101 Greats of European Basketball

MVP off the bench
On his ID you can see that Theo Papaloukas
was born on May 8, 1977,
in the Neo Psychiko neighborhood
of Athens. However, his basketball
birthday was a little more than a decade
later, on June 14, 1987. That day,
Papaloukas was, as all of Greece, glued to the television
screen watching the EuroBasket 1987 final played
at Peace and Friendship Stadium in Piraeus. Greece
beat the USSR 103-101 in overtime with 40 points by
Nikos Galis. After that historic win, the streets of Athens
turned into a huge party. A young Papaloukas, 10
years old, was amongst the hundreds of thousands
of euphoric fans, together with his younger brother
Costas. The direct consequence of that day was Theo
Papaloukas saying: “I am going to play basketball.”
The fact that his parents’ home was only 20 meters
away from the Ethnikos Ellinoroson court made things
easier. That’s where the career of this future Greek and
European superstar started. Witnesses from those
days say that even then Papaloukas had more fun
making assists than scoring points. That generosity
would become his trademark during a brilliant career.
His progress was immense, and he kept rising through
categories despite his one physical flaw: he was too
skinny. The next step was signing for Ampelokipoi,
where in the 1995-96 season he played nine games and
scored the same amount of points, his first ever in the
Greek League. In his second season, now in the Greek
second division, he played many minutes as a small
forward, which completed his technical formation. In
fact, when he was 20 years old and signed for Dafni, he
was already a complete player capable of playing point
guard, shooting guard and small forward.
Assists were always Papaloukas’s best quality, but
he had many more: his speed and lightning-fast hands
allowed him to make many steals, while he could also
run fastbreaks, penetrate, shoot and even rebound,
due to his 2.0-meter height. After two seasons in Dafni,
Papaloukas signed for Panionios where he played for
two seasons. In the second one, 2000-01, his coach was
Slobodan Subotic, who put a lot of trust in him and gave
him a lot of playing time. Papaloukas ended the season
with 14.5 points, 5.5 assists and 2.1 steals per game.
Olympiacos noticed his qualities and signed him for the
2001-02 season. It was his rookie season in the EuroLeague
and he finished it with 8.4 points, 4 assists and 2.9
steals per game, but due to a shock overtime home loss
to previously winless Union Olimpija in the fifth game of
the Top 16, it was eternal archrival Panathinaikos who
made that year’s Final Four from their group instead of
Olympiacos – and won it!
Papaloukas didn’t stay in Piraeus, however. Dusan
Ivkovic was starting a big project in CSKA Moscow, and
as a true expert on Greek basketball, he asked his new
club to sign Papaloukas, a key player in his plan.
Eight consecutive Final Fours
If he failed to make his first shot at a Final Four a
reality, Papaloukas became a familiar face at the event
after that, with eight straight appearances, a record he
shares with his long-time back-court mate, J.R. Holden!
In their first three seasons with CSKA Moscow, they
reached the Final Four all three times. But in each of
them, they were defeated in the semis: against Barcelona
in 2003 and Maccabi in 2004 – both host teams
101 greats of european basketball
Theodoros Papaloukas
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