Cable news host gives heartfelt on-air thanks to Giannis Antetokounmpo after he gifts his shoes to her son

With essentially a three-game series in New York over the Christmas holiday, the Milwaukee Bucks have had a chance to bring their game to a brighter national spotlight, and that includes some positive national goodwill.

Laura Coates, host of an eponymous hourlong show on CNN, closed an episode with a personal anecdote from the Dec. 23 game between the Bucks and Knicks, when Giannis Antetokounmpo met her son, Adrian, and gave the 10-year-old boy his shoes after the game.

Coates showed video of her son in an Antetokounmpo jersey sitting courtside, thrilled to be within reach of players he could high-five as they checked into the game. Afterward, Antetokounmpo called Adrian over, took off his shoes, signed them and gave them to him.

"They say that you never want to meet your heroes, and I've met some of mine and, well, I wish I hadn't," Laura Coates said in the CNN segment on "Laura Coates Live."

"But here was my son, standing next to his, and Giannis, he just saw a kid and remembered what it was like to be one.

"My son woke up with a start later on that night and asked me to see the pictures on my phone because my baby boy thought that he had dreamed it all. And you know what? I feel like I did, too."

It's a typical practice for Giannis to give shoes to young fans postgame, dating several years.

Coates, a native Minnesotan and former federal prosecutor, has been a fixture on CNN as a legal analyst since 2016 and has been hosting the weeknight "Laura Coates Live" since August 2023.

The Bucks won the Dec. 23 game before losing a rematch at Madison Square Garden on Christmas Day. They stay in town to face the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: CNN host thanks Giannis on air after he gifts shoes to her son