Onumba.com – As he waited backstage huddled up with his family and friends before emerging to receive his 2019 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo promised he would not cry on stage.

But that was easier said than done. Not even midway through his acceptance speech, that promise was broken quicker than you can say, “Forty Acres and a Mule.”

Overcome by a maelstrom of memories of his father Charles who died in 2017 at the age of 54 of heart attack, Antetokounmpo broke down and cried. Tears, a pretty good dose of it, flowed down his cheek as he reflected on a complex mix of emotions, obviously, fuelled by the good news of his MVP accomplishment and then receiving the paean with his father not being a part of it.

Antetokounmpo, 24, credits his quantum leap to superstardom to his late father who constantly encouraged and pushed him to always strive to be the best.

And now, it’s cinch he is.

In Santa Monica, CA., June 24, Antetokounmpo was named the NBA MVP, easily beating out Paul George of the Oklahoma City Thunders and James Harden of the Houston Rockets, punctuating his extraordinary catapult to the epitome of basketball in a league deluged with phenomenal players.

Selected 15th in the 2013 draft by the Bucks, Antetokounmpo has emerged as a formidable force in the NBA. He is the third youngest player in 40 seasons to win the MVP award. Only Derrick Coleman and LeBron James were younger recipients.

It was a resounding win, too. Antetokounmpo corralled 941 points and 78 first-place votes followed by Harden who came a distant second with 776 points and 23 first-place votes. The Rockets’ star was last season’s MVP.

The Greek-born Antetokounmpo, whose parents came from Nigeria, now joins the revered pantheon of active NBA superstars including LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers, Harden, Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers, Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors and Kawhi Leonard who is still an unrestricted free agent.

The ‘Greek Freak “as he is adoringly called, dedicated his award to his father.

“As my dad told me, always want more, but never be greedy,” said Antetokounmpo. “My goal is to win a championship and we’re going to do whatever we can to make it happen.”

Antetokounmpo continued: “Obviously my dad is not here with me…” he said. “Two years ago I had to go in my head that I’m going to be the best player in the league, that I’m going to do whatever it takes to help my team win and that I’m going to win the MVP and every day that I step on the floor I always think about my dad.”

Antetokounmpo said that his late father was always his inspiration to work hard to achieve his goals.

“That motivates me and pushes me to play hard and move forward even when my body’s sore, even when I don’t feel like playing I always go show up.”

All that showing up, all that motivation and all that hard work this past season, driven by the inspirational goading of his father’s memories, nicely converged into an impressive statistics and a flourishingly sprawling future in the NBA for Antetokounmpo.  He racked up an average of 27.7 points, 12.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.5 blocks, 1.3 steals and earned All-NBA first team while leading the Bucks to the Eastern Conference finals before succumbing to the eventual champion Toronto Raptors.

Much has been said and written about Antetokounmpo’s astonishingly seismic and sudden blossom to superstardom, but his former coach Jason Kidd would not characterize his rise as such, maintaining instead that he has been this good for quite some time only he was not accorded his props earlier in his career.

So why wasn’t Antetokounmpo getting his due recognition earlier, a reporter asked, to which Kidd replied: his last name.

Apparently, because of his unusually long last name which perhaps to Americans looks more like an alphabet soup than a last name, Antetokounmpo, Kidd’s argued, toiled in obscurity for several seasons, despite his obvious superior stats, impressive production and all round spectacular skills.

Perhaps, after reporters, sportscasters and basketball analysts decided it was best to mute Antetokounmpo and instead address him by his moniker “Greek Freak” and then alternating that with simply Giannis, the obscuring fog of his last name that once eclipsed his game and stunted his growth was cleared, allowing his on court brilliance and indisputable production to shine unobstructed.

Eh em, please don’t stoke up a dustup with me about whether Antetokounmpo is Greek or Nigerian. I’m not having it.