Olympiacos Piraeus

[Faliro]

My all time favorite basketball player is Carlos Lisboa, by far the best Portuguese ever. He and Sérgio Ramos were the only Portuguese with a good international level. Talking about men, of course, cause my cousin Ticha is one of the greatest in WNBA history.

Internationally, Νίκος Γκάλης was always my favorite. What a player, what a European Championship he made in 87... And the way he trashed Michael Jordan's North Carolina was unbelievable.

What happened to your basketball in portugal? No interest?

[pcssousa]

Have Olympiakos ever faced us in basketball?

Only Ovarense, I think. 2001 or 2002, I believe.

[pcssousa]

My all time favorite basketball player is Carlos Lisboa, by far the best Portuguese ever. He and Sérgio Ramos were the only Portuguese with a good international level. Talking about men, of course, cause my cousin Ticha is one of the greatest in WNBA history.

Internationally, Νίκος Γκάλης was always my favorite. What a player, what a European Championship he made in 87... And the way he trashed Michael Jordan's North Carolina was unbelievable.

What happened to your basketball in portugal? No interest?

Can I be totally honest? Everything porto touches turns in to shit.
In the 90's we won 7 national leagues in a row and 10 in 11 years. And we started to make hood campaigns in Europe, beating strong teams like Joventut Badalona away ( they were european champions then), Real Madrid away, Adecco Milan or Panatinaikos (who end up winning the european title that year), Olimpija Ljubliana or Partizan. These were massive achievements.

At some point, Carlos Lisboa retired, Jean Jacques was transferred to France and Sérgio to Italy.
Suddenly, Portuguese basketball became dirty, like our football or our roller hockey.
Then we gave up professional basketball and played in second division for a year. Without is, the league crashed, all teams gave up except for porto and Ovarense and they had to create a new league, organized by our National Federation. After that we one lost one championship.

All of this damaged national Basketball. Also, there are a lot of foreign (and not very skillful) players, so our young talents don't have many opportunities to grow.
It's a real shame...
But we are a football nation.


PS: Carlos Lisboa won more national titles than any Portuguese club except for Benfica.

[pcssousa]

Other of my Greek basketball idols is Παναγιώτης Γιαννάκης. What a national team you had...

I believe he coached Olympiakos and he won the European title as a PAO player.


In my childhood I had 4 basketball idols, Carlos Lisboa, Larry Bird, Nikos Galis and Panagiotis Giannakis. Believe it or not.
Till today, I always support the Greek National team.

[Faliro]

Very interesting. It is a shame Porto wrecked your basketball.

Everyone hopes Giannakis (was the coach when we won eurobasket 2005) will take over the national team again as he is also a great motivator. We have an Italian in charge at the moment who is not good.

I love football, but my best memory of Basketball was watching Greece beat USA 101-95 in the world championships before losing to spain..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60WXB-3Ln0c

What made it special was one of the comments on American TV immediately after the match, 'Why do they even have HELLAS on their shirts? Are they trying to mock us or something? Why is that allowed?'

[fyure]

I wish Benfica's basketball team could be, nowadays, as good as it was in the 90's. I really never saw the power of a portuguese basketball team like Benfica was in that years. Well, i'm one of those guys who want Benfica to be the best in all sports. I want Benfica to be the best european team in futsal, again, and in roller hockey, because it's easier. Beside those, basketball is one of our more important seccions and I wold love to see us playing internationally again.

Faliro, as a half catalan, are you familiar with roller hockey ? ('rink-hockey', 'hoquei patins' whatever people call it) If yes, do you like it ?

[Faliro]

To be honest I was not aware of these sports before I came here and researched!

I have always been so engrossed by football that I shut everything else out. Whenever I stayed in barcelona I would go the Camp nou obviously to watch games and once or twice I went to the Godo tennis.. I think I also saw some Basque pelota at some point which a few people play.

I am surprised Benfica is not a major name in basketball anymore, your support is so huge.

I have traveled around a bit and seen football games in some good stadiums.. but not so many:

New Wembley - friendly game.

Liverpool vs Barcelona CL

Greece vs South Korea (Craven Cottage, Fulham stadium)

Everton vs Chelsea Premiership

Barcelona vs Sevilla...and some others from the primera...

Chelsea vs Olympiakos CL

Chelsea vs other Premierships sides.. 3-4 games

West Ham vs Olympiakos friendly

Olympiakos vs Super leagues sides..

One of the best?

Cruzero vs Atletico at the Independencia. Was so happy when I got tickets for it.. still remember that day:

[Godescalco]

You're a globetrotter, Faliro!

[Aka]

I am surprised Benfica is not a major name in basketball anymore, your support is so huge.

We were never a powerhouse in an European level, but we're once again the top team in Portugal. We dominate it so much that Porto had to quit out of shame.

[Godescalco]

When Yaya was still at Piraeus:

[pcssousa]

I am surprised Benfica is not a major name in basketball anymore, your support is so huge.

We were never a powerhouse in an European level, but we're once again the top team in Portugal. We dominate it so much that Porto had to quit out of shame.

True story...

But back in the 90's, our coach used to say our basketball team was the best team in Portuguese sports. Also said that we competed in Korac Cup we could win it. I don't know, just don't know, but I recall when we send Olimpija to the Eurocup they ended up to win the cup. We went to the European Championship (how euroleague was called back then) and made some interesting results.
Different times. Portugal will never produce great talents like Lisboa or Pedro Miguel or get foreigners like Jean Jacques Conceição. Did you know he was the best rebounder in a World Cup? 91 or 92, I think.

I still think porto doesn't get why we are still much more popular than them. But I got the answer.

[Faliro]

When Yaya was still at Piraeus

Sad when he went, but he was clearly too good for our league.

[Godescalco]

Do you remember this one?

[Festivus]

Faliro, would you trade Greece's Euro championship for an Olympiacos' Europa League/Champions League win? 

[Godescalco]

Faliro, would you trade Greece's Euro championship for an Olympiacos' Europa League/Champions League win? 

I would.