“The Show” with the Vice-President of EuroLeague Head Coaches Board Giannis Sfairopoulos

30 November 2023
Posted by dio

A brand new season of “The Show” kicks off and Vassilis Skountis hosts Giannis Sfairopoulos, the Vice-President of EuroLeague Head Coaches Board to talk about his long tracking record in the game as a player and coach; they discuss his journey from Thessaloniki and the junior teams of Apollon Kalamaria, his learning years with PAOK B.C., his first job as a head coach with Kolossos Rhodes B.C., followed by plenty of successful years with Olympiacos B.C. and Maccabi Tel Aviv and some very special moments in his career with Peja Stojakovic, Vassilis Spanoulis and the Greek National team!

Coach Sfairopoulos grew up idolizing Julius Erving, began playing basketball in the youth programs of Apollon Kalamarias at the age of 12 and after playing for a couple years in the Greek 2nd Division with the senior men’s team of Apollon (as a player-coach), he retired from playing basketball at the age of 21, in order to become a full-time basketball coach within the same club system where he remained from 1986 until 1997. He coached in the club’s cadets and juniors, before transitioning to the senior men’s teams, which he guided over in 1994, in both the Greek 4th Division, and the Greek 3rd Division. He then transferred to become an assistant coach with the Greek Basket League club PAOK BC., from 1997 to 2005, with a brief stint as the team’s head coach during the 2000–01 season. Coach then moved on as an assistant head coach to Olympiacos B.C., from 2005 to 2008, under head coaches Pini Gershon and Panagiotis Giannakis, while in 2006, he worked as an assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers during the NBA Summer League team. From 2008 to 2011, he was appointed as a full-time head coach for the first time in his career for Kolossos Rhodes B.C., while in 2011 he became the assistant coach with the Russian League club CSKA Moscow, under head coach Jonas Kazlauskas. He returned to Greece as the head coach of the Greek EuroCup team Panionios B.C. in 2012 before being announced as the head coach of the Greek EuroLeague team Olympiacos in 2014. On November of 2018, Sfairopoulos was hired as Maccabi Tel Aviv’s head coach, leading Maccabi to their 53rd Israeli League title after defeating Maccabi Rishon LeZion 89–75 in the final. He was subsequently named Israeli League Coach of the Year.

Coach Sfairopoulos has been an assistant coach with the Greek men’s national basketball team from 2001 to 2004, under head coaches Kostas Petropoulos, Giannis Ioannidis, and Panagiotis Giannakis and he was a member of the Greek national team that competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He also worked as assistant coach for the Greek national team from 2009 to 2010, under head coach Jonas Kazlauskas when the team competed at the EuroBasket 2009, and the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

His many accolades include the following:

As an Assistant coach
Greek national team: Bronze medal at the 2009 EuroBasket
Greek Cup Winner (1999)
VTB United League Champion: (2012)
Russian Championship Champion: (2012)

As a Head coach:
2× EuroLeague Runner-up: (2015, 2017)
2× Greek League Champion: (2015, 2016)
1× Greek League Best Coach: (2015)
3× Israeli League Champion: (2019, 2020, 2021)
1× Israeli Cup Winner: (2021)
2× Israeli League Best Coach: (2019, 2020)
2× Israeli Basketball League Cup (2020, 2021)

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