“The Show” with EuroLeague and EuroBasket champion Giannis Bourousis
One of the most skilled and modern centers of his generation, Giannis Bourousis, sits down with Vassilis Skountis in another episode of “The Show”. They discuss his long career playing at the top international level for years, his experience with the Greek National team, how close he came to joining an NBA team, playing against Luis Scola, Mike Batiste and growing up together with a golden generation of talent that included Nikos Zisis, Vassilis Spanoulis, Dimitris Diamantidis and Theo Papaloukas among many others!
A two-time All-EuroLeague First Team selection, Bourousis has been compared to FIBA Hall of Fame center Vlade Divac by San Antonio Spurs’ head coach Gregg Popovich!
He originally began his athletic career training to be a professional swimmer, but he grew too tall for the sport, and so he took up playing basketball, at the age of 18. He started his career as a member of the youth clubs of G.S. Karditsas before moving on to AEK Athens of the Greek Basket League, transferring to FC Barcelona of the Spanish ACB League, Greek EuroLeague club Olympiacos., Italian A League club Olimpia Milano and Spanish League club Real Madrid, where he won the triple crown. He then joined Spanish team Saski Baskonia before returning to Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos, signing with the Zhejiang Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association and then Gran Kanaria and Peristeri before finishing his career playing for his hometown team ASK Karditsa of the Greek A2 Basket League. During his long career he has been a 2× All-EuroLeague First Team selection (2009, 2016), a EuroLeague MVP of the Month in March of 2016), a 8× EuroLeague MVP of the Round, a 
Spanish League MVP (2016), an All-Spanish League Team member (2016), a 2× Spanish League Player of the Month (December 2015, January 2016), a 6× Greek League All-Star: (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011), a Greek All-Star Game MVP (2009) and a 3× Greek League Best Five: (2008, 2009, 2011)!
Bourousis was a member of the junior Greece national basketball team that won the gold medal at the 2002 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship in Lithuania and on the men’s national basketball team that won the gold medal at the 2005 EuroBasket in Serbia, while he played an instrumental role as Greece won the bronze medal at the 2009 EuroBasket. He was also a member of the Greek men’s national teams that finished fourth in the EuroBasket 2007, and fifth in the 2008 Summer Olympic, while he also competed at the: 2010 FIBA World Championship, the 2011 EuroBasket, the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the 2013 EuroBasket, the 2014 FIBA World Cup, the 2015 EuroBasket, the 2016 Turin FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the 2017 EuroBasket, and the 2019 FIBA World Cup qualifiers.
His many accolades include the following:
- 2002 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship: Gold medal
- 2005 EuroBasket: Gold medal
- 2009 EuroBasket: Bronze medal
- Greek League Champion with AEK Athens (2002)
- 2× Greek Cup Winner with B.C. Olympiacos (2010, 2011)
- EuroLeague Champion with Real Madrid (2015)
- Spanish League Champion with Real Madrid (2015)
- 2× Spanish Cup Winner with Real Madrid (2014, 2015)
- 2× Spanish Supercup Winner with Real Madrid (2013, 2014)
- Triple Crown Champion with Real Madrid (2015)
- Greek League Champion with Panathinaikos (2017)
- Greek Cup Winner with Panathinaikos (2017)
- Greek 2nd Division Champion with ASK Karditsas (2022)
Upon retiring from basketball he has been involved with his beloved hometown basketball team, being in charge of running basketball operations.
Stay tuned for more episodes from “The Show” by Trace ‘n Chase coming soon…!
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