{"id":478528,"date":"2026-01-12T15:26:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=478528"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:26:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:26:30","slug":"kenneth-faried-opens-up-on-faith-depression-and-his-new-chapter-at-panathinaikos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/kenneth-faried-opens-up-on-faith-depression-and-his-new-chapter-at-panathinaikos\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenneth Faried Opens Up on Faith, Depression and His New Chapter at Panathinaikos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kenneth Faried<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, center of Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, spoke candidly with Eurohoops<\/a> about his personal journey, touching on mental health, faith, his upbringing in New Jersey, and his return to top-level basketball in Europe.<\/p>\n

Nicknamed the \u201cManimal,\u201d Faried embraced the identity with pride.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Manimal is me. I\u2019m him. A half-man, half animal,\u201d he said, explaining how the nickname reflects his mindset on the court.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Faried also revisited the challenges of growing up in Newark, New Jersey, particularly in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI was scrutinized as a kid for being Muslim, especially after 9\/11,\u201d he shared. \u201cA lot of blame was put on our religion. People came at me, attacked me, but it made me tougher.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

After a long NBA career spanning 496 games and several stops overseas, Faried joined Panathinaikos in November, finding renewed purpose.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBeing able to play at this level again has helped me a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cKeeping my faith, staying patient, doing the little things \u2014 eventually, the universe rewards you. I feel like that reward is starting to come here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Faried also addressed his battle with depression, admitting how difficult it was to feel capable of playing at a high level without getting opportunities.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cDepression is tough. I knew I could play at this level, but not getting the chance makes you question yourself,\u201d he explained. \u201cMy faith in God and belief in myself kept me pushing forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now reintegrated into EuroLeague competition under head coach Ergin Ataman<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, and playing alongside experienced guard Kostas Sloukas<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, Faried is making the most of his second chance.<\/p>\n

So far this season, he is averaging 7.9 points and 6.3 rebounds<\/strong> across 12 EuroLeague games, including ten starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cManimal\u201d reflects on adversity, resilience and rediscovering himself in the EuroLeague<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":478529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[199,249],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-478528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-euroleague","category-greece"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/01\/R6X8946.jpg","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478528"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=478528"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=478528"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=478528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}