WNBA takes over Episode 7 of the YouTube Series “The Lost Tapes”, powered by Stoiximan!
In Episode 7 of the YouTube Series “The Lost Tapes”, powered by Stoiximan, Vassilis Skountis hosts three amazing ladies, Evina Maltsi, Anastasia Kostaki and Zoi Dimitrakou, all former WNBA and EuroLeague stars who share incredible stories from their longtime careers!
Watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/17S74U–x8g
Evina Maltsi, a three time Euroleague All-Star (2007–2009), has a long career in European club basketball, having played in Spain, France, Czech Republic, Poland and Turkey besides her native Greece, and having won numerous titles.
The longtime captain of Greece women’s national basketball team, she represented her country in several EuroBasket tournaments, the 2004 Olympic Games and the 2010 FIBA World Championship. She led the Greek national team to the fifth place in the 2009 FIBA Eurobasket earning the EuroBasket MVP award, a remarkable feat considering that Maltsi was voted MVP despite the fact that Greece didn’t enter the semi-finals. She was also the 2009 FIBA EuroBasket 2009 Top Scorer and steals leader, averaging 22.6 points and 3.1 steals per game and she has been elected to the All-EuroBasket Team two times, the first in 2009 and the second in EuroBasket 2017 in Czech Republic where, at the age of 38, she led Greece to the semi-finals and the fourth place in the tournament, their best ever EuroBasket performance.
Maltsi played for the Connecticut Sun in the 2007 WNBA season. She appeared in 29 games for Connecticut, 26 in the regular season (7 as a starter) averaging 5.7 points, 1.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game. She scored a WNBA career high 23 points against the Los Angeles Sparks at Staples Center on 7 July 2007, leading Connecticut in a 110–87 away win. She also played in 3 games in the 2007 WNBA Playoffs where Connecticut lost 2–1 to Indiana Fever in the first round.
After her retirement from basketball in 2019 she remains extremely active in the basketball community and she is currently the Head Coach of the AntetokounBros Academy, a community program that combines basketball training and educational inspiration aimed towards underprivileged young boys and girls aged 12 to 16.
Anastasia Kostaki meanwhile is considered one of the top Greek women players of all time and is the first Greek woman to play in the WNBA. After kicking off her career in Greece with A.S. Akadimia 1975 and A.O. Asteras Exarcheia she played in Italy, France and Russia before achieving something unprecedented for a Greek basketball player in 2006, getting signed by the Houston Comets where she played 32 games reaching the first round of the playoffs! She is the third woman to become an NBA ambassador to Europe and has been a key member of the Women’s National Team, with which she participated in the 1996 Junior Eurobasket (under 18), in the 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2007 Eurobasket and the 2004 Olympics.
Finally, Zoi Dimitrakou is another successful basketball professional who played in the WNBA with the Washington Mystics after a successful career in Greece and the EuroLeague. She is the first (and only so far) European professional basketball player to register a quadruple-double and just the third woman in the world to do so when she registered 49 points, 18 rebounds, 12 steals and 10 assists in a Greek Division I regular season game. From 2010 and until 2015 she played in Spain, France, Turkey and Russia where in 2012, together with Evina Maltsi, the team reached the EuroCup finals, losing the trophy by just one point to Russian side Dynamo Moscow.
Another longtime member of the Greek Women’s National Team, Dimitrakou participated in the European Girls’ Championships of 2001 and 2003, in the 2002 National Junior Championship and the 2005 European Junior Championships in 2005 in Budapest, while her debut with the Women’s National Team took place in August 2006 and she participated in the 2009 Women’s Eurobasket in Latvia, where Greece achieved its greatest distinction to date, climbing to 5th place in the final standings. She also played in the 2010 World Cup and the 2011 Eurobasket.
She is currently the hostess of a daily show on television as an exercise and wellness professional that aims at people working out from home!
Stay tuned for more episodes from “The Lost Tapes” coming soon…!
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