Watch: Donald Trump shouts out Giannis Antetokounmpo, but gets his nickname wrong calling him 'The Greek'
Former President of the United States Donald Trump had a shoutout to Giannis Antetokounmpo but ended up getting his nickname wrong. Trump was addressing a rally about his time spent in Wisconsin, where he also accepted the Republican nomination at Fiserv Forum last Thursday. The 45th POTUS spent a good amount of time at the arena and also mentioned the Bucks during his speech.
The clip of him pulling a major blunder with Antetokounmpo's nickname did not go unnoticed.
"The stadium was beautiful. Milwaukee was beautiful. Milwaukee was great. They did a great job. The stadium is new. They built it for the basketball team, which is excellent. You know 'The Greek,' right? 'The Greek.'"
He was referring to Antetokounmpo, who was born in Athens, Greece. A 2x NBA MVP and a former NBA champion, the Bucks star also earned praise with Trump solemnly calling him a "good player." Antetokounmpo is famously called 'The Greek Freak'.
In related news, the positive comments about Milwaukee are a sharp contrast to the former President calling the city 'horrible' in June. To add, his Thursday speech marks the first public address after he was shot in Pennsylvania. As for Giannis Antetokounmpo, the forward is in Paris hoping to lead Greece to a successful Olympics campaign.
Much before lauding Giannis Antetokounmpo, Donald Trump had taken shots at the NBA
Well before heaping praise on Giannis Antetokounmpo, Donald Trump had been vocal about his criticism of the NBA in 2020. He slammed the league on Fox Sports Radio by saying, "Basketball is not working."
“Basketball is not working, because of the way they treated our flag and our anthem. Look at the basketball ratings. They are down to a very low number. They have enough politics with guys like me. They don’t need more as they are going up for the shot. There was a nastiness about the NBA the way it was done, too. The NBA is trouble. Big trouble. Bigger trouble than they understand.”
His comments didn't go unnoticed as the likes of LeBron James and Doc Rivers responded to the theory. The former responded by saying basketball would not miss Trump's viewership of the sport, while Rivers, now the head coach of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks had replied by saying the comments were "disrespectful."
At the time of writing, there are no comments from Antetokounmpo yet on Trump's latest take on the Bucks, "The Greek" or the Fiserv Forum.