Giannis Antetokounmpo almost left the game of basketball behind. Yes, you’re reading that correctly. The best player in the NBA nearly retired back in 2020. That almost happened.

Antetokounmpo, fresh off of signing a five-year, $228 million deal and winning back-to-back MVPs in 2018 and 2019, was ready to leave the NBA behind at 25 years old despite all that could potentially be ahead of him.

He won an NBA title the very next season. He got his first Finals MVP trophy in 2021. Today, he’s still widely considered one of the three best players in the NBA. And we were so close to almost none of this coming to fruition.

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Why? Because of Antetokounmpo’s mental health.

Antetokounmpo opened up about his experience to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Lori Nickel, revealing that he indeed almost walked away from the game in 2020.