Vassilis Spanoulis: The Chrysodille – THE NEWS

The anxiety had hit « red » in Johannesburg’s Shocker City on July 11, 2010. Spain and the Netherlands claimed the first World Cup of their History in the South African final with Iniesta’s goal in the 116th minute of the 16th. Euro (2008,2012) for the best Spain of all time.

In the press offices the final was the first and only topic of discussion and at the top of interest but in the halftime of the race things changed.

« OEM Olympiakos announces its agreement with Vassilis Spanoulis. The international guard will be a player in our team for the next three years, « the Olympic team’s comprehensive announcement with the Angelopoulos brothers have achieved the Colpo Grosso.

A basketball transcript that was time for the loss of the final of the World Cup, and perhaps no one that night imagined the extent that this particular move would change the history of Greek and European basketball.

Spanoulis made the big decision and became the flag, the leader of Olympiacos and the player who managed to change everything by dragging with his aura and talent all over the organization

‘The best choice’

Kill Bill himself bent over his resistors and took the (controlled team -based) risk to change jersey from the then powerful Panathinaikos to the eternal rival Olympiacos who had begun efforts to be reborn.

« It’s a new step in my career and the motivation for me is very big. I wanted a change in my life and Olympiacos was the best choice. When Olympiacos showed me how much he wants me he got into my mind, but this decision was certainly not easy and there will certainly be difficulties, but I’m not afraid. Olympiacos approached me in the right way and that’s why I’m a player. I turn a page in my career and in my life and I wish my transcript is the beginning of my team’s titles. We don’t have to say more now. After years I will talk and everyone will know exactly what happened, « said Vasilis Spanoulis, who did not leave as a mere Panathinaikos player.

He left while all the Greens (and Zeljko Obradovic himself personally, since then and has never forgive him since then) he longed to continue to the team.

Just a year before Vassilis Spanoulis in the best Panathinaikos of all time by difference, he had emerged as MVP at the Final Four in Berlin when he had his teammates, for example, other myths of European basketball such as Dimitris Diamantidis and Sarounas Yasikevitsi and Killi Conquering the trophy (2009) perhaps the most ambiguous final of history, where both the Panathinaikos – Olympic and the Panathinaikos – CSKA final was judged in the last second and after the unarmed shots of Yiannis Bouroussi (in the UK).

Leader

Spanoulis made the big decision and became the flag, the leader of Olympiacos and the player who managed to change everything by dragging his aura and talent throughout the organization.

No other player in the history of Olympiacos, Greek or foreigner has greatly and even completely affected the course of the team. It is not only the continuous European, the leagues and the big wins. It is the complete change of mentality and philosophy that took place at the Red -white Association clearly with the great contribution of top coaches such as Dusan Ivkovic, George Bardzokas and Yiannis Spheropoulos – coaches with whom Spanoulis.

Terrible confidence, hard work, dedication to the goal and incredible athletic selfishness were the elements that generally turned Vasilis Spanoulis from a regular player into one of the leading players of all time in Europe.

A man who never hesitated to take responsibility for the big (last and not just a shot). At the same time he had the ability to read the game like few players and make the right decision as in his passing life in the 2012 Euroleague final in Istanbul with CSKA when he pulled all players over him in the final phase of the match and at the right time he gave the assist to his « brother » years.

A year later in London he had stayed in the halftime in the final with Real Madrid, but came out in the second scoring 22 points with 5 three -pointers bombing the queen’s basket and leading Olympiacos to back to back to the title.

Three October 2021: The Great Vassilis Spanoulis and the Sacred « 7 » in his hands. From Vangelis Marinakis to the field of « G. Karaiskakis ». « We have the pleasure of awarding the biggest athlete who has passed through the basketball team » was heard and the stadium gave an unlikely standing ovation

The epic of 2016

In the 2016 Championship finals, he wrote an unparalleled epic that made him the only player in the history of Greek basketball that judged an entire championship individually. He scored two terrific three -pointing buzzer beater (in an inconvenient dézà vu) who essentially gave the championship to his team. The first in front of Nick Kalathis in the second final and with Olympiacos with his back on the wall as if the Greens had a 2-0 one in a row. The next, even bigger, in front of his good friend and one of the leading defenders of all time in Europe Dimitris Diamantidis in the 4th final ending the series and the title.

In the meantime in the 3rd final in the SEF and while Panathinaikos was preparing to break back in the break and Spanoulis 2-1 with 11 points out of 22 in the last five minutes of the match turned 59-66 (35 ‘) to 71-66 and finished the match (77-72).

Spanoulis, who in every victorious final of his team was coming out of the event (in 2009 with Panathinaikos and 2012 and 2013 with Olympiacos) at the same time that his beloved wife Olympia was giving him another child. The happy family now has 8 members as the beloved couple has three sons and equal daughters making a group on their own.

What no one may remember in those finals is that Spanoulis in the 3rd final had won the 5th foul of Nick Kalathis, while in the 4th playing with 4 fouls he asked to stay in the match and made a decisive steal in Feldin to finish the epic with the winner.

« I thought ‘don’t you lose it Basilara? You’ve sent us two or three times.’ But he put it. It shows what quality it has and how big a player he is. The whole world understands it, its quality and its ability, ”Dimitris Diamantidis had said at the time in the last game of his career for his good friend with whom they had grown up in the National with the culmination of the 2005 Eurobasket and his silver medal in the 2006 Mountain.

A place in which Vassilis Spanoulis also tested his forces (in Houston Rockets) but did not stay much in the European stadiums.

All with passionate

Having won three Euroleague (2009 with Panathinaikos, 2012 and 2013 with Olympiacos), 1 Intercontinental (2013 with Olympic), 7 Greek Championships (2006, 2008, 2009, 2010 with Panathinaikos, 2012, 2015, 2016 with Olympic), 4 Cups of Greece (2006, 2006, 2006, 2006, 2006, 2006, 2006, National team medals (gold at 2005 Eurobasket, silver in 2006 Mudobasket, Bronze in the 2009 Eurobasket) Vasilis Spanoulis lived it all passionately and has been doing itself in recent years as a coach as basketball is the whole life of the whole.

He announced his retirement from active action on June 26, 2021 and in the midst of Coronovirus, having closed 11 years in the greatest athletic love of his career, his port of Olympiacos to which he grew up.

The man of great decisions and decisive assists who changed the story of not only Olympiacos but also of Greek and European basketball.