The Los Angeles Lakers confirmed yesterday they have gained the rights to Kostas Antetokounmpo, younger brother of Milwaukee’s NBA Most Valuable Player Giannis.
Kostas Antetokounmpo, 21, was signed to a two-way contract by the Lakers. He appeared in two games for the Dallas Mavericks last season and played 40 games for the Texas Legends in the NBA’s developmental G League.
Selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 60th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, Antetokounmpo was acquired by the Mavericks in a draft-night trade.
Kostas is one of three Antetokounmpo brothers to play in the NBA. The eldest, 27-year-old Thanasis, has played in Greece, the G League and signed with the Bucks this off season.
That puts him on the team where Giannis has emerged as a superstar, leading Milwaukee to the best record in the NBA last season.
The Bucks fell to the eventual NBA champion Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference finals.
When Giannis collected his MVP award, he thanked his brothers and his parents — Nigerian immigrants to Greece — in his speech.
Giannis, Thanasis and Kostas have all been named in Greece’s squad for the basketball World Cup that tips off in China on August 31.
There’s one more Antetokounmpo brother in the NBA pipeline, with teenager Alex hoping to make it there one day.
Meanwhile, Tim Duncan will return to the San Antonio Spurs as an assistant coach in 2019-20.
The team made the announcement Monday, also noting that Will Hardy joined head coach Gregg Popovich’s coaching staff. Duncan, 43, played 19 seasons with the Spurs and won five NBA championships playing for Popovich from 1997-2016. “It is only fitting, that after I served loyally for 19 years as Tim Duncan’s assistant, that he returns the favour,” Popovich joked.
A 15-time All-Star and two-time Most Valuable Player, Duncan is the Spurs’ all-time leader in games (1,392), points (26,496), rebounds (15,091) and blocked shots (3,020).
In other news, the Washington Wizards are expected to offer All-Star guard Bradley Beal a three-year, $111mn extension this week, although there are no indications he will accept immediately, ESPN reported.
Beal, 26, still has two years and $55.8mn remaining on his current contract. He will be able to receive an extension offer on Friday and then would have until Oct. 21 to sign it. Beal’s agent Mark Bartelstein told ESPN that careful consideration would be given to any extension offer. Beal scored a career-best 25.6 points per game with 5.5 assists last season. In seven seasons with the Wizards, the former No. 3 overall selection in the 2012 draft has averaged 19.8 points and 3.7 assists. He was an All-Star in each of the past two seasons.
Also, Wizards owner Ted Leonsis made official the leadership structure of Monumental Basketball, the newly formed umbrella organisation for the Wizards, Washington Mystics of the WNBA, Capital City Go-Go and Wizards District Gaming.
The group made it official that Tommy Sheppard will serve as general manager of the Wizards, while announcing that Sashi Brown will be the chief planning and operations officer for Monumental Basketball, and Daniel Medina will have the title of chief of athlete care and performance.
Sheppard will lead strategy, analytics, player personnel, scouting and coaching for the Wizards, the Go-Go of the G-League and District Gaming. Additionally, the organization hired former Georgetown and Princeton coach John Thompson III to head the newly formed athlete development and engagement department.
Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris became the latest player to withdraw from the Team USA roster for the upcoming World Cup in China.
Harris, the sixth player to pull out, said he wanted to focus on preparing for the 2019-20 season, according to published reports. Harris signed a five-year, $180mn deal with the 76ers earlier this month.
Washington shooting guard Bradley Beal withdrew earlier Monday, citing the upcoming birth of a son. Previously exiting were Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers, James Harden and Eric Gordon of the Houston Rockets and CJ McCollum of the Portland Trail Blazers.