Panagiotis Giannakis interview
Panagiotis Giannakis presents best defender award to Dimitris Diamantidis For over three decades, Panagiotis Giannakis has represented Greek basketball in the best possible way. From his 25-year playing career, during which he won his country's first Euroleague crown, a European national title, a Cup Winners' Cup and more than dozen Greek League and Greek Cup titles, to his current role as coach of the European champion and world championship runner-up Greek national team and president of the Greek Coaches Association, Giannakis has put Greek basketball in the spotlight. During the 2007 Final Four weekend, he organized and hosted a special coaches clinic that brought some of the top minds in European basketball to teach 400 young coaches and coaches in training. At the annual Euroleague Gala Dinner, Giannakis joined Euroleague.net for an exclusive interview. “I think that when I started to play, basketball was not so famous in Greece and Europe. European basketball was not strong enough to play against the country that gave birth to the game, the USA,” Giannakis told Euroleague.net. “So after 30 year in this nice work of basketball, I feel so proud and happy to see European basketball improve so much and that Greek basketball is on top of Europe and among the best in the world. I feel blessed. I feel like a happy man with something special in my life. I think that in the last 10-15 years, the progress of European basketball is unbelievable.”

See full video interview with Panagiotis Giannakis
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Euroleague.net
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