Milwaukee Bucks star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo will play for Greece in the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament from July 2-7, Greece national team coach Vassilis Spanoulis told reporters after the team's club game in Greece on Saturday.
Antetokounmpo injured his left soleus in a game against the Boston Celtics on April 9. The injury forced him to miss the Bucks' final three games of the regular season as well as their first-round series against the Indiana Pacers.
“The day of Game 4 in Indiana, I was able to jog at my own weight for the first time since April 9,” Antetokounmpo told reporters on May 3 after the Bucks' loss to the Pacers. “So I feel like I did everything I could to help my teammates. It's tough when they're on the court and I can't help them. But I just couldn't. I went through all the testing that I had to do, the protocols that I had to follow and the boxes that I had to check, and I didn't come close to checking any boxes.”
“But I was trying to push myself, push myself, to get to a point where maybe I wouldn't qualify but maybe I could go out and help. But in our opinion, it wasn't safe for me to go out because I couldn't run at full speed. I was only able to run at 30, 40 percent. I still can't run at full speed. It's probably going to be days, weeks, months. I don't know how long it'll take me to get back to where I need to be.”
Greece has not yet qualified for the basketball competition at the upcoming Olympics and will need to win a six-team pre-Olympic qualifying tournament in Greece in early July to secure one of the 12 spots available in Paris.
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