Any hand-to-face contact can make a video immediately go viral. Take the 94th Academy Awards, for example, when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock across the face after the latter made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. A video of the incident on The Guardian’s YouTube page has gained over 136 million views since it was first posted on March 27, 2022.
Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo similarly went viral after a video emerged of him smacking Greece national team teammate Giannoulis Larentzakis on the back of his head while the two were in a large huddle.
Retired NBA player Jeff Teague, who played with Antetokounmpo on the Bucks during the 2020-21 season, recently proposed what he believes was the motivation behind the viral slap.
Teague considers Antetokounmpo’s slap to be more playful, less malicious
In an Aug. 18 appearance on the “Club 520 Podcast,” Teague talked at length with the podcast’s co-hosts about Antetokounmpo’s slap.
DJ Wells, one of the co-hosts, said it was unlike Antetokounmpo to lash out at a teammate the way he did.
“I really want to know the backstory. Bro, he had to do something for Giannis to [do that] because we ain’t never seen Giannis be on that,” Wells said. “Everybody tells you he’s a cool dude. He doesn’t crash out like that.”
Teague, who “laughed hard” at the video and confirmed Antetokounmpo was “super cool,” posited that the two-time MVP had a different reason for hitting Larentzakis.
“They’re probably playing some game or something, though, where they’re slapping the back of each other’s heads,” Teague said. “Because the way he just huddled back, it’s got to be a joke.”
The true intention behind Antetokounmpo’s slap likely will never be revealed. But it’s worth hoping that Teague’s assumption is correct and there are no chemistry issues within the Greece national team’s looker room with its EuroBasket action just over one week away.
