101 Greats of European Basketball

against him many times, but luckily for us, there are videos
of his feats that can show us his class. Of course,
after retiring in 2016, he was named a Euroleague Basketball
Legend.
I followed Diamantidis all his years in Panathinaikos,
but in my memory, there’s a special place for a game
he played with Greece. In semifinals against France at
that 2005 EuroBasket, his team was losing 64-66 with a
few seconds to go, but Greece had the last possession.
Everyone among the 19,000 fans at the Stark Arena,
home of the Final Four in 2018, knew that the last shot
would be for Dimitris Diamantidis. And it was. And he
nailed the three for a 67-66 win that would put Greece
in the final that it won, 78-62, against Dirk Nowitzki’s
Germany.
The next summer, when Greece defeated the United
States team with LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris
Paul and Dwight Howard in the semifinals of the 2006
World Cup in Japan, Diamantidis had 12 points, 5 assists,
3 rebounds and 2 steals. Many thought that was proof
that he could play in the NBA. I honestly think that he
would have played well there, but he chose to stay in his
country and play a leading role always. He wore the national
jersey 124 times and scored 760 points. He played
in three EuroBaskets (2003, 2005 and 2007), two world
championships (2006 and 2010) and two Olympics
(2004 and 2008). He was the idol of the Panathinaikos
fans, who gave him an original nickname: 3D. They were
not wrong, either, as he was a multi-dimensional player.
He was also called The Octopus and Spiderman, because
of his long arms and sticky hands for steals.
In 2016 he was voted the most popular player in the
Greek League. That same year, Panathinaikos retired his
jersey number 13 in a spectacular tribute. The tourney
named Diamonds are Forever, in his honor, has seen
teams like CSKA, Maccabi and Barcelona participate.
In the Panathinaikos vs. CSKA game on September 16,
2016, the action stopped 13 seconds before the break
to honor Diamantidis.
For many people, number 13 means bad luck, but
Diamantidis showed that many times luck depends
on your hard work, your talent, sacrifice, ambition...
He admitted that it was the only free number when he
joined Iraklis, but he also said he’s not superstitious. In
Kastoria, he had worn number 5.
Diamantidis was a real diamond on the court. In
real life, he was almost an anti-star. He was always shy
and humble and stayed away from the spotlight. He
didn’t like the attention of the media, he hated official
appearances because he had to wear a suit and tie, and
he didn’t like to deliver speeches. He was, one could
say, a very disciplined ascetic who always took care of
himself. He hardly drank alcohol, for instance. He was a
true example for young people.
When EuroLeague chose the All-Decade Team between
2001 and 2010, it was clear that Diamantidis
had to be there. He was joined by Dejan Bodiroga, J.R.
Holden, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Trajan Langdon, Juan
Carlos Navarro, Theo Papaloukas, Anthony Parker, Ramunas
Siskauskas and Nikola Vujcic. All of them are in
this book except for Navarro, because he is still playing
at this very moment, and the profiles are for retired
players only.
Diamantidis was the last of the other nine to retire.
He was almost singular as a player who could dominate
basketball games literally from any place on the floor
and come up with every kind of big play, offensive or
defensive, to win them.
Dimitris Diamantidis was truly a diamond, rare and
unique.
101 greats of european basketball
Dimitris Diamantidis
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