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Kostas Sloukas

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Kostas Sloukas
Kostas Sloukas playing with Greece at the 2017 FIBA EuroBasket.
No. 10 – Panathinaikos
PositionPoint guard / Shooting guard
LeagueGreek Basket League
EuroLeague
Personal information
Born (1990-01-15) January 15, 1990 (age 34)
Thessaloniki, Greece
Listed height1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Listed weight90 kg (198 lb)
Career information
NBA draft2012: undrafted
Playing career2008–present
Career history
2008–2015Olympiacos
2010–2011→ Aris Thessaloniki
2015–2020Fenerbahçe
2020–2023Olympiacos
2023–presentPanathinaikos
Career highlights and awards
Medals
Men's basketball
Representing  Greece
FIBA Under-19 World Cup
Silver medal – second place 2009 New Zealand Under-19
European U-20 Championship
Gold medal – first place 2009 Greece Under-20
Silver medal – second place 2010 Croatia Under-20
European U-18 Championship
Gold medal – first place 2008 Greece Under-18
Silver medal – second place 2007 Spain Under-18

Konstantinos "Kostas" Sloukas (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος "Κώστας" Σλούκας; born January 15, 1990) is a Greek professional basketball player and the team captain for Panathinaikos of the Greek Basket League and the EuroLeague. He is also a regular member of the senior Greek basketball national team. A left-handed, 1.90m (6'3") tall[1][2] combo guard, Sloukas is one of the most decorated EuroLeague players of his generation.

Sloukas has played in eight EuroLeague Finals (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2023 and 2024) winning the title on four occasions (2012, 2013, 2017 and 2024). He was a member of the All-EuroLeague First Team in 2019 and a member of the All-EuroLeague Second Team in 2022 and 2024.

After lifting the EuroLeague trophy in 2024 and earning Final Four MVP honors in the process, Sloukas became just the second player in history to win the competition with three different teams, alongside Sarunas Jasikevicius.

Early career

Sloukas began playing club basketball as a youth, with Megas Alexandros Thessaloniki. Then he moved to the Mandoulides School youth teams, in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Professional career

Olympiacos Piraeus

Sloukas joined the Greek Basket League power Olympiacos Piraeus, in the year 2008.[3] He then spent the 2008–09 and 2009–10 seasons with the club. He made his debut in Greece's top-tier level Basket League, during the 2008–09 season, and made his debut in Europe's top-tier level, the EuroLeague, during the 2009–10 season. He also won the Greek Cup title with Olympiacos, in 2010.

Loan to Aris Thessaloniki

Sloukas was loaned by Olympiacos, to the Greek club Aris Thessaloniki, in 2010.[4] While a member of Aris, he was named the Greek Basket League's Best Young Player of the Greek Basket League 2010–11 season. With Aris, he also played in Europe's second-tier level competition, the EuroCup, during the same season.[5]

Back to Olympiacos

After spending the 2010–11 season with Aris, on loan from Olympiacos,[6] Sloukas returned to Olympiacos for the 2011–12 season. With Olympiacos, he went on to win both the 2012 Greek League championship, and the 2012 EuroLeague championship. He then signed a 3-year contract extension with Olympiacos, in June 2012.[7]

With Olympiacos, Sloukas also won the 2013 EuroLeague championship, and the 2013 FIBA Intercontinental Cup championship. In his last season with Olympiacos, Sloukas was selected to the Greek League Best Five team, and he also played in the 2015 EuroLeague Finals.

Fenerbahçe İstanbul

On June 29, 2015, Sloukas signed a three-year contract (with the 3rd year being optional) with the Turkish Super League club Fenerbahçe İstanbul.[8] With Fenerbahçe, he made it to the 2016 EuroLeague Finals, and then won the 2017 EuroLeague championship. In the summer of 2017, Sloukas signed a new 3-year contract with Fenerbahçe (with the 3rd year being optional),[9][10] at a salary of €1.7 million euros net income per season.[11]

Sloukas played in his third straight EuroLeague Finals with Fenerbahçe, as the club also made it to the 2018 EuroLeague Finals, where they eventually lost to Real Madrid, by a score of 85–80.[12] During the 2017–18 EuroLeague season, Sloukas averaged career-highs of 10 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game, in 35 games played.[13]

