Giannis Antetokounmpo recently sat down with the host and co-founder of the ‘School of Hard Knocks,’ Jack Dumoulin, where he spoke about various aspects of how he got as rich as he is today.
While recalling the days when he was poor, Antetokounmpo shed light on how Adidas tried to outsmart him with a €5,000 contract offer when he was 14 years old. He claimed that he asked for a contract as well for his elder brother, Thanasis, and they agreed initially to give him a deal as well. But he later found out the truth.
“So at 14, Adidas approached me and asked, ‘Would you sign with us?’ I said, ‘What? Yeah, of course,’ and they said we’ll give you €5,000. At that time, I was making €300 per month on my team. I told them my brother was a better player than I at the time, “Do you guys mind if you sign my brother too?” They said, “Yeah, we’ll sign him for €5,000 too.”
“I went to the office, the Adidas headquarters, and my mom came with me. They gave me the paper, and that’s when I realized, “Where was my brother’s contract?’ They said, ‘No, no, you sign yours first, and then we’ll cover your brother.’ ‘That’s not what you guys told me.’ My mom was like, “This is €5,000… I said, ‘No, Mom, no, I can’t do it.”
“Then I’m with my agent the next day, and a lady from Nike calls me, and they offered me and my brother €5,000. That’s how Nike got me,” Antetokounmpo revealed.
The Greek superstar was not trying to malign ot attack Adidas for having competitive business tactics, but rather wanted to shed light on how a young athlete can be misled at an early stage in their career. He also emphasized the importance of staying true to one’s morals as a young athlete and sticking with the ones who have been with you from the start, your family.
“I knew what I was worth, but at the same time, I was lucky enough to be very selfless cuz I was doing things for other people. Like, if it was just for me, if I was being selfish, I would be like, ‘Yeah, I’ll sign that paper. Yeah, my brother will sign whenever it is.’ But I wasn’t that person.”
“One of the biggest pet peeves is when people are inconsiderate of other people’s feelings, space, time, and energy. God bless me, and I was lucky enough to be selfless to always put other people first for my own needs.”
“I will say when a player, when an athlete starts playing, he doesn’t know about financial literacy. He doesn’t know how to save his money, invest his money, none of that at that age. When you come at 18 in the NBA, this works. People provide you with your lawyer, your agent, and your financial advice.”
“You come in, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, these are your people. These are the people you’ve got to trust. These are the people that going to handle everything in your life.” What does that do? That doesn’t allow you to learn. And if you don’t learn, you will always leave them.”
“You will always say, “Oh, what is this? I don’t understand this…. Okay, you have to educate yourself slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly. The advice I will give young athletes or anybody who’s getting into a space that he doesn’t really understand. There are two things that you can do.”
“One, don’t ever let your lawyer, financial adviser, or agent know one another ever. Never. They should never be boys and cool, man. You know, because one, they keep one another accountable.”
“At the same time, please read books. Read that. Poor dad. The psychology of money. Read books to learn about financial literacy. Learn how to save your money, how to invest your money. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
“So, in everything that you pay for me, how I operate my life, I want to see value. That’s why I buy art, I buy watches, you know, I buy real estate. Everything that I pay for, that I put my money in, has to return value to me.”
“Because at the end of the day, when I look at a million dollars, if you put a million dollars in the market by the end of the year, hopefully, if the market goes well, but the history I’ve seen it always returns you 9 to 10%, it’s $100,000.”
“So when I give 1 million to Ferrari Purosangue, I’m not giving $1 million, I’m giving $1.1 million because I’m losing the interest and I’m making an opportunity cost from that money. This is the habit that I’ve created in my mind now, so this will never change,” Giannis said as he concluded his advice.
The superstar has always been hellbent on helping his brothers grow with him. That’s a part of the reason why teams like the Nets are not entering the sweepstakes to trade for him this offseason, because they reportedly don’t want to waste roster spots for his brothers.
But Antetokounmpo has stayed true to his own personality and has now devoted a significant portion of his time to educating the young athletes about how to handle their money. From earning 300 euros a month at one time, Antetokounmpo now has a net worth of over $70 million.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is entering the final guaranteed season of his contract with the Bucks, where he will earn a salary of $58.45 million and has a $62.8 million player option in 2027-28, if he chooses to opt in.
It can certainly be overwhelming for an athlete coming from a poor background to suddenly handle so much money. But just as Antetokounmpo said, it is a slow process for an athlete to begin educating themselves.
As they say, Rome was not built in a day; similarly, all the financial knowledge cannot be attained in one go. But that does not mean that going one step at a time will not help an athlete in the long run. Therefore, this story comes with a very noble message from the Bucks’ superstar.
