Panagiotis Giannakis

Panagiotis Giannakis
Παναγιώτης Γιαννάκης

Point Guard
Nickname
The Dragon
Personal information
Date of birth	January 1, 1959 (1959-01-01)
Place of birth	Nikaia, Attica, Athens, Greece
Nationality	Greece
Listed height	6 ft 3.75 in (1.92 m)
Listed weight	216 lb (98 kg)
Career information
NBA Draft	1982 / 9th round, 207th overall
Selected by the Boston Celtics
Pro career	1972–1996
Career history
Ionikos Nikaias (1972–84) Aris Thessaloniki (1984–93) Panionios (1993–94) Panathinaikos (1994–96)
Career highlights and awards
Greek League Scoring Leader 1980 Greek Basketball Hall of Fame 35 Greatest Euroleague Players 2008
Stats at NBA.com

Panagiotis Giannakis (Greek: Παναγιώτης Γιαννάκης, pronounced [panaˈʝotis ʝaˈnacis]; born January 1, 1959 in Nikaia, Attica, Athens, Greece), nicknamed "The Dragon", is a retired Greek professional basketball player and coach. He is the former head coach of the pro club Olympiacos, and the Greek National Basketball Team. Under Giannakis' guidance, the Greek National team won the gold medal at 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 League 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 (Aris) to three consecutive Euroleague Final Fours between 1988 and 1990, as well as to a Saporta Cup title 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 as one of the 35 Greatest Euroleague Players over the last half-century by the Euroleague Basketball Experts Committee.

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 of 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.

Early years

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.

Giannakis started playing football around his neighborhood. He showed an early 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 the youth team of Ionikos Nikaias, who proposed to him that he join their team.

Playing career

First steps

Giannakis began his career with the 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 number 207 of the 1982 NBA Draft.

Greek League

On August 3, 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 Euroleague Final Fours: Ghent (1988), Munich (1989), and 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 Saporta 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 title 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

Medal record
Men's Basketball
Competitor for Greece
FIBA European Championship
Gold	1987 Greece	National Team
Silver	1989 Yugoslavia	National Team

Giannakis led the Greek junior national team to the silver medal at the FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship of 1975. A year later, he debuted with the senior men's Greek national basketball team, as a 17 year old, versus the Czechoslovakian national basketball team.

He won in 1979, the gold medal at the Mediterranean Games. He was also the captain of the senior men's Greek national squad that won the gold medal at the EuroBasket 1987, and the silver medal at the EuroBasket 1989. 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 Summer Olympics 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 after he retired from the Greek national team, 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 EuroBasket 1997, 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 were often compared to Giannakis'.

He returned to coach the national team in 2004, for the 2004 Summer Olympics Basketball Tournament, where he led the Greek team to a 5th place finish. The next year, under his coaching, Greece won the EuroBasket 2005 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. 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, winning the 2010 Greek Cup, and he also 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.

Awards and accomplishments

(As a player):

• Selected by the NBA professional club the Boston Celtics in the 1982 NBA Draft.
• Won the gold medal at the 1979 Mediterranean Games.
• Won the gold medal at the EuroBasket 1987.
• Won the silver medal at the EuroBasket 1989.
• Won the Euroleague (1996).
• Won the Saporta Cup (1993).
• Won 7 consecutive Greek Championships: (1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991).
• Won 7 Greek Cup Championships: (1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1996).
• In total, he won 16 championships in his pro club career as a player.
• Greek League Scoring Leader: (1980)
• His personal best for points scored in a single game is 73 points scored, in 1981, as a player of Ionikos Nikaias (which ironically occurred against Aris, his future team).
• Along with Nick Galis, he led Aris to an 80 game winning streak in the 1980s.
• He holds the record for national team caps with 351 with the senior men's Greek National Basketball Team, which is also a record for any European player.
• He scored 9,291 points in Greek League competitions (3rd all-time) and 5,309 points with the Greek national team (the record holder).
• When he retired from his playing career, he held the records for the most games played in the Greek Championship (493), and the most games played in the Euroleague (163).
• Member of the Greek Basketball Hall of Fame, inducted as a player.
• Selected to the Euroleague 50th anniversary Euroleague's 35 greatest all time players list in 2008.

(As a head coach):

• Coached the Greek national team to the gold medal at the EuroBasket 2005.
• He is the only person to win the EuroBasket both as a player (EuroBasket 1987) and as a head coach (EuroBasket 2005).
• Coached Greece to the gold medal at the 2006 Stankovic Cup tournament.
• Coached Greece to the silver medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship.
• Coached Olympiacos to win the Greek Cup in 2010.

Personal life

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.

External links

• Euroleague.net 50 Greatest Contributors
• Fibaeurope.com Player Profile
• Euroleague.net Coaching Career
• Basket.gr Player Profile (Greek)
• Basket.gr Coaching Profile (Greek)
• BasketDragon.gr Giannakis The Dragon Site (Greek)
• Basketaris.com - An Unofficial Fan Site Dedicated to Aris BC

Sporting positions
Preceded by Antanas Sireika	EuroBasket Winning Coach 2005	Succeeded by David Blatt