As a member of Fenerbahçe, Sloukas also won three Turkish Super League championships (2016, 2017, 2018), the Turkish Cup (2016), and two Turkish President's Super Cups (2016, 2017). On 25 April 2019, Sloukas, was the star yet again for the Turkish side as he finished the game with a double-double of 25 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals against BC Žalgiris helping his club to win the series with an aggregate 3-1 to secure a place in the Final-4 for a fifth consecutive season. Sloukas has qualified for seven Final-4's in his career, with all seven appearances coming in the last eight seasons. On July 23, 2020 Sloukas and the Turkish club officially parted ways after five successful seasons.[14]

Return to Olympiacos

On July 24, 2020, Sloukas signed a three-year contract with Olympiacos.[15]

On 12 August 2020, it was announced by the Euroleague that it was a member of the top10 (team) of Olympiacos in the decade 2010-2020, being fifth in the public vote with a percentage of 79.33%. On 16 August 2020, it was announced by the Euroleague that it was a member of the top ten (team) and Fenerbahce in the decade 2010-2020, being fourth in the public vote with 84.78%.

On 18 December 2020, he became the eighth player in Euroleague history to exceed 1,000 assists. In the 2020-2021 season, he finished with Olympiakos in twelfth place. In the 2021-2022, he became the youngest player (31 years and 342 days old) in Euroleague history with 200+ wins. On 27 January 2022, he completed 300 Euroleague appearances, becoming the tenth athlete to achieve this feat. On January 29, against AEK for the Greek Championship, he set three individual career records. He had 23 points (4/6 two points, 4/7 three points, 3/4 shots) which constitute his top performance in A1. He also had 11 assists (individual record draw) and 37 points in the rating system which is also an individual record. On February 20, he won the Greek Cup, defeating Panathinaikos 81-73 in the final. In addition Olympiacos achieved to qualify to the Play-Off Round of EuroLeague by Finising 2nd in the Regular Season. After facing Monaco in a best-of-five series, Olympiacos qualified to the Final Four with 3-2 wins , 5 years after team's last participate.

On July 6, 2023, after a week of heavy negotiating, Sloukas informed Olympiacos that he would not be renewing his contract with the club, becoming a free agent once more. Sloukas was mainly concerned about the tactical playing style of the team and had clashed with coach Georgios Bartzokas throughout their shared tenure.

Panathinaikos

On July 8, 2023, in a move echoing the historically controversial transfer of Vassilis Spanoulis in the summer of 2010, Sloukas agreed upon a lucrative three-year deal with Panathinaikos, signing with the arch-nemesis of Olympiacos and changing the power dynamics of Greek basketball, as well as the EuroLeague, once again.[16] Sloukas was also named team captain before the start of the season by coach Ergin Ataman.


Sloukas at a national team game against France in 2017.

Greek junior national team

With Greece's junior national teams, Sloukas won the silver medal at the 2007 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship, and the gold medal at the 2008 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship, where he was also voted to the All-Tournament Team.[17] He also won the silver medal at the 2009 FIBA Under-19 World Cup, and the gold medal at the 2009 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. He also won the silver medal at the 2010 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship with Greece's junior national team.

Greek senior national team

Sloukas became a member of the senior men's Greek national basketball team in 2011. With Greece's senior men's national team, he has played at the following tournaments: the EuroBasket 2011, the EuroBasket 2013, the 2014 FIBA World Cup, the EuroBasket 2015, and the EuroBasket 2017. He also played at the 2019 FIBA World Cup qualification.[18]

Personal life

Sloukas is nicknamed, "Slouky Luke" (pronounced Slucky Luke)[19][20] or the "man who shoots and passes faster than his shadow", which is a word play on his name and the Lucky Luke character.[21][22] Since June 2021, Sloukas has been married to his wife Maria and they have a daughter named Valeria and a newborn son.

