A Greek website publicly apologized for a harsh article which unleashed an unwarranted furious attack on Thanasis Antetokounmpo. The whole issue started from a t-shirt that Giannis Antetokounmpo’s brother wore during the NBDL All Star Game. The back of Thanasis’ shirt wrote “Greek Freak Nation.” This message was misinterpreted by the website as its officials believed that Thanasis insulted the Greek nation. However, they did not know that “Greek Freak” is the nickname that the Americans have given to the Bucks’ rookie, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Thanasis wore this t-shirt in order to thank his brother, Giannis, for helping him in the NBDL dunk contest of the All Star Game. The website translated the phrase “Greek Freak Nation” as “Horrible Greek Nation” and then posted the article with which unleashed an uncalled for attack against the NBDL player.
The article commented: “Greek citizenship must be taken from him immediately! This is how Antetokounmpo thanks Greeks! See what he has written on his t- shirt that he wore during the NBDL All Star Game? Greek Freak Nation which means Greek horrible nation.”
A few hours later, after the article was confronted with strong reactions, the website posted another article admitting its mistake and apologizing to Thanasis Antetokounmpo. The following is the website’s apology:
“We acknowledge that our previous article regarding the basketball player Thanasis Antetokounmpo caused justified reactions, we are here to apologize not only to the player but also to all of you because the article was not double-checked as it should have been and because it was foolishly uploaded. The article has been erased from our site. We also want to say that 1) we did not upload it on purpose, 2) there is no political belief behind the article and 3) the whole issue was handled wrongly by the news sector of the website. We hope that you will show understanding as we believe that after we personally communicate with the player, everything is going to be fine. There is always the possibility of human error, however, we must admit them as we did.”
Thanasis, a few hours after the incident tweeted “I love my family until death.”
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