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It hasn't been that long since Giannis Antetokounmpo , the son of Nigerian migrants in Greece , sold trinkets in the street to help his family. Even less, only six years, since Basket Zaragoza went ahead of the world to sign a kid who was all arms and legs and who looked like one day he would be able to do everything on a basketball court. He failed to debut because before the NBA took him, and it was not until then that Greece granted him nationality, although he was born in Athens - how many things does this say. Today, Antetokounmpo is the reference of Greece in a sport that there is religion and the great star of the World Cup . The first player in history to play the tournament as a current NBA MVP .

Antetokounmpo is impossible. It has the height of a pivot (2.11) and the mobility of an eave . Cartoon arms (2.21 wingspan) and hands in which a basketball looks like a tennis ball (more than 30 centimeters between the thumb and little finger) . You only need two strides from the triple line to crush. And nine to cross the track from one bottom to the other dribbling the ball . If a laboratory devised the perfect body to play basketball, theirs would serve as a mold. But it also has substance. The patient work of the Milwaukee Bucks has taught him to exploit that advantage. He limps in the shot, but no one can prevent him from reaching the basket from any point on the track.

You have to go back many years to find a World Cup in which the big stars do not play with the US . Because in addition to Antetokounmpo, the other major attraction will be Nikola Jokic . The Serbian is a base hidden in the body of a pivot who would have serious difficulty jumping a sheet of paper on the ground, but with a head that works three steps ahead of the rest. A player cut under the pattern of Sabonis who leads a Serbia with a desire for gold. The selection of Sasha Djordjevic , silver in the 2014 World Cup and the Rio Games, remains the biggest threat to the US.

MARC AND RICKY BRILLAN

Jokic leads the team that is closest to ripping the favorite role of Americans. The mass desertion of its stars and the doubts it has left in preparation have lowered the profile of a team that had not been so few All-Star since 2010 ... Although that group had four young people who would later be NBA MVPs ( Curry, Durant, Westbrook and Rose) . In China, along with the leader, Kemba Walker , there will also be tempting promises like Donovan Mitchell or Jayson Tatum , but the lack of so many cards leaves room in the album for the stars of other selections.

For Marc Gasol , who will be the only representative of the NBA champion, and for Ricky Rubio , amazing in preparation. For Rudy Gobert , named Best NBA Defender in the last two seasons - the prize discussed, although it is undeniable that he belongs to the elite. The Frenchman presented himself to the planet basketball with that performance against Spain in the last World Cup and returns in this one as one of the arguments of France to aspire to the podium. Or for the Australian Patty Mills , who a few days ago knocked the United States with 30 points. The Americans had not lost with NBA players for 13 years - they had 78 victories in a row since the defeat against Greece in the 2006 World Cup semifinals - and confirmed several things: that the selection of Gregg Popovich has issues to solve, that Australia, Rio's 2016 revelation , it still has gas, and that Mills is a great scorer in international territory. One of the great attractions of the tournament.

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