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Panagiotis Giannakis (Greek: Παναγιώτης Γιαννάκης, pronounced [ˌpanaˈʝotis ʝaˈnacis], born January 1, 1959 in Nikaia, Attica, Athens, Greece), nicknamed "The Dragon", is a Greek basketball player and coach. He was coaching the club Olympiacos and the Greek National Basketball Team. Under Giannakis' guidance, the Greek National team won the 2005 Eurobasket Championship and the silver medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan. Giannakis also coached an Athenian professional team, Maroussi, which he led to the forefront of Greek basketball. A true floor general from the point guard position, Giannakis began his pro career in Greece with Ionikos Nikaias before moving to Aris where he spent the major part of his career. In Thessaloniki, he led the Yellows to three consecutive Euroleague Final Fours between 1988 and 1990, as well as a Saporta Cup in 1993. In the summer of 1993 he was transferred to Panionios and finally a year later to Panathinaikos, with whom he won a Euroleague championship in 1996. On February 3, 2008, Giannakis was chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors over the last half-century by the Euroleague Basketball Experts Committee.[1] Giannakis was along with Nikos Galis one of the stars of the legendary 1987 National Team that put Greece on the world basketball map. He was their captain when they won the Eurobasket in 1987 and were the silver-medalists at the same championship two years later. Furthermore, Giannakis was an important member of the national team when they reached the Eurobasket semifinals in 1993 and 1995 as well as the FIBA World Championship semifinals in 1994.
Giannakis was born and raised in a poor neighborhood of Nikaia, Athens. Ηis parents, Dimitris, owner of a motorbike workshop, and Kalliope a weaver gave birth to five boys. Panagiotis is the youngest child of the family.[2] Panagiotis Giannakis started playing soccer around his neighborhood. He showed an inclination to sport and tried basketball. He began watching the matches of a local basketball club and later he was approached by the coach of youth team of Ionikos Nikaias who proposed him to join the team. Playing career First steps Giannakis began his career with Ionikos Nikaias youth team in 1971. His first coach, Giorgos Vassilakopoulos, moved him up to the sporting club's men's first team from the youth squad at the age of just 13. His exceptional play at such a young age drew the eyes of pro basketball experts on him. In 1982, he was selected by the Boston Celtics at No. 207 of the 1982 NBA Draft. Greek League On 3 August 1984, Giannakis transferred to the Greek club Aris Thessaloniki, for a huge amount of money (for the time). There, he teamed up with Nick Galis, to form one half of an historic "tag-team" that took Greek and European basketball by storm for years to come. His first season with Aris, the 1984-85 season was a great success. He won the Greek Championship with the team, and in the Greek Cup championship final game he made 8 out of 12 3-pointers, leading his team to victory over Panathinaikos. And this was only the beginning, as 6 more consecutive Greek Championships and 5 more Greek Cup championships with Aris were to follow. After 9 years with Aris, Giannakis moved to the Greek club Panionios for the 1993-94 season. He stayed there for a year, and then moved again to the Greek club Panathinaikos, where he played from 1994–96 and he finished his career there as a player. European cup competitions With Aris, he took part in 3 consecutive final fours of the Euroleague: Ghent (1988), Munich (1989), Saragosa (1990). Aris joined the elite of European basketball clubs, but a European title did not come for Giannakis until much later, in 1993, when he won the Cup Winners' Cup, in Torino. By then, Nick Galis had left Aris and joined Panathinaikos, and Giannakis had become the de facto leader and franchise player of Aris. In 1995, Giannakis moved to Panathinaikos, where he finally won the Euroleague in 1996, in Paris. He also won the Greek Cup championship with Panathinaikos that same year, making it the 7th Greek Cup championship he won in his playing career to go along with his 7 Greek League championships. He ended his pro career having competed in 5 Euroleague final fours (3 with Aris and 2 with Panathinaikos). Greek national team
In 1975, he led the Greek junior national team to the second place in the junior European championship. A year later he debuted with the senior men's Greek national basketball team as a 16 year old versus the Czechoslovakian national basketball team He won in 1979 the gold medal in Mediterranean Games. He was the captain of the Greek national squad that won the gold medal at the 1987 FIBA European Championship and the silver medal at the 1989 FIBA European Championship. During his playing time with the national team, Greece participated in 27 international competitions. He retired from the national team as a player on August 2, 1996, after taking part in the 1996 Olympic Basketball Tournament at Atlanta. Giannakis is also a member of the Greek Basketball Hall of Fame, inducted as a player. Career as a head coach Unconventionally, the very next year he started his coaching career as the head coach of the Greek National Team in 1997. He stayed the head coach of the national team for 2 years, leading the team to a 4th place finish at the 1997 FIBA European Championship and a 4th place finish at the 1998 FIBA World Championship. He then moved to the professional club level, and coached Panionios, until 2002 when he was then named the head coach of Maroussi. He stayed with Maroussi until 2006, having taken over the team in relative obscurity and having turned it into the 3rd most prominent team in the Greek League, along with the help of his star point guard Vassilis Spanoulis, whose playing style and player attributes are often compared to Giannakis'. He returned to coach the national team in 2004, for the 2004 Olympics Basketball Tournament, where he led the Greek team to a 5th place finish. The next year, under his coaching, Greece won the 2005 FIBA European Championship competition for the second time in its history. After 2006, he no longer simultaneously coached on the professional club level and national team level, as he decided to focus his full attention on the Greek national team only. In 2006, he coached the national team of Greece to a second place finish at the 2006 FIBA World Championship. In the World Championship's semi-final game, held on September 1, 2006, Giannakis' Greek team beat the heavily favored United States national basketball team for the first time by a score of 101-95. On the 3rd of February 2008, Giannakis signed on to coach the Euroleague power Olympiacos with a 2-and-a-half year contract at an annual salary of €1.1 million euros net income. Giannakis also made an additional annual salary of €1.2 million euros net income while coaching the Greek national basketball team. In December 2008, he ended his tenure as the head coach of Greece's national team and was succeeded by Jonas Kazlauskas.[3] In June 2010, Olympiacos announced that Giannakis wouldn't coach the team next season. During the two and a half year period, Giannakis guided the team to its first trophy in eight years, the 2010 Greek Cup and led the team to two consecutive Euroleague Final Fours (in one of them the team reached the final) for the first time since 1998 and to three consecutive Greek League finals.[4] Awards and accomplishments (As a player): * Selected by the NBA professional club the Boston Celtics in the 1982 NBA Draft. (As a head coach): * Coached the Greek national team to the gold medal at the 2005 FIBA European Championship.
He is married to Eugenia and has two children, Kalliope and Dimitris. In 2010, he lost his brother (the fourth he had lost in the last decade) before a derby with Panathinaikos.[5] References 1. ^ official website, Experts decide European Club Basketball's 50 greatest contributors
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