Basketball
was first introduced in Greece by the Greek YMCA in 1918. It was then that
Mike Stergiadis (who was a pupil of Dr. Naismith, the inventor of
basketball, in Springfield) and some of his friends took two chairs, hung
them upside-down on two walls and used a football for the first basketball
match on Greek soil. The first championship was organized in 1928 and
Greece became a member of FIBA (the International Basketball Federation)
in 1932. The Greek National Team made its first appearance in 1936 and won
the bronze medal in the European Championship of 1949.
In 1987 the Greek National Team became European Champions. That was it… the Big Bang! Basketball became the national sport of Greece. Basketball courts sprang up like mushrooms everywhere in the country and football (for the first time in history) was of minor concern for the Greeks. All the big clubs were bought by business tycoons, the TV paid enormous sums of money for rights to broadcast games: the 10 golden years of Greek basketball followed. Although right now there seems to be a slight decrease in the people’s interest in the sport, Greece remains one of the top powers of European basketball.
The
Hellenic Basketball Federation was founded in 1970 and organized the first
Greek Cup in 1976.
A world basketball record that stands to this day was achieved in Greece in 1968. AEK Athens won the European CupWinners’ Cup in front of 60,000 spectators that filled the Panathenaic Stadium.
The
most successful clubs in the history of Greek basketball are:
Panathinaikos
3 times European Champion, 23 Greek Championships, 6 Greek Cups
Olympiakos Once European
Champion, 9 Greek Championships, 7 Greek Cups
Aris Once winner of the European CupWinners’ Cup, 1 time winner
of the Korac Cup, 10 Greek Championships, 7 Greek Cups
AEK 2 times winner of the European
CupWinners’ Cup (one as “Saporta”), 8 Greek Championships, 3 Greek
Cups
PAOK Once winner of the European CupWinners’ Cup, 1 time winner
of the Korac Cup, 2 Greek Championships, 3 Greek Cups
Panellinios
– 6 Greek Championships
Maroussi Once winner of Saporta
Cup (new name of CupWinners’ Cup)