By Joël Pütz | Sports journalist
NBA champion and two-time regular season MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo is a legend in Milwaukee and he is treated as such financially. A former teammate from the inside recently spoke about his relationship with money.
Who would have thought he would make it this far on the night of his draft in 2013? Eleven years later, Giannis Antetokounmpo can in any case be very proud of the progress made. A true long-term project at the start, it nevertheless quickly established itself as the future of the Bucks franchise, both on an individual and collective level.
Today, the Greek international is NBA champion, double MVP and more generally the best player in the history of his franchise, ahead of legends like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson. With this status also comes a certain financial ease, he who displays a fortune of 283 million dollars. And according to Jrue Holiday, his wallet management is rather unusual for a superstar.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, the stingiest player in the league?
Guest of Paul George's podcast, the former teammate of the Greek Freak spoke about the latter's relationship with money… and did not hesitate to describe the big man as stingy:
He's the stingiest man I know. He has all this money, but again, I think it's just because of his past. He didn't really have any money, and now he still lives as if he had no money. We can't change that.
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I've never seen him rest during a match. I've never seen him miss training. Remember when Giannis got hurt in the series against Atlanta? He was out for about a week but when we got to the Finals, the practice before was the first day he actually trained with us. He goes 240 kilometers per hour, he dunks and he gives it his all.
We said to ourselves: “If you don’t save money, we don’t need you today.” We need you tomorrow! » But that's just the type of mentality and hunger that Giannis has in every game.
When we know how complicated Giannis's childhood was, having practically grown up on the streets of Athens, we can understand why he is so modest in his spending. He wants to keep this money for life and not waste it.
One thing is certain, Holiday has no regrets about having spent time in the company of the superstar, with whom he still maintains a very good friendship:
Giannis is one of my favorite people. I think he and I complemented each other very well. And it was nice. My time in Milwaukee was fun – I got my first championship title.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is literally swimming in the millions and that should not change in the years to come. On the one hand because he will continue to receive solid gold checks, but also because he is particularly economical with his fortune, which Jrue Holiday links to his difficult childhood.
