Giannis Antetokounmpo is unlike any player the NBA has ever seen. At a chiseled 6-foot-11, 242 pounds with a 7-foot-3 wingspan, the Milwaukee Bucks superstar might as well have been built in a lab reserved for basketball-centric experiments. Shaquille O'Neal, too, has had a ridiculous combination of size, strength, quickness and leaping ability ā making him perhaps the most physically-imposing player in league history ā and earning him the nickname āSupermanā among many, many others.
On a special edition of āInside the NBAā Thursday evening, during which Giannis Antetokounmpo and Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James will select their teams for the upcoming All-Star Game, Kenny Smith asked Shaquille O'Neal to do his best pronouncing Giannis' surname.
āAnte-ke-noom-po,ā O'Neal replied, teeing up the Eastern Conference's leading All-Star vote-getter for a classic retort after the the Hall-of-Fame big man again tried and failed to correctly pronounce his last name.
āJust call me Superman,ā the Bucks star quipped.
Tonight's gonna be fun. #Superman š
.@Giannis_An34 & @KingJames select their #NBAAllStar teams coming up at 7pm ET on TNT! šŗ#NBAAllStarDraft pic.twitter.com/Fvg8kfFmll
ā NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 7, 2019
If Antetokounmpo keeps playing like he has this season ā or more likely, gets even better ā he'll have his pick of any nickname available. The 23-year-old is averaging 27.0 points, 12.4 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.5 steals per game while shooting a ridiculous 57.8 percent from the field. The scariest part for the rest of the league? Antetokounmpo has made just 60 shots outside the paint in 2018-19, and is shooting an ugly 21.3 percent from the 3-point line.
Once the jumper comes, Antetokounmpo might as well be able to fly faster than a speeding bullet. But as far as him co-opting O'Neal nickname? āGreek Freakā is pretty tough to beat.
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