{"id":87105,"date":"2024-07-23T19:20:39","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T23:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=87105"},"modified":"2024-07-23T19:20:39","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T23:20:39","slug":"paris-olympics-lebron-james-wont-be-only-nba-flag-bearer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/23\/paris-olympics-lebron-james-wont-be-only-nba-flag-bearer\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics: LeBron James Won\u2019t Be Only NBA Flag-Bearer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The announcement Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James<\/a> would be Team USA\u2019s flag-bearer<\/a> in the Paris Olympics\u2019 opening ceremony of the resonated with sports fans across the globe, as the 39-year-old is the most influential leader in sports.<\/p>\n

LeBron James Won\u2019t Be Only NBA Flag-Bearer For Paris Olympics<\/h2>\n

A four-time NBA MVP and four-time NBA champion, James will now be looking to win his fourth Olympic medal. The symmetry is fitting for the first men\u2019s basketball player to be the United States\u2019 flag-bearer at the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

With that being said, James isn\u2019t the only NBA veteran who\u2019ll be his country\u2019s flag-bearer. Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> and Brooklyn Nets guard Dennis Schroder<\/a> have been named as the male flag-bearers for Greece and Germany, respectively.<\/p>\n

Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/h3>\n

Antetokounmpo has been the face of the Bucks\u2019 franchise for the nearly a decade.<\/p>\n

A two-time NBA MVP, the 2020 Defensive Player of the Year, and the 2021 NBA Finals MVP, the 29-year-old is a terror in the open court at 6-foot-11 and 242 pounds. His spin move is a deadly weapon, his graceful footwork and extraordinary length leading him right to the rim. He\u2019s also a highly effective playmaker, making great reads in a point-forward role.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, he\u2019s the best player on Greece\u2019s men\u2019s national basketball team in terms of sheer dominance. Teammate Nick Calathes is perhaps their most skilled player. After all, he\u2019s the all-time leader in assists and steals. Yet, amazingly, even he doesn\u2019t put pressure on defenses the way Antetokounmpo does.<\/p>\n

All of that said, Antetokounmpo being named as his country\u2019s flag-bearer<\/a> doesn\u2019t just come down to talent. Born in Athens to Nigerian parents, Antetokounmpo\u2019s wasn\u2019t granted Greek citizenship throughout his youth as they practice jus sanguinis<\/em>. As a result, his nationality was to be that of his parents. However, Antetokounmpo was granted Greek citizenship in 2013<\/a>, allowing him to travel to the United States and play in the NBA.<\/p>\n

In sum, Antetokounmpo lived in a country that disenfranchised him. Indeed, Greece has developed a reputation for being rather unfriendly towards African immigrants. As a result, he represents a darker side of Greece, literally and metaphorically. Being Greece\u2019s flag-bearer symbolizes the waves of migrants who should be empowered by a country that they feel is home.<\/p>\n

Dennis Schroder<\/h3>\n

The 30-year-old Schroder was born in Braunschweig, only moving to America after being drafted in 2013. A professional player since 2010, Schroder\u2019s had a roller coaster NBA career. Initially a backup point guard for the Atlanta Hawks, the former first round pick became their starter in his fourth season.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Schroder, that promotion was brief, as he was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2018. After two years as the Thunder\u2019s sixth man, Schroder was then traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. Since then, he\u2019s become something of a journeyman, playing 51 games or fewer for four other teams. Now, Schroder has essentially reclaimed his role as a lead guard, starting in 198 of 271 regular season games since 2020-21.<\/p>\n

Schroder was named as Germany\u2019s captain in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, a responsibility that he hasn\u2019t taken lightly. In fact, Schroder was named the 2023 FIBA World Cup MVP<\/a> after leading Germany to their first ever World Cup title. Now, he\u2019s his country\u2019s flag-bearer<\/a>, and will look to lead Germany to their first Olympic medal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The announcement Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James would be Team USA\u2019s flag-bearer in the Paris Olympics\u2019 opening ceremony of the resonated with sports fans across the globe, as the 39-year-old is the most influential leader in sports. LeBron James Won\u2019t Be Only NBA Flag-Bearer For Paris Olympics A four-time NBA MVP and four-time NBA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":87108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60,1608,6,26,15,62,3],"tags":[252,306,38,1052],"class_list":["post-87105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-olympics","category-basketball","category-nets","category-lakers","category-bucks","category-nba","category-news","tag-dennis-schroder","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-lebron-james","tag-olympics"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}