An emotional Giannis Antetokounmpo was seen crying tears of joy after helping to lead his nation to the Olympic Games on Sunday.
The Milwaukee Bucks star and former NBA Most Valuable Player took a moment to himself on the bench and let his emotions overwhelm him after Greece knocked off Croatia 80-69 in one of the four men’s basketball qualifying tournament finals.
As a result, Antetokounmpo is bound for the Olympics for the first time, after he dropped 23 points in the game that helped determine the final spots in the 12-team field for the Paris Games.
Greece will now be in Group A in the Summer Olympics – facing Australia, Canada, and either Spain or The Bahamas.
Georgios Papagiannis scored 19 for Greece, which got 14 from Nick Calathes and earned an Olympic berth for the first time since 2008.
Giannis in tears after sending his country to the Olympics 🥹
(via @FIBA)
pic.twitter.com/2XredJUtqw
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports)
Ivica Zubac had 19 points and 13 rebounds for Croatia, which got 15 points apiece from Mateo Dreznjak and Mario Hezonja and 14 from Dario Saric.
Already having qualified for the Paris field: the fou
r-time defending gold medalist U.S., France, Germany, Japan, Serbia, South Sudan, Canada and Australia. France qualified as the host nation; the other seven teams on that list qualified based on their finishes at the World Cup last summer.
Following the World Cup, 24 teams were left to compete for the final four slots. They were decided in these winner-take-all qualifiers that started last week. Brazil grabbed the first of those spots Sunday, then Greece followed.
The last two spots in the 12-team Olympic field will be decided later Sunday: Bahamas visits Spain and Lithuania visits Puerto Rico, with the winners of those contests headed to Paris as well.
Joining Greece in the Olympics in Brazil – which used a 19-0 run over the final 3:21 of the first quarter to set the tone in what became a surprisingly easy 94-69 victory over Latvia.
Bruno Caboclo led Brazil with 21 points and Leo Meindl added 20. Caboclo made a 65-foot 3-pointer to end the first quarter – one in which Brazil was 8 for 8 from beyond the arc to take a 34-11 lead and stun the home crowd.
Rihards Lomazs scored 15 for Latvia, which got 14 apiece from Rolands Smits and Arturs Zagars.
Brazil will be placed in Group B for the Olympics, with games against France (July 27), Germany (July 30) and Japan (Aug. 2) in the opening stage.
