On September 18th, the NBA announced the winner of the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as the league's regular-season MVP for the 2019-2020 regular season. Milwaukee Bucks combo forward Giannis Antetokounmpo beat out Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James and 2017-2018 NBA MVP James Harden to become just the second player ever to win back-to-back MVPs before the age of 25. This came just weeks after Antetokounmpo won NBA Defensive Player of The Year which made him joined NBA legends like Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players to ever win the MVP and DPOY award in the same season. But the journey in climbing the mountain top was a humbling one for the “Greek Freak” as he experienced some episodes of trials and tribulations.
While playing for a team with the worst record in the league (12-47) during his rookie campaign in 2013-2014, a youthful, Antetokounmpo was still learning how to adjust to American culture after being a promising prospect in his hometown of Athens, Greece. Only at 19, he had to experience some growing pains to enjoy the success that was coming his way. One time he had to run a mile from a local Western Union to get to a Bucks home game.