NBA Star Giannis Antetokounmpo Plans to Finish Playing Career in Greece: ‘I Don’t Want to Live in the United States’

Giannis Antetokounmpo wants to stop playing basketball where it all started.

The Milwaukee Bucks star, 30, revealed during an interview with ANT1’s The 2night Show on Tuesday, Oct. 14 that he’d like to cap his pro career by playing for a Greek basketball team.

“I’m 30 years old, I can play in the NBA until I’m 36-38. I’d like to end my career in a Greek team, why not?” the Nigerian-Greek player said, according to a translation by BasketNews.

“I don’t want to live in the United States,” he revealed. “As soon as I leave the NBA, I want to return to Greece.”

Antetokounmpo, who is the middle sibling of five brothers, was born and raised in Athens on Dec. 6, 1994. He moved to the United States after being selected as the Bucks’ 15th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft.

“I could end my career here,” the star athlete said when speaking on the Greek talk show. “Whether this team is called Filathlitikos, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, or Aris… I’m talking about all the teams now.”

Antetokounmpo, who’s affectionately known as the “Greek Freak” by fans, is slated to start his 13th season with the Bucks on Oct. 22 against the Washington Wizards after a summer when he was reportedly contemplating his options.

The former two-time MVP is under contract for the next two seasons before he has the chance to enter free agency in the summer of 2027.

Earlier in the week, it Greek outlet Tovima reported that Antetokounmpo’s wife Mariah Riddlesprigger moved to Athens with their four children: Aria Capri, five months, Eva, 19 months, and sons Maverick, 3, and Liam, 5.

“I feel like it’s even more of a blessing because we get to do this together, it’s a partnership and I have a very good partner,” Antetokounmpo said of his wife when speaking with CBS in an October 2023 interview.

The couple married in Greece in 2024.

“It was a celebration of our love. Now we’ve become one. And I’m happy that we did it,” Antetokounmpo shared at the time.