Fotios Katsikaris

Fotios Katsikaris (alternate spelling: Fotis) (Greek: Φώτης Κατσικάρης, born 16 May 1967 in Korydallos, Piraeus) is a Greek professional basketball coach and a former professional basketball player. He started coaching at the age of 31, following a career as player, and he has worked in Greece, Russia, and Spain. He has also co-operated with the scouting team of the Boston Celtics.

Playing career

Katsikaris began playing basketball in the youth system of Ionikos Nikaias, and was promoted to the senior men's team at the age of 15, setting a record for the youngest player ever in the Greek top division. After some years with Ionikos and Sporting, he made the big step to AEK Athens in 1990. A sophisticated pass-first point guard, Katsikaris played for AEK for six seasons, but he didn't manage to win any trophies. In 1996, he joined Irakleio, where he stayed for two years before retiring. Throughout his career, he played in a total of 197 games in the top Greek League, scoring 707 points (3.6 points per game).

Recollecting his playing years, he's mentioned Panagiotis Giannakis as his role model, Rolando Blackman as his best ever teammate, and Nikos Galis as the most difficult player for him to guard. He's also said that his former coach, Krešimir Ćosić, was the man who changed his life; when Ćosić signed him for AEK, Katsikaris had actually been about to quit basketball (at the age of 23), and go to the United States for studies.^[1]

Club coaching career

AEK

In 1998, Katsikaris joined the coaching staff of AEK Athens. Between 1999 and 2003, he worked as an assistant coach to Dušan Ivković and Dragan Šakota, that period being the most successful for AEK in the recent decades (1 Greek League championship, 2 Greek Cups, and 1 Saporta Cup).

In 2003, he was named head coach as part of a board's project to rebuild the squad with young players, after the glorious and expensive 1999-2003 period. Despite his (and his players') lack of experience, he did quite well, reaching the Greek League playoffs' final, and the Euroleague Last 16, during the 2004-05 season. Youngsters who evolved into protagonists during his tenure, included future 2005 FIBA EuroBasket champions and Euroleague stars, such as Nikos Zisis and Giannis Bourousis.

Dynamo St. Petersburg

In 2005, he moved to Dynamo Saint Petersburg, achieving the 2nd place of the Russian Superliga regular season, and finally finishing 3rd after the playoffs. Although the club was then described as, "the rising power in Russian basketball", they went bankrupt at the start of the following season, and Katsikaris left Russia.

Valencia

Right afterwards, in October 2006, he was hired by the Spanish League club Valencia Basket to replace Ricard Casas. The plan was to build a team that could gradually move from mid-table obscurity to a higher level, but the goal wasn't achieved. Two seasons saw Valencia (then called Pamesa after their main sponsor) not proceeding further than the quarterfinals of the Spanish national league, and Katsikaris was fired after a poor start in the Spanish League 2008–09 season.

After leaving Valencia, Katsikaris was rumored by the Greek media as a major candidate for the vacant head coaching job with the Greek national team; a job that was eventually given to Jonas Kazlauskas.

Aris

In October 2009, Katsikaris took over Aris Thessaloniki, replacing Andrea Mazzon. The momentum was very difficult for both the club and the coach: Aris had just failed to qualify for the Euroleague through the preliminary round, and Katsikaris had only a few days' time until the start of the Greek League to re-organize the team.

His tenure lasted exactly 100 days. As the team was obviously underachieving during the first round of the season, including a nightmare defeat at the hands of "eternal enemy" PAOK, he decided to resign in January 2010, saying that he, "had joined Aris at the wrong time", and "couldn't find a way to inspire the players".^[2]

Bilbao

A few days later, Katsikaris returned to the Spanish League to coach Bilbao Basket (or Bizkaia for sponsorship reasons), at the time the second worst team of the 2009-10 Spanish League season, with a record of 4 wins in 17 games. Katsikaris made an instant impact; not only did the team avoid relegation, but they missed the playoffs by just one win, and also reached the Eurocup 2009-10 Final Four.

The next season was to be even more successful: Bilbao made it to the Spanish League playoffs and reached the finals, defeating Valencia Basket and Real Madrid in the early rounds. Although they eventually lost the title series to Barcelona Basquet, 2nd place in the post-season was the best position ever for Bilbao, plus it gave them an automatic 2011–12 Euroleague season ticket. In the meantime, Katsikaris signed an extension to his contract until 2014.

Katsikaris was named the 2nd tier Eurocup's Coach of the Year in 2013.^[3]

National team coaching career

Russia

Katsikaris became the head coach of the senior men's Russian national basketball team in 2012.^[4] He resigned from coaching Russia in 2013, before coaching the team in any tournaments.^[5]

Season by season results as head coach

Abbreviations:
QF; quarter-finals
DNQ; did not qualify
HNQ; had not qualified - system of European eligibility is mainly based on the previous year's performance in domestic competitions

Club	League	Season	Domestic Competitions		European Competitions
			Championship	Cup	Competition	Position
AEK Athens	HEBA A1	2003-04	4th	QF	Euroleague	Last 24
		2004-05	2nd	QF	Euroleague	Top 16
Dynamo St. Petersburg	Superliga A	2005-06	3rd		Eurocup	4th
		2006-07	released due to club's bankruptcy
Valencia	Liga ACB		QF	dnq	hnq
		2007-08	QF	QF	ULEB Cup	QF
		2008-09	fired after the first matches
Aris Thessaloniki	HEBA A1	2009-10	resigned in January; team already in Eurocup Last 16
Bilbao Basket	Liga ACB		9th	QF	Eurocup	3rd
		2010-11	2nd	QF	hnq
		2011-12	QF	dnq	Euroleague	QF

References

External links

• Euroleague.net Coach Profile
• FIBA Europe Player Profile
• FIBA Coach Profile
• Spanish League Profile (Spanish)
• FCM Coach Profile