Panagiotis Giannakis
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Panagiotis Giannakis (born 1 January 1959 in Athens; pronounced Yannakis, Greek: Παναγιώτης Γιαννάκης; nickname "The Dragon") is an important figure in European basketball, with a brilliant career as both player and coach under his belt. Currently he coaches the Greek national team. Under Giannakis' guidance, the Greek National team won the European Championship of 2005 and the silver medal in the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan.
Giannakis also coached an Athenian team (Maroussi BC) which he led to the forefront of Greek Basketball.
Giannakis, along with Nikos Galis, was one of the stars of the legendary 1987 Greek National Team. Giannakis was the captain of the team which won the 1987 European Championship, and were silver-medallists at the same championship two years later in 1989.
His playing position was point guard and he was also the playmaker for the national team and for Aris. He began his career in Ionikos Nikaias, then moved to Aris, Panionios and finally Panathinaikos, with which he was European Champion in 1996.
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[edit] First steps
Giannakis begun his career with Ionikos Nikeas (Greek: Ιωνικός Νικαίας). His first coach, Giorgos Vasilakopoulos (currently FIBA Europe president), moved him up to the first team from the youth squad at the age of 13. His exceptional play at such a young age begun to draw the eyes of experts on him.
[edit] Aris
On 3 August 1984, he is transferred to Aris Thessaloniki, for a huge amount (for the time). There, he finds Nick Galis, the other half of an historic "tag-team", that took Greek and European basketball by storm for years to come.
His first season with Aris is a great success. He wins the championship, and in the cup final he shoots 8 of 12 3-pointers, leading his team to victory over Panathinaikos. And this was only the beginning, as 5 more consecutive championships were to follow.
After 9 years with Aris, Giannakis moves to Panionios for the 1993-94 season. He stays for a year, and moves again to Panathinaikos, where he finished his career as a player.
[edit] Europe
With Aris, he took part in 3 consecutive final fours of the European Champions Cup: Gent (1988), Munich (1989), Saragosa (1990). Aris joins the elite of european basketball clubs, but a european title will not come until much later, in 1993 (Cup Winners Cup, in Torino). By then, Galis had left for Panathinaikos, and Giannakis was the de facto leader of Aris.
After his move to Panathinaikos, he finally won the European Champions Cup in 1996, in Paris.
[edit] National team
In 1975, he leads the youth national team to the second place in the European championship. A year later, he debuts (vs. Czechoslovakia) with the men team as a 16 year old.
He was captain of the squad that won Eurobasket 1987. During his time, the national team participated in 27 international competitions. He retired from the team on 2 August 1996, after taking part in the Olympic Games at Atlanta.
[edit] Career as coach
Unconventionally, the very next year he started his coaching career as coach of the National team in 1997. He stayed for 2 years, leading the team to the 4th place in Eurobasket 1997 and in the 1998 FIBA World Championships.
He moved to club level, and coached Panionios, until 2002 when he was named coach of Marousi. He stayed with Marousi until 2006, having taken over the team in relative obscurity and making it the 3rd most prominent in Greece.
He returned to coach the national team in 2004, for the Athens Olympics, where he lead the team to the 5th place. In 2005 Greece wins the Eurobasket competition for the second time, with him as coach. Since 2006, he is no longer simultaneously coaching on club level, focusing his full attentions on the National team. In 2006, he coached the national team to the second place in the World Championship. In the semi-final game held on September 1, 2006, his team beat the heavily favored United States team for the first time with a score of 101-95.
[edit] Trivia
- Titles (as player): 1 Eurobasket, 1 European Champions Cup, 1 Cup Winners Cup, 7 Greek Championships, 7 Greek Cups
- He holds the record for national team caps with 351, which is also a record for any european player.
- He has scored 9291 points in Greek competitions (3rd all-time) and 5282 with the national team (record holder).
- His personal best is 73 points scored, in 1984 as a player of Ionikos (ironically against Aris, his future team).
- He holds the records for most games in the Greek championship (493) and in Euroleague (163).
- He is the only person to win the Eurobasket Championship both as player (1987) and as coach (2005).
- He was selected 207th overall by the Boston Celtics in the 1982 NBA draft.
[edit] Sites
Page dedicated to Panagiotis Giannakis http://www.giannakis.co.nr
