For years, Giannis Antetokounmpo has been the cause of severe headache for coaches in the NBA. Now, he is set to be exactly the same at EuroBasket 2025 despite plenty of speculation over whether he will actually play.
Greece tips off their campaign with a showdown against Italy on Aug. 29 in Limassol, Cyprus. However, Italian head coach Gianmarco Pozzecco is already ready with a hilarious plan to stop Antetokounmpo.
"A friend of mine is a sniper. We will put him on the top of the gym."
Italy head coach Gianmarco Pozzecco jokes on how they plan to stop Giannis Antetokounmpo 😅
(via @Eurohoopsnet)pic.twitter.com/rFD74fh69T
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) August 27, 2025
“A friend of mine is a sniper. We will put him in the top of the gym,” he began, when asked at a presser how he was planning to stop Giannis. A journalist immediately wanted to know what kind of “friends he had,” leading to laughter from the coach and across the room.
“Probably we will do this in the first quarter. So he will not play second quarter, third quarter, and fourth quarter. Friend of mine is like really good sniper. This is the only option that we already got with staff. There is no other option. To stop him is not possible,” Pozzecco explained.
Italy previously lost against Greece in the preparation game played on Aug. 24. Apart from Giannis’ absence, Greece won 76-74 despite both Kostas Sloukas and Dinos Mitoglou unavailable as well. Italy even had a 10-point lead in the third quarter, which was followed by a major turnaround led by Tyler Dorsey, who finished with 14 points on the night.
While the Milwaukee Bucks superstar sat out for the majority of the preparation games, he is set to suit up for the tournament opener. All signs point to an ominous showing for Italy with Giannis set to lead the charge when the tournament actually tips off. We'll see what Italy actually has in store for The Greek Freak as he leads his team into this tournament.
