The Hellenic Basketball Federation announced their 12-man roster for their 2023 European World Cup Qualifier matchup against Serbia in Belgrade. One of those names listed that should be pleasing to Greek fans, and to a lesser extent Milwaukee Bucks fans, is Giannis Antetokounmpo. Back and knee soreness had limited Antetokounmpo to just two of Greece’s pre-competition friendly matchups, albeit he did show up big in those pair of games, averaging 27.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.5 steals per contest. However the squad will be without Panagiotis Kalaitzakis, Giannis Kouzeloglou , Giorgos Papagiannis and Ioannis Papapetrou; the statuses of the latter were already doubtful heading into the qualifiers.
As it currently stands, here is the Greek roster:
Dimitris Agravanis
Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks)
Kostas Antetokounmpo (LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne)
Thanasis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks)
Lefteris Bochoridis (Panathinaikos OPAP)
Nick Calathes (FC Barcelona)
Tyler Dorsey (Dallas Mavericks)
Panagiotis Kalaitzakis (Panathinaikos OPAP)
Leonidas Kaselakis (Peristeri)
Giannis Kouzeloglou (AEK)
Giannoulis Larentzakis (Olympiacos)
Michalis Lountzis (Olympiacos)
Giorgos Papagiannis (Panathinaikos OPAP)
Kostas Papanikolaou (Olympiacos)
Ioannis Papapetrou (Partizan NIS)
Kostas Sloukas (Olympiacos)
Greece comes into the qualifiers with a 3-1 record from the previous round. After their game in Belgrade against Serbia on Thursday, Belgium comes to Athens Sunday. Following the two aforementioned contests I the focus will turn to the 2022 EuroBasket, where all of the currently above fostered players will be in the mix to be on the final list for that competition.
