The two-time NBA MVP will carry the flag alongside racewalker Antigoni Ntrismpioti in Paris on 26 July.

The Greek men’s basketball team qualified for its first Olympic Games since 2008, after beating Croatia in front of a home crowd in Piraeus on Sunday.

The 29-year-old, who was drafted by Milwaukee Bucks in 2013 and led them to the 2021 NBA title, was in tears after the game.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” he said after qualification. “Since I was a kid I always wanted to play in the Olympic Games.”

His journey to become Greece’s Olympic flagbearer hasn’t been an easy one.

Antetokounmpo’s parents emigrated to Greece from Nigeria. For the first 18 years of his life, Antetokounmpo could not travel outside Greece and was effectively stateless, having no papers either from Greece or Nigeria. He was eventually issued Greek citizenship in May 2013, less than two months before the NBA draft.

Antetokounmpo spoke about his childhood in a recent interview with ESPN.

“I used to sell things since I can remember myself, since I was six or seven years old.

“I was always out of home trying as much as I could to help my mom and dad by selling watches, glasses, CDs, DVDs, and everything I could find. I was doing that until I turned 17 because I had to. I had no other choice. When I was selling all those things, I was the best seller.”

Getty Images: Antetokounmpo was drafted by Milwaukee Bucks in 2013

But even after becoming a star in the US, Antetokounmpo encountered racism at home.

In a TNT documentary in 2020, he said: “Greece is a country of white people, life can be difficult for someone with the colour of my skin. Or of another nationality. You go to a lot of neighbourhoods, and you face a lot of racism.”

There was a backlash to his comments from some in Greece, including Konstantinos Kalemis, then-coordinator for refugee education in the Malakasa camp north of Athens, who used a range of racial slurs against Antetokounmpo and was fired as a result.

He has also faced discrimination from government officials.

In 2018, Adonis Georgiadis, the current health minister, repeatedly mispronounced his name and falsely claimed he had been born in Africa instead of Greece.

Antetokounmpo will be one of the first athletes to open the Games, as Greece – the birthplace of the Olympics – traditionally leads the parade.

Spyros Kapralos, president of the Greek Olympic Committee, said there was “unanimity” in the decision for Antetokounmpo to carry the flag in Paris. He added that both flagbearers will “lift our country high”.

Antetokounmpo hasn’t publicly commented yet, but simply posted a video to X showing highlights from the qualifying campaign with the word “Greece”.

Same-sex couples will now also be legally allowed to adopt children after Thursday’s 176-76 vote in parliament.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the new law would “boldly abolish a serious inequality”.

But it has divided the country, with fierce resistance led by the powerful Orthodox Church. Its supporters held a protest rally in Athens.

Many displayed banners, held crosses, read prayers and sang passages from the Bible in the capital’s Syntagma Square.

The head of the Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos, said the measure would “corrupt the homeland’s social cohesion”.

The bill needed a simple majority to pass through the 300-member parliament.

Mr Mitsotakis had championed the bill but required the support of opposition parties to get it over the line, with dozens of MPs from his centre-right governing party opposed.

“People who have been invisible will finally be made visible around us, and with them, many children will finally find their rightful place,” the prime minister told parliament during a debate ahead of the vote.

“The reform makes the lives of several of our fellow citizens better, without taking away anything from the lives of the many.”

The vote has been welcomed by LGBTQ organisations in Greece.

“This is a historic moment,” Stella Belia, the head of same-sex parents’ group Rainbow Families, told Reuters news agency. “This is a day of joy.”

Fifteen of the European Union’s 27 members have already legalised same-sex marriage. It is permitted in 35 countries worldwide.

Greece has until now lagged behind some of its European neighbours, largely because of opposition from the Church.

It is the first country in south-eastern Europe to have marriage equality.

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Fines of €100 (£85) will be imposed at monthly intervals from mid-January on those who refuse, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.

The money will go towards the Greek health system, which is struggling with a surge in hospital admissions.

About 63% of Greece’s 11-million population is fully vaccinated, but data show more than 520,000 people over 60 are yet to get the jab.

“Greeks over the age of 60… must book their appointment for a first jab by January 16,” the premier said in a statement to the cabinet.

“Their vaccination is henceforth compulsory.”

The measure is still to be put to a parliamentary vote, he said, but lawmakers are widely expected to approve it.

While countries have made vaccines mandatory for health workers and other high-risk workers, Greece will become the first in the EU to target a specific age group.

Austria has announced that compulsory Covid vaccinations will start in February.

Syriza, Greece’s main opposition party, called the new measures punitive and financially excessive.

Mr Mitsotakis said the decision had “tortured” him but he felt a “heavy responsibility in standing next to those most vulnerable, even if it might fleetingly displease them”.

The virus has claimed more than 18,000 lives in Greece.