TWO STORIES
I wanted to call this case “Two Stories”.
For a simple reason. I will be telling two life stories in the following sentences.
These two stories which are quite close to each other except their endings, will show us how the opportunities one may encounter can shape lives and how sometimes the worst possibilities can end a 25 year-old’s life, sadly.
Lets start with the first story.
A Nigerian immigrant family goes to Europe as fugitives for their children’s future. They spend their lives as fugitives running from police in Sepolia, a campus in Athens.
Only if the children Giannis and Thanasis could manage to sell sunglasses and souvenir trinkets during the day, then the family could get a partly full stomach.
The bigger brother Thanasis speaks of those days as “We were selling anything you can imagine, toys, glasses, trinkets, keychains, anything. If we had managed to make 10 dollars that day perchance, it was the best day for us. Because It was guarantee that we were not going to die.
Two Nigerian fugitives Thanasis and his brother Giannis spent their childhood with police fear and trying not to end the day hungry.
Yet as I have mentioned at the beginning of the article, this story is about how opportunities have the power to shape people’s lives.
Just like a movie script, A Greek man comes and changes these two brothers, even their family’s life in a way that you can only see in movies.
And that man is Spiros Vellinaitis.
The brothers were playing football on the days they made 10 dollars to spend the rest of the time.
In fact, their father had played football in Nigeria back then.
They were constantly dreaming about the Nigerian football players who managed to play in Europe.
And right at that moment Spiros Vellinaitis stepped in and discovered Giannis while he was playing with his brother.
He did discover Giannis, however there was one issue, Spiros Vellinaitis was a basketball coach.
Unlike Vellinaitis, Giannis had never even touched a basketball, laying up a shot is aside, he wasn’t even good at bouncing. In his world, he had only two thoughts, running from cops to make those 10 dollars, and football.
And Spiros Vellinaitis asked one single question to Giannis
Do you wanna play basketball?
And his reply was like the lyrics of that İbrahim Tatlıses* song, “Ağlatıyor beni acı gerçekler” (Bitter facts make me cry)
I must take care of my family financially. If I don’t work, they can’t make it. I’m sorry!
And coach Spiros Vellinaitis’ stubbornness and insistence may have changed the fate of modern basketball.
Coach who talked to Club Filathlitikos’ General Manager managed to help the family financially apart from getting them a job and so that guaranteeing Giannis’s dedication over the club, has brought Giannis into basketball from streets.
And the rest is history.
First, he made a difference in the team, then he got raised to the A team. He had a name that was mentioned by all. He also got a citizenship, even his family got one!
His name was from now on Giannis Antetokounmpo
Yes, you heard it right.
He is the one who signed the highest paid contract in the NBA history in the previous days and will be earning 228.2 million dollar a year, Giannis Antetokounmpo!
Our first story was the one with the happy ending.
But since we started out with Athens streets, we cannot stop without telling one with a Greek tragedy.
But this time, the tragedy was in the streets of Istanbul rather than Greece.
And this story is a similar one to Giannis’.
The only difference is that the ending is not happy at all. On the contrary, we have a huge tragedy, unresolvedness, and a death that the rest cannot get out of their head.
On the year 2005, A Nigerian from the other side of the waters has come to the land with the dream of being a football player.
He too was fighting for his dreams. He was selling watches, glasses on days and even at nights, and playing football with a team he gathered in order to show himself.
Even though he was Nigerian, he was wearing the Gambia uniform that we have seen years later.
Nobody could have discovered his talent.
And he was arrested because of allegedly carrying drugs on 20 August 2007 in Taksim.
And he got killed in the Beyoğlu Police Station.
That name was Festus Okey!
It was seen that the first interrogation report was prepared by the suspect Cengiz Yıldız, and the blooded shirt that was going to be used as a proof for the proximity of the shot was lost in the hospital.
Beyoğlu 4th aggravated felony court has interrogated if the corpse was Okey or not for four years.
Then it was understood that the paper sent to Nigeria was sent to the wrong office.
The second delivery process was refused due to it being Arabic instead of English.
In November 11th volunteer advocates found Okey’s family who were in Nigeria and South Africa.
The intervening lawyers of Tochukwu Gameliah Ogu who is the brother of Okey’s, have ligitated in order to be the party.
But court has declined the demand on the verdict dated 13th January 2011.
Yıldız was sentenced to four years two months of imprisonment for manslaughter.
Penal department no 1 of the supreme court has reinterrogated district courts’ verdict and adjudged to reverse the decision.
At the end, trial’s prosecutor attorney demanded 6-year imprisonment for the police officer due to “manslaughter” in the action regarding Festus Okey being shot and murdered by a police officer in Beyoğlu Police Station.
What happened in the Beyoğlu Security on 20 August 2007 is still unclear.
Why did we tell these two stories?
Giannis Antetokounmpo probably doesn’t know Festus Okey.
And Okey’s family doesn’t know Giannis’ story either.
Just like you.
I wanted to tell these two stories in one disclose.
Because these were the most concrete examples of how opportunities people encounter in life have the power to shape lives and sadly how the worst possibilities one can bear may cause a huge tragedy.
And after this case which I had been willing to write out for a long time, I will buy a Milwaukee Bucks uniform that Giannis wore and write Festus Okey on the back.
Because I believe I owe that to the 25-year-old man on whose coffin its written “We Are Leaving, Thank You Turkey.”
*İbrahim Tatlıses is a well-known Turkish arabesque singer, who usually suffers from break ups and friends that betrayed or left him in his songs.
