Antonis Fotsis
Antonis Fotsis (alternate spelling: Antonios Fotsis, Greek: Αντώνης Φώτσης; born April 1, 1981 in Maroussi, Athens) is a Greek professional basketball player. He is a 2.09 m (6 ft 10 ¼ in) power forward. He currently plays for Armani Jeans Milano and is the captain of the Greek national basketball team.
Player profile
Fotsis began his career as one of the biggest European prospects. He is a good shot blocker, a top offensive rebounder, and an excellent 3 point shooter, especially for a power forward. He is very physical on the defensive end due to his elite athleticism. Fotsis is also the captain of the Greek national team. He is considered to be one of the best Greek basketball players of all time in the power forward position.
Pro career
Europe
Fotsis began his professional career in 1996 with the Greek A1 League club Ilisiakos. He quickly earned a reputation as a very talented young player when playing in senior national team. He then transferred to the Greek club Panathinaikos (PAO) in 1997 just at the age of sixteen. It is a fact of significant importance that he started his career as a point guard and later moved to the small forward and then power forward positions. Due to his early guard playing status, he was later always recognized as one of the best power forwards in Europe, regarding basketball technique. While being the most dominant-youth aged talent in Greece at the time, he twice participated in the Nike Hoop Summit All-World Team (1998, 1999). He got little playing time in his first 2 seasons with Panathinaikos, but he managed to become one of the team's key players during the 1999-00 season. With Panathinaikos, he won the Euroleague Championship that same season while being barely nineteen. One year later, he became a starter on the Panathinaikos team that made it to the FIBA Suproleague finals.
NBA
Fotsis was selected by the Vancouver Grizzlies (which were relocated to Memphis right after the draft) in the 2nd round (47th overall) of the 2001 NBA Draft.[2] In his one and only season in the NBA, he appeared in 28 games for the Grizzlies during the 2001-02 NBA season, averaging 3.9 points and 2.2 rebounds per game. He scored a career high 21 points against the Orlando Magic on January 19, 2002.
Return to Europe
After spending the 2001-02 season in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies, he returned to Panathinaikos for the 2002-03 season, and became one of the team's leaders while scoring an average of 14.5 points per game in Euroleague and was named best player in Europe under 22 the same year. With PAO, he won both the Greek Cup and the Greek Championship that year. In 2003, he moved to the Spanish ACB League club Real Madrid.
With Real Madrid, he was one of the key contributors on the teams that made it to the Eurocup Finals in 2004, and won the Spanish Championship in 2005. In 2005, he then transferred to the Russian Superleague club Dynamo Moscow. With Dynamo Moscow, Fotsis was one of the two leaders of the Russian team, along with fellow Greek player Lazaros Papadopoulos.
Fotsis won the Eurocup Championship in 2006 with Dynamo. One year later, he reached the Euroleague quarterfinals with Dynamo, where his team lost to Panathinaikos. On March 21, 2007, in a winner-take-all Euroleague 2006-07 season showdown with Italian A League power Benetton Treviso, for second place in their Top 16 group and a place in the quarterfinals, Fotsis scored 22 points and set a single-game ULEB Euroleague record with 24 rebounds, helping Dynamo score a 68-65 overtime win.[3]
In 2008, he returned to Panathinaikos. It was his second return to the club and he was in the starting lineup for the team as they won the coveted Triple Crown during the 2008-09 season. Fotsis was a key contributor to the Triple Crown winners with his good defensive play and clutch baskets. He also played more minutes than any other green player in the Euroleague Final Four. In the 2009-10 season, Panathinaikos again won the Greek Championship. That same season, Fotsis was named the Greek League MVP for the month of April. He played more minutes than any other green player in the Euroleague that season, showing his defensive skills as well.[4]
In July 2011, he signed with Armani Jeans Milano of the Italian League for two seasons.[5]
Greek national team
Fotsis was a member of the senior men's Greek national basketball team that won the gold medal at the EuroBasket 2005, the silver medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, and the bronze medal at the EuroBasket 2009. He became the captain of Greece's senior national team in 2009. He is the leading active scorer of the national team with 1,373 points in his career, and has the best average points per game among active national team players (9.6), along with fellow national team player Vassilis Spanoulis, who has a career scoring average of 9.5 points per game with the national team.
Awards and accomplishments
Pro career
- Nike Hoop Summit All-World Team: (1998)
- Nike Hoop Summit All-World Team: (1999)
- Won 8 Greek Championships: (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Won 3 Euroleague Championships: (2000, 2009, 2011)
- Won 2 Greek Cups: (2003, 2009)
- Won the Spanish Championship: (2005)
- Won the Eurocup Championship: (2006)
- Won the Triple Crown: (2009)
- Holds the ULEB Euroleague Single Game Rebounding Record: (24)
- 4x Euroleague Player of the Week
- Euroleague Best Young Player (Under 22): (2003)
- Euroleague 2001-10 All-Decade Nominee
- 5x Greek All Star Game: (2001, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Greek All Star Game MVP: (2011)
Greek national team
References
External links
| Persondata |
| Name |
Fotsis, Antonis |
| Alternative names |
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| Short description |
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| Date of birth |
April 1, 1981 |
| Place of birth |
Maroussi, Athens |
| Date of death |
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| Place of death |
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