Panionios B.C.

PANIONIOS G.S.S.
ΠΑΝΙΩΝΙΟΣ Γ.Σ.Σ.
	PANIONIOS G.S.S.; ΠΑΝΙΩΝΙΟΣ Γ.Σ.Σ.
Nicknames	Historic; Blue-Reds; Panthers
Leagues	Greek League; Greek Cup; ULEB Eurocup
Founded	1919
History	1919 - present
Arena	Hellinikon Olympic Arena; (seating capacity: 15,000)
Location	Nea Smyrni, Athens, Greece
Team colors	Blue and Crimson;
President
Head coach	Giorgos Kalafatakis
Championships	Greek Cups (1):; 1991
Website	panioniosbc.gr
	Uniforms
	Home
	Away

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Main article: Panionios

Panionios Nea Smyrni BC (in Greek: Πανιώνιος Αθήνα KAE) is the Greek professional basketball club that plays its home games in Ellinikon, Athens, Greece. The club is also widely known as Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, or Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis, which is the Pan-Ionian Gymnastic Association of Smyrna. This is usually abbreviated to the club name of Πανιώνιος Γ.Σ.Σ. Panionios BC is the basketball department of the Panionios Gymnastic Club that is based in Nea Smyrni, Athens, Greece. The team's colors are blue and crimson.

Well-known players that have played with the club over the years have included: Thurl Bailey, P.J. Brown, Mitchell Wiggins, Travis Mays, Panagiotis Giannakis, Theo Papaloukas, Žarko Paspalj, and Fanis Christodoulou.

[edit] Club description

Panionios BC has been a long-time club of the Greek A1 League, which is considered one of the best domestic basketball leagues in Europe. Recently, Panionios BC has also competed in the Euroleague, which is widely regarded as the 2nd-best basketball league in the world behind the NBA. For sponsorship reasons the club is currently also known as Panionios On Telecoms and was previously also known as Panionios Forthnet. The former owner of the club was Elias Lianos, the founder of Proton Bank.

[edit] History

The basketball clubs' parent athletic union, the Panionios Gymnastic Club was founded in the year 1890 in İzmir, Ottoman Empire (located today in the modern country of Turkey), making it one of the oldest sporting clubs in Europe. The sporting clubs' basketball department was founded in the year 1919. After the Greek military suffered defeat in the Greco-Turkish War in 1922, the club was transferred to the Athenian suburb of Nea Smyrni in Greece.

The basketball department Panionios BC, began participation in the Greek League starting in the year 1929, and finished in second place in the league that year. Panionios BC finished in third place in the league the next year.

Panionios BC has competed in the top Greek basketball league, the Greek League, in consecutive years since the year 1982. In 1987, Panionios played in the championship finals series of the Greek League, losing out to Aris Thessaloniki and their two Greek basketball legends Nick Galis and Panagiotis Giannakis (Giannakis would later go on to play for Panionios). In 1991, led by Fanis Christodoulou the team won the Greek Cup championship by defeating PAOK Thessaloniki by a score of 73-70. Panionios also played in the championship game of the Greek Cup in both 1977 and 1995.

The club finished in 3rd place in the Greek League in the 1995-96 season under head coach Dušan Ivković and thus qualified to the Euroleague for the 1996-97 season. In the Euroleague 1996-97 season, the team was coached by Efthimis Kioumourtzoglou.

In the Greek League 2007-08 season, Panionios led by Ioannis Kalampokis finished in 3rd place, which secured the team a place in the Euroleague competition for the Euroleague 2008-09 season, marking the club's first Euroleague appearance in more than a decade ^[2].

[edit] Roster

Panionios Nea Smyrni BC roster

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Nat.	Name	Ht.	Wt.
2.0 SG	6	Serbia	Zoroski, Ivan	1.97 m (6 ft 6 in)	93 kg (205 lb)
2.0 SG	8	Greece	Dreliozis, Prodromos	2.01 m (6 ft 7 in)	91 kg (201 lb)
4.0 PF	9	Greece	Paragyios, Michael	2.06 m (6 ft 9 in)
1.0 PG	11	USA	Miles, Aaron	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)	79 kg (174 lb)
4.0 PF	12	Greece	Raičević, Miroslav	2.08 m (6 ft 10 in)	107 kg (236 lb)
5.0 C	14	Canada	Kendall, Levon	2.09 m (6 ft 10 in)	109 kg (240 lb)
5.0 C	15	Greece	Giannoulis, Yannis	2.08 m (6 ft 10 in)	115 kg (254 lb)
2.0 SG	16	Greece	Kanonidis, Andreas	2.00 m (6 ft 7 in)
5.0 C	18	USA	Baxter, Lonny	2.03 m (6 ft 8 in)	120 kg (265 lb)
4.0 PF	19	Greece	Dikoudis, Dimos	2.07 m (6 ft 9 in)	113 kg (249 lb)
3.0 SF	24	Serbia	Micov, Vladimir	2.03 m (6 ft 8 in)	98 kg (216 lb)
3.0 SF	24	Greece	Giankovits, Vlantimir	2.03 m (6 ft 8 in)	98 kg (216 lb)

Head coach

Alex Trifunović

Assistant coach(es)

Charalambos Sotiropoulos
Kostas Chatzichristos
John Frangoulis
Dimitris Gkrekos
Yiannis Sferopoulos

Legend

(C) Team captain
(*) Playing only in Euroleague
Injured

Roster • updated 2008-05-09

[edit] Depth chart

Pos.	Starter	Bench	Bench
C	Lonny Baxter	Yannis Giannoulis	Levon Kendall
PF	Dimos Dikoudis	Miroslav Raičević	Michael Paragyios
SF	Vladimir Micov	Vlantimir Giankovits
SG	Andreas Kanonidis	Prodromos Dreliozis
PG	Aaron Miles	Ivan Zoroski