Giannis Antetokounmpo Tries To Get Son To Heckle Kawhi Leonard At All-Star Game

At All-Star Weekend, Giannis Antetokounmpo wore several hats: Celebrity Game head coach, Team World cheerleader, still-disgruntled Milwaukee Bucks star. To Antetokounmpo’s credit, he made time to set all of that aside and simply be a father.

But then again, the competitive vibes of the athlete in Antetokounmpo just couldn’t stay away, even as he spent time with his children at the All-Star Game. 

The best example of this came when Kawhi Leonard got into one of his hot shooting streaks, drawing plenty of admiration from the live crowd inside Intuit Dome. One of the admirers expressing support for Leonard was Antetokounmpo’s six-year-old son Liam, who proudly flashed two thumbs up for the LA Clippers star.

Exercising some discretion in parenting, Antetokounmpo promptly took hold of Liam’s hands and manipulated them into a thumbs down gesture. It didn’t work, though, because Liam put his thumbs back up again.

Even before Leonard led Team USA Stripes to victory over Antetokounmpo’s Team World in the round-robin phase, the Greek Freak has fought against the clutches of The Claw many, many times in the past. 

Back when Leonard was playing for the Toronto Raptors in 2019, he squared off against Antetokounmpo’s Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals. Coming off a sensational ending to the Bucks-Sixers series in the second round, punctuated by his “Is this the dagger” shot in Game 7, Leonard led the Raptors to a six-game conquest of the Bucks to advance to the NBA Finals.

Now, things are looking rather different. Leonard has spent the past seven seasons with the Clippers, and he has not been able to book a return trip to the championship series. Meanwhile, after winning his first NBA title in 2021, Antetokounmpo has not even returned to a conference final.

At this point, anything can happen. Antetokounmpo has expressed his desire to leave Milwaukee if they won’t be able to rise from their mediocre status this season. Leonard has seen two All-Star running mates, Paul George and James Harden, walk out the door over the past two years. Is there a world, then, in which Antetokounmpo and Leonard link up somewhere to get their title aspirations back on track?

When that happens, Daddy Giannis will no longer have to force Liam’s thumbs down.