101 Greats of European Basketball

The man
with 25 titles
In modern basketball, it’s not easy to find examples
like that of Fragiskos Alvertis, who played
his whole career in the same club. Eternal love between
Alvertis and Panathinaikos Athens lasted
for 19 seasons – from 1990 to 2009 – and continues
today because the legendary captain is still close
by, as team manager, ready to join in the celebration
of a new title.
Born on June 11, 1974, in Glyfada, an Athens suburb,
Alvertis is one of the most-crowned players ever
in basketball. With Panathinaikos, he won 25 titles,
among them five EuroLeagues. Only one player, Dino
Meneghin, has won more EuroLeague titles and only
two others, Clifford Luyk and Aldo Ossola, have won as
many. No player has won more than Alvertis in the Final
Four era that began in 1988. With five titles and eight
Final Four appearances between 1994 and 2009, he is
living history of the competition. In his trophy case we
can also find 11 Greek League titles, eight Greek Cups
and an Intercontinental Cup from 1996.
Start with a silver
Only the best basketball connoisseurs will remember
that the name of Fragiskos Alvertis – Frankie to his
friends – was already in many scouts’ notebooks at the
1991 EuroBasket for cadets, played in his native Greece.
In that tournament’s title game in Thessaloniki, Italy beat
Greece by 106-91 as Andrea Meneghin – son of Dino –
led the winners with 18 points. But the Greeks had many
reasons to be happy. Apart from the silver medal, players
like Giorgos Maslarinos, Panagiotis Liadelis, Sotiris
Nikolaidis and, especially, Alvertis had blossomed. His
scoring average was 13.1, lower than Maslarinos (19.0),
but Alvertis was much more promising. He was a tall kid
with long hands and he was good at rebounding. But
what drew the most attention was his shot. Due to his
team’s needs, he played close to the rim, but he used
every chance he got to move away from the basket, look
for the corner of the court – his favorite spot – and drop
his three-point bombs. His shooting technique, launching
the ball from behind his head and with a high arc, was
very difficult to defend. At 2.06 meters, he was more of
a small forward than a power forward, but his versatility
was one more advantage for him.
At 17 years old, Alvertis had already made his debut
with the first team of Panathinaikos, a club that at the
start of the 1990s was under the shadow of eternal
rival Olympiacos and the two Thessaloniki teams, Aris
and PAOK. Little by little, with some great signings
(Nikos Galis, Alexander Volkov, Stojko Vrankovic...)
PAO – the nickname by which fans and media know
the team – started a revival, until reaching its first Final
Four in 1994 in Tel Aviv. In an all-Greek semifinal, the
Greens lost 72-77 to Olympiacos and Alvertis scored
his first 2 points in a Final Four. In the third-place game
against Barcelona, a 100-83 victory for PAO, Galis had
30 points, Volkov 29 and Vrankovic 14, but next in line
was Alvertis with 9 points. The following year, in the
Zaragoza Final Four, history repeated itself: Olympiacos
was better than PAO in the semis (58-52) and
Alvertis stayed at 3 points. But in the battle for third
place against Limoges (91-77) he scored 29 points,
which would remain his best personal mark in European
competition.
Fragiskos Alvertis
101 greats of european basketball
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