Giannis and Sengun Mend Greece-Turkey Feud at EuroBasket

The 2 players jointly posted a photograph of themselves hugging from a erstwhile NBA crippled betwixt the Milwaukee Bucks and the Houston Rockets. Credit: Giannis Antetokounmpo/Facebook

A societal media contention erupted during the last days of the 2025 EuroBasket tournament, involving 2 NBA stars representing their location countries: Giannis Antetokounmpo of Greece and Alperen Şengün of Turkey.

The hostility began aft Turkey defeated Greece successful the semifinal. In a post-game interview, Şengün commented connected the antiaircraft strategy against Antetokounmpo, stating that portion Antetokounmpo is an “amazing player,” he’s “not a large passer.”

This remark led to a retaliatory remark from Greece’s coach, Vassilis Spanoulis, who said Şengün was “a very, precise tiny kid to speech astir Giannis.”

Antetokounmpo besides indirectly clapped back, referencing his NBA accomplishments and telling reporters to “go spot my clips connected YouTube” to justice his passing ability.

The rivalry betwixt the 2 players escalated erstwhile Şengün posted a societal media caption aft the triumph implicit Greece that was wide interpreted arsenic a provocative humanities reference. He wrote, “Wouldn’t the oversea upwind beryllium nice?” which galore Greeks took arsenic a notation to the 1922 burning of Smyrna (modern-day Izmir), an lawsuit seen arsenic a nationalist calamity successful Greece and a liberation successful Turkey.

The concern worsened erstwhile Antetokounmpo, during an Instagram unrecorded watercourse from the Greek locker country aft winning the bronze medal, told a idiosyncratic to “take the f-cking Turkish emblem retired of here.”

Apologies from the 2 NBA superstars

In the aftermath of the contention and the online hostility it generated, some players issued nationalist apologies connected societal media to de-escalate the situation. Antetokounmpo apologized for his “inappropriate comment” and expressed “love and respect for Turkey and radical each astir the world.”

Şengün besides apologized, calling his station a “communication mistake” and stating helium had “great respect for Greek people.”

To further show their tendency for reconciliation, the 2 players jointly posted a photograph of themselves hugging from a erstwhile NBA crippled betwixt the Milwaukee Bucks and the Houston Rockets.

The shared caption read: “We play for the emotion of our countries. We play for the emotion of the game. We play with respect. We ever retrieve sports are made to unite america not disagreement america 🇹🇷 x🇬🇷.”

This action, on with their idiosyncratic apologies, appeared to enactment an extremity to the feud, emphasizing that the players had moved past the tournament-fueled rivalry and were focused connected sportsmanship and unity.