101 Greats of European Basketball

The Greek Dragon
In the history of basketball, there are many cases
in which the names of two players go hand in hand
as if they were one. For instance, Kicanovic and
Dalipagic at Partizan; Slavnic and Kicanovic on the
Yugoslavia national team of the 1980s; Solozabal
and Epi in Barcelona; Marzorati and Meneghin with
Varese; Corbalan and Luyk in Real Madrid; and Gjergja
and Cosic in Zadar. And one of the most outstanding
cases of this phenomenon is, without a doubt, the
duo that saw action in the Greek national team and
Aris Thessaloniki during the 1980s: Nikos Galis and
Panagiotis Giannakis.
Neither of them is from Thessaloniki, but that’s
where the most important part of their careers took
place. Galis, who is 18 months older than Giannakis,
was there first. The son of Greek emigrants to the United
States, he made his debut on December 2, 1979, and
finished the season with an incredible average of 33.0
points per game. However, he was not the best scorer
in the Greek League that year. That honor belonged
to a player from the small Athens-based club, Ionikos
Nikaias, for whom Panagiotis Giannakis finished with a
36.5-point average! Giannakis was already a relatively
well-known player. I saw him for the first time in Split
during the Mediterranean Games, where in the final, he
led Greece to victory over a solid Yugoslavia team 85-
74. That Yugoslav team had names like Mirza Delibasic,
Mihovil Nakic, Rajko Zizic, Andro Knego, Ratko Radovanovic,
Ivica Dukan, Misko Maric and Boban Petrovic, but
the Greeks were better. Thanks especially to 34 points
from the hands of Giannakis.
Curiously enough, Giannakis recorded his best scoring
performance in the Greek League – 73 points! – in
a game against Aris in 1981. That was just one more
reason for Aris to sign him. Some years later, Aris managed
to get Galis and Giannakis together, and that was
the birth of one of the most famous duos in the history
of European basketball. Once they were together, the
dominance of Aris in Greece started right away and led
the team to seven straight titles. In Europe, which began
using the Final Four to decide the champion starting
in 1988, Aris reached the final stage three straight
times. But they never made it to the title game, finishing
fourth twice and third once. Defeats in Ghent in 1988
against Milano and Partizan were frustrating. One
year later the same thing happened in Munich, where
Maccabi was better in the semis despite 25 points by
Galis. In the game for third place, Aris beat Barcelona
88-71 with 36 points from Galis and 22 by Giannakis.
The third time wasn’t a charm either, in Zaragoza in
1990. First, Aris lost to Barcelona and later to Limoges,
despite 43 points from Galis.
Consolation in Turin
This great duo finished their career together in Aris
without any international titles. Galis decided to join
Panathinaikos in 1992, but Giannakis stayed with Aris
one more year. In that 1992-93 season, he managed
to win with Aris the Saporta Cup, FIBA’s secondary trophy
at the time, by beating Efes Pilsen 50-48. The final
was played on March 16 in Turin, Italy, in front of 7,000
mostly Aris and Efes fans. At the time, the diplomatic relationship
between Greece and Turkey was not healthy
and the game turned into one of the biggest scandals in
the history of European basketball. There was a battle
in the stands, with seats being turned into weapons.
101 greats of european basketball
Panagiotis Giannakis
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