Career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  PIR  Performance Index Rating
 Bold  Career high

EuroLeague

† Denotes seasons in which Sloukas won the EuroLeague
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG PIR
2009–10 Olympiacos 1 0 5.4 .000 .000 .500 1.0 — — — 1.0 0.0
2011–12† 15 0 14.7 .520 .556 .875 1.7 1.6 .7 .1 5.5 7.3
2012–13† 30 0 14.5 .413 .431 .870 1.6 1.2 .4 — 5.2 5.1
2013–14 28 2 19.4 .431 .377 .816 1.5 2.9 .5 .2 6.5 7.0
2014–15 29 0 18.0 .362 .346 .868 1.9 3.1 .6 .1 6.7 8.8
2015–16 Fenerbahçe 21 7 20.0 .449 .345 .860 1.7 3.0 .3 — 6.7 8.1
2016–17† 29 14 26.1 .445 .429 .870 2.1 4.5 .6 .2 9.2 9.8
2017–18 35 10 24.8 .428 .381 .916 2.5 5.4 .6 .1 10.0 12.7
2018–19 33 12 26.6 .522 .449 .934 2.2 4.8 .5 .2 11.6 15.2
2019–20 25 19 29.0 .456 .422 .938 2.8 6.1 .5 .1 11.8 15.5
2020–21 Olympiacos 34 33 27.7 .409 .404 .922 2.4 6.0 .8 .0 11.0 13.4
2021–22 37 1 24.9 .455 .418 .848 2.6 5.0 .8 .0 11.9 14.8
2022–23 36 0 22.8 .440 .325 .906 2.1 5.6 .3 .1 11.0 14.7
2023–24† Panathinaikos 34 15 26.2 .500 .415 .853 3.2 5.6 .8 .0 12.7 16.1
Career 387 113 23.1 .448 .401 .887 2.2 4.4 .6 0.1 9.6 11.9

Awards and accomplishments

Pro career

Titles won

Other honors

Individual

Records

  • Holds the record for most assists in one game in Olympiacos history in the Greek League with 15 assists[25]

Greek junior national team

References

  1. ^ SLOUKAS, KOSTAS HEIGHT: 1.90.
  2. ^ Sloukas, Kostas Height: 1.90.
  3. ^ Euroleague.net Reds sign Sloukas.
  4. ^ Aris BSA 2003 gets point guard Sloukas on loan.
  5. ^ SLOUKAS, KOSTAS EuroCup 2010-11 STATISTICS.
  6. ^ Aris BSA 2003 gets point guard Sloukas on loan.
  7. ^ Euroleague.net Olympiacos holds onto Kostas Sloukas.
  8. ^ "Fenerbahce Ulker Signed Kostas Sloukas". fenerbahce.org. 29 June 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  9. ^ Fenerbahce re-signs Sloukas, Hersek.
  10. ^ Giannakopoulos implies PAO might be in the run to sign Kostas Sloukas next year.
  11. ^ SLOUKAS RENEWS CONTRACT WITH FENERBAHCE.
  12. ^ "Real Madrid is 2018 EuroLeague champion". euroleague.net. 20 May 2018. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  13. ^ SLOUKAS, KOSTAS EuroLeague 2017-18 STATISTICS.
  14. ^ "Fenerbahce, Kostas Sloukas part ways". Sportando. July 23, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
  15. ^ "Olympiacos signs Kostas Sloukas to multi-year contract". Sportando. July 24, 2020. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  16. ^ "Στον Παναθηναϊκό ο Κώστας Σλούκας!". paobc.gr (in Greek). July 8, 2023. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  17. ^ FIBAEurope.com All Tournament Team.
  18. ^ Kostas SLOUKAS (GRE).
  19. ^ “SLOUKY LUKE,” GREECE STUN LITHUANIA.
  20. ^ Saturday Review: Greece stun Lithuania; Germany advance as France's long streak ends.
  21. ^ Sloukas: “Fenerbahçe Ailesinin Bir Parçası Olduğum İçin Çok Mutluyum” (in Turkish).
  22. ^ Επικό ποστάρισμα! Και επίσημα "Slouky Luke" ο Κώστας Σλούκας! (in Greek).
  23. ^ "Ολυμπιακός: Με Πρίντεζη, Σπανούλη, Σλούκα και Παπαλουκά η ομάδα της δεκαετίας". Eurohoops (in Greek). 2020-08-12. Retrieved 2022-03-19.
  24. ^ "7DAYS Magic Moment of the Night: Kostas Sloukas wins it! | Euroleague". Euroleague Basketball. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  25. ^ Team, Allstarbasket (2022-05-15). "Κώστας Σλούκας: Κορυφαία επίδοση για παίκτη του Ολυμπιακού οι 15 ασίστ!". AllStar Basket (in Greek). Retrieved 2023-02-18.
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