurance organization,” Vennerstrom said. “The family and Antidote wanted to focus on mental health. It just helps so much with the stigma aspect of it, to see someone like Giannis say, ‘It's OK not to be OK.’”
Milwaukee residents can go to the website to find the free mental health program from the Leave No One Behind campaign – https://www.antidotehealth.com/caff – and apply for a mental health evaluation from a qualified professional, and then three telehealth visits. The free mental health service was originally set to expire at the end of March; however, Antidote Health has extended it another month due to its success, chief marketing officer Robert Miller said.
“The partnership between Giannis and Antidote Health has been extremely beneficial especially as it relates to Giannis’s ability to bring awareness to our shared belief that everyone should have access to affordable health care,” Miller said.
National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that 859,000 adults in Wisconsin have a mental health condition; for 244,000 of those individuals, the condition is considered serious. Additionally, more than 71,000 Wisconsin adults did not receive mental health care in the past year due to cost.
Help as many people as I can.
“Obviously I think a lot of people are dealing with things throughout their life,” Giannis said. “I think I have a great team around me, that helps me; and obviously a lot of people in my family. I have people that want to help.
“I want to make sure that we are literally impacting people’s life. I don’t want to have this platform and just use it to raise money and not really impact people’s life. That’s not who I am and you have to make sure that people understand that.”
Message Lori Nickel on Twitter at @LoriNickel, Instagram at @bylorinickel or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ChinUpLoriNickel
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Giannis' foundation provides many different types of support
