“The Show” with Nikos “Magic” Stavropoulos and Telis Zournatsidis

In episode 6 of “The Show”, Vassilis Skountis sits down with a couple legendary basketball figures of PAOK B.C., former player and coach and current University Assistant Professor Nikos “Magic” Stavropoulos alongside former player, coach and GM Telis Zournatsidis in an enjoyable conversation about the present and past of Greek basketball and plenty of vintage stories about Bobby Knight, Rick Pitino, Magic Johnson, Vassilis Spanoulis and many more!

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Professor Nick Stavropoulos began his club playing career with the Greek club Gymnastikos Larissas, in 1975 but was transferred to PAOK B.C. in 1983 for the amount of 10 million Greek drachmas, which was the highest amount for a player transfer fee in the league’s history to that point in time. He was known for his dazzling passing skills and his spectacular play-making ability, which garnered him the nickname “Magic” or “Greek Magic”, after NBA player Magic Johnson, who played during the same era, and was also known for his dazzling passes and play-making ability.
He is the first player to make a 3-point basket in the Greek League, after the 3-point shot was first introduced into the league, in the 1984–85 season.

Stavropoulos won the Greek Cup title in 1984, in which he was the Greek Cup Finals Top Scorer and the European-wide secondary level FIBA European Cup Winners’ Cup (Saporta Cup) championship in the 1990–91 season, while he played in the same competition’s final in the 1991–92 season. He was crowned as the Greek League champion with PAOK in 1992 and finished his playing career with the Greek club Iraklis Thessaloniki.
A long-time member of the senior men’s Greek National Basketball Team, he played at the 1983 EuroBasket, the 1984 FIBA European Olympic Qualifying Tournament and at the 1986 FIBA World Championship. Ηe was also a member of the Greek national squad that won the gold medal at the 1987 EuroBasket, while playing alongside such European basketball legends as Nikos Galis, Panagiotis Giannakis, Panagiotis Fasoulas, and Fanis Christodoulou.
After he ended his playing career, Stavropoulos completed his Master’s and worked for as an assistant coach, on the Indiana Hoosiers Men’s Basketball Team, from 1994 to 1997 under legendary coach Bobby Knight. Upon his return he became an assistant coach for the senior Greek national team, and then later the head coach of several of Greece’s junior national teams. With the National Team of Greece, he twice won the 4th place as an assistant coach in the Eurobasket of Spain in 1997 and in the Men’s World Championship in Athens in 1998. As the coach of the National Junior Basketball Team, he won the bronze medal at the Junior Eurobasket in 2000 in Zadar and the bronze medal at the Junior Eurobasket in 2002 in Stuttgart.

Telis Zournatzidis meanwhile started his basketball career with Asteras Kavalas, while in 1983 he came to PAOK where he played for four years in all the Junior teams and was the leader of the youth team that in 1987 won the 2nd place in the Panhellenic championship held in Heraklion.
He was the coach of Mantoulidis’s team with successful stints also in Xanthi, Kalamaria, while he collaborated with Aristotelis Kalamarias, with whom in 2009 he won the Local League Cup (EKASTH). He was the Team Manager of PAOK B.C. from 2009 until 2019.

Stay tuned for more episodes from “The Show” by Trace ‘N Chase coming soon…!

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