By Jim Owczarski Sports Editor Published Sep 19, 2014 at 12:02 PM Photography: David Bernacchi

A report out of Greece said that former NBA All-Star point guard Gary Payton has been hired by new Milwaukee Bucks coach Jason Kidd to advise second-year player Giannis Antetokounmpo.

By filtering the Greek story from Sports24.gr through Google translation, reporter Kostas Koukousis wrote that Payton met with the second-year Bucks guard in the summer, and began working with him in Athens and will re-assume that role once training camp beings on Sept. 30.

Brewhoop.com then cited a second Greek report about Payton coming to Milwaukee to help the 6-foot, 11-inch Antetokounmpo transition into more of a point guard.

Payton played 17 years in the NBA, including 28 games in Milwaukee in 2002-03. He was a nine-time All-Star and the 1995-96 Defensive Player of the Year. He won a championship with Miami in 2005-06.

Jim Owczarski is an award-winning sports journalist and comes to Milwaukee by way of the Chicago Sun-Times Media Network.

A three-year Wisconsin resident who has considered Milwaukee a second home for the better part of seven years, he brings to the market experience covering nearly all major and college sports.

To this point in his career, he has been awarded six national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting, feature writing, breaking news and projects. He is also a four-time nominee for the prestigious Peter J. Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism, presented by the Chicago Headline Club, and is a two-time winner for Best Sports Story. He has also won numerous other Illinois Press Association, Illinois Associated Press and Northern Illinois Newspaper Association awards.

Jim's career started in earnest as a North Central College (Naperville, Ill.) senior in 2002 when he received a Richter Fellowship to cover the Chicago White Sox in spring training. He was hired by the Naperville Sun in 2003 and moved on to the Aurora Beacon News in 2007 before joining OnMilwaukee.com.

In that time, he has covered the events, news and personalities that make up the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, NCAA football, baseball and men's and women's basketball as well as boxing, mixed martial arts and various U.S. Olympic teams.

Golf aficionados who venture into Illinois have also read Jim in GOLF Chicago Magazine as well as the Chicago District Golfer and Illinois Golfer magazines.