Italy bend the knee to King Giannis

It took a whole lot of walking and climbing in the hours before tonight’s main event for Emmet Ryan to truly appreciate the wonder of Giannis Antetokounmpo as the Greek Freak led his side to victory over hosts Italy

Here’s the thing about middle age. The feats of wondrous athleticism you see from the media tribune are hard to put into context when you’ve seen countless such acts over the years. Hard, yes, but sometimes middle age leads you to do something really dumb that makes Giannis Antetokounmpo watching a three of his roll in, out, then back in again feel like climbing Everest. Actually, after today, it looks more like climbing Olympus Mons.

Your scribe decided to take the middle session off to go to the San Siro to watch AC Milan play Inter in the Derby della Madonnina in football. What I hadn’t taken into account was how rushed it would be on both sides of the trip, including making it back barely in time for this game, or, more importantly, just how much of a climb I’d have up and down from the very back row of the highest stand in the stadium. The football was great, don’t get me wrong, but the journey to and from made me feel every battle for a rebound on the floor in front of me now that little bit more.

In case you were wondering, Italy were at home but Giannis was making sure this was his house. A quick 7 points and 3 rebounds in his first stint set the tone for how matters would be while he was on the floor. Georgios Papagiannis stepped in for him and it wasn’t a seamless transition. As soon as the switch happened, Italy got rolling. Simone Fontecchio, who had been cold to start the night led a charge to cut down the Greek lead and make things reasonably tight at the end of the first.

The Freak returned from his rest to grab an offensive board with his right hand then barely touched the ground before nailing the putback. The show was in town and it was making oceans of space for Greece. It was also noticeable that while Greece with Giannis were obviously a better side in every department, the story with Thanasis on the floor was a touch more complex. Offensively they lost a smidgen with him but defensively they had big holes without him on the floor and that stunted the amount to which the offensive might of Giannis could take a toll on the Italians. So Giannis turned provider, drawing in the Italian defenders as he drove until Nick Calathes was unguarded to take the pass and stroll in to score.

Of course…