Giannis Antetokounmpo Received Death Threat

Giannis Antetokounmpo led Greece to the Bronze Medal at the EuroBasket tournament this week, an emotional victory for the two-time NBA MVP. They went on to lose to archrival Turkey in the semi-final, after which Giannis's wife shockingly received a death threat against the Antetokounmpo family from a Turkish fan.

She posted a screenshot of the private message she received on Instagram from someone named 'Hasan'. It stated:

"We will k*ll your entire family. You will be afraid everywhere you go."

Mariah's response was to make sure the perpetrator's identity and his threat went public. She added her own response as well:

"People in this world are so disappointing! All over a basketball! I hope that those making hateful comments and sending disgusting messages to my family are proud of yourselves!

"But since you want to reach out to me privately I will be sure to let the world know publically who you are! And to all Turkiye fans, congratulations on your medal, yall have an amazing team! However to your fans, there’s no place for this type of behavior in sports. Actually there’s no place for this type of behavior period!"

In a world full of bad behavior, it appears that sports is not exempt.

Giannis himself later posted his own response, telling people in his locker room, "Take the f**king Turkey flag out of here!"

I suppose Giannis will be happy to return to North America, where (hopefully) the only disturbing comments he'll be receiving are the bombardment of questions from the media about whether he plans to stay in Milwaukee long-term, or ask for a trade. It's a question that's partially dominated the NBA landscape all summer (and, really, for a couple of years now).

As recently as the beginning of August, Shams Charania reported that the Greek Freak had not yet made up his mind about whether to stay with the Bucks or ask out, but their recent re-signing of his brother Thanasis, who is not a rotation player, to a $2.3 million contract pretty much answers that question, at least for this season: He's staying.

Thanasis, by the way, older than Giannis by three years, averaged 0.9 points in 4.6 minutes per game last season across 34 games. The 30-year-old Giannis had his seventh straight season as a Top 4 MVP finisher, and averaged 30.4 points per game, 11.9 rebounds and 6.5 assists. He has three more years on his current contract with the Bucks, if he picks up his player option two seasons from now.