The rapid ascension of Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo has almost felt like destiny. Antetokounmpo was drafted with the 15th pick of the 2013 NBA Draft, and he had only ever played in the second division of Greece's professional basketball league. And yet, his length and skill set seemed to scream star potential.

However, as former Bucks head coach Jason Kidd noted in a Bleacher Report article by Jonathan Abrams, Giannis needed the same building blocks as any other young player:

“When we gave him the ball the first time, he wasn't ready,” Kidd said. “We talked about it, but the thing that makes him special is when we came back the second time, he was ready and you could see it in his growth and the aspect of the game where he was starting to connect the dots. His study, his work ethic was at a very high level, and it paid off. But those are kind of the things [you need] when you talk about someone wanting to be good or great. He wants to be great, and so he wanted to understand every aspect of the game.”

Clearly, Giannis has developed a handle. His end-to-end skills with the ball are as lethal as any player in the league, while he also averaged close to six assists this season.

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Then of course, there was the language barrier:

“Sometimes as a foreigner—and English is your second language—it sometimes can be nerve-wracking to speak or say something because a teammate could not understand you, so to put yourself out there was something that we tried to do right off the bat, but you could see that he was maybe nervous to say something and also felt like maybe it's not his place to say anything,” Kidd said. “He had to earn that. So that's what made the situation special, too—that he wanted to play, but we also wanted him to talk. Because if he talks and understands what he's seeing and shares with his teammates, it just makes the game that much easier for everybody.”

Giannis Antetokounmpo speaks English just fine, although he would still rather let his play do all the talking.