The cellphone of Theodoros Papaloukas does not ring, but rather plays the chorus of a popular Greek song that also describes his life over the last year: "I am living a dream: please don't wake me up." Papaloukas is one of the few players in basketball history to play five title games in less than 12 months. He won four of them. Between September 25, 2005 and September 3, 2006, Papaloukas took the European Championships gold medal with Greece, then lifted the Euroleague, Russian League and Russian Cup trophies with CSKA Moscow. Only in the World Championships did he lose, finishing with the silver medal. He was voted the Euroleague Final Four MVP and was selected to all-league or all-tournament teams in the other competitions. Most remarkable of all, Papaloukas did all this as a substitute. He almost never starts a game for either his club or country teams. "So yes," he admits. "I still feel like I'm living a dream."

Papaloukas, 29, grew up in the Athens neighborhood of "Ellinorosson," which means "Greek-Russian," named so because many Greek-Russian immigrants once lived there. The coincidence could not be more appropriate. As fate would have it, many years later Papaloukas would be the one to leave Athens for Moscow to find his destiny. "Before moving to CSKA I felt insecure," he said. That could be because he had to deal with rejection and disappointment many times in the early years of his career.

One of Papaloukas's earliest basketball memories is the Greek national team's historic triumph over the USSR in the 1987 EuroBasket final. Papaloukas fell in love with that game after that and began to play day-and-night in the playgrounds. His passion led him once to play one-on-one with a friend at 3 a.m. And they only stopped because a neighbor who couldn't sleep through the noise threw water at them. "Some say that I am crazy" Papaloukas says. "They may be right, but what is crazy anyway? I used to be too impulsive, but now I think I am just a bit capricious."

Capricious or not, the fact is that Papaloukas is ambitious. At age 17, Papaloukas stood 1.82 meters tall, but insisted that he would reach 2 meters. Two years later, he sprouted to his desired height - without losing any of his playmaking skills. Not long after that he made his debut with Ethnikos Ellinorosson, a team in Greece's third division. His biggest step forward, however, came with a move to first-division Ampelokipi. Papaloukas played nine games with Ampelokipi, but mostly at small forward. After Ampelokipi dropped to the second division, Papaloukas would return to the first division with Dafni, butonce again his team was relegated. In the summer of 1998, Papaloukas cried for the first time in his career, after being cut from Greece's under-21 national team roster for the European Championships. Days before, he had worked out for Olympiacos, but failed to impress the Reds' coach, Dusan Ivkovic. Papaloukas would meet up again with both Olympiacos and Ivkovic.

For the moment, however, Papaloukas was back in the second division, although now he started to dominate at that level. Panionios decided to pry him from Dafni and Papaloukas became the teammate of Slovenian legend Juri Zdovc. "He taught me a lot," Papaloukas says. "I learned so much by playing alongside him that I want to thank him." Aside from outstanding court vision and understanding of the game, Papaloukas and Zdovc shared the same passion for basketball. Papaloukas's love for the game was apparent to all when he broke down in tears after Mihalis Kakiouzis's buzzer-beater sent AEK to the Greek League semifinals at Panionios's expense.

Nonetheless, Papaloukas's superb 2000-01 campaign, which saw him average 14.5 points on 58.6% two-point shooting, made him the hottest name on that summer's player market. He stirred the interest of rival Greek powerhouses Panathinaikos and Olympiacos, eventually choosing to sign a four-year deal with the Reds. During his first season in Piraeus, Olympiacos lifted the Greek Cup – the club's first since 1997 -- and lost the league championship to AEK. Papaloukas finished with 7.3 points and 4.2 assists per game, but that wasn't enough for the Reds, who wanted to renegotiate his contract. In the end, Papaloukas was a disappointed 25-year-old free agent. At the time, Papaloukas recalled all the negative things he'd ever been told by his past coaches - and then he made a bold choice.

"The decision to join CSKA Moscow proved the best I could have taken," he says now. "I mean, I always knew that I was a good player, but certain things and circumstances can decide how far you will go."


In Moscow, Papaloukas found a mentor in coach Ivkovic and a man to trust in general manager Sergey Kuschenko. Living on the 16th floor of a building on Leningrad Street was a new experience for Papaloukas. "I missed Greece a lot," he says. "But soon the people and the fans of CSKA made me feel comfortable. Now, they treat me like a king and I thank them for that."

Papaloukas and CSKA had success together from the start, reaching consecutive Euroleague Final Fours and taking charge again of the Russian League. The third season was supposed to be the charm, but despite once again making the Final Four, this time in Moscow, CSKA once again lost in the semifinals. Last season, after Ivkovic left CSKA and Ettore Messina took over the bench, everything came together. In a thrilling Final Four in which Papaloukas was a virtuoso off the bench, CSKA rolled to the Euroleague title for the first time in 35 years, since 1971. The Final Four MVP award and a place on the All-Euroleague First Team were unprecedented honors for a bench player. But for Papaloukas, the most flattering compliment was recognition of his talents by his coaches and teammates.