Eurobasket 2025: Antetokounmpo’s greatest opportunity and the last dance of Papanikolaou–Sloukas

On Friday nighttime astatine 21:00 (ERT1 and Novasports Start), the bosom of Greek hoops volition bushed strongly.

Our National Team plays its biggest crippled successful the past 15 years, and everyone is looking guardant to the conflict against Turkey, which volition find this year’s Eurobasket finalist – a warrant of a medal, thing absent from Greek hoops since September 2009.

The drought has been owed to galore factors, sometimes internal, sometimes competitive, but present our internationals person 2 immense chances for favoritism up of them, and they volition not fto them gaffe distant easily.

Giannis’s missed opportunities

In caller tournaments, the National Team had the volition and the goal, but often lacked the heavy roster, oregon fell against giants successful the “cursed” quarterfinals and was eliminated.

It is wide agreed that it would beryllium a large shame to person Giannis Antetokounmpo, possibly the champion subordinate successful the world, connected your roster and neglect to triumph a distinction.

Giannis began playing for the National Team successful 2014, astatine property 20, successful the World Cup successful Spain, wherever Serbia tripped Greece successful the Round of 16.

The pursuing season, Spain eliminated Greece successful the Eurobasket 2015 quarterfinals. In 2017 helium was absent owed to genu surgery, and successful 2019 astatine the World Cup the squad was knocked retired successful the Round of 16.

The milestone tourney for Giannis came successful 2022. Already an NBA champion with the Bucks, successful the astir mature signifier of his career, helium felt it was his clip for a medal.

He was the tournament’s apical scorer by far, and everything pointed to occurrence for the National Team – until the fateful quarterfinal. There, Germany with Schröder and Wagner destroyed Dimitris Itoudis’s squad with unthinkable three-point shooting, sinking Giannis’s medal dreams.

Optimism returned when, with Vassilis Spanoulis connected the bench, the National Team not lone qualified for the Paris Olympics but besides reached the quarterfinals – lone for the unbeatable Germany to destruct Greece erstwhile again.

In this year’s tournament, Giannis Antetokounmpo appears much determined than ever, with eyes gleaming arsenic they bespeak the “silverware” the Greek Freak has sought for implicit a decade.

If 2022 was his astir mature stage, present helium resembles a Shaolin monk, seeing lone the people ahead, each obstacle thing much than a passing interruption.

The pinnacle of this was Valančiūnas’s unsportsmanlike foul to his cervix successful the quarterfinal against Lithuania – Giannis didn’t adjacent look astatine the monolithic Lithuanian center, helium calmly went to sprout his escaped throws. Focus astatine its highest point.

Giannis is present the past of the large NBAers near successful the tournament, the lone typical of the aged procreation of large stars – present challenged by Alperen Şengün, Franz Wagner, and Lauri Markkanen, semifinal opponents.

Giannis volition bash it for Luka and Nikola, who exited the tourney earlier, but supra each for Greece and for himself.

The “last dance” of Sloukas and Papanikolaou

Beyond Giannis, 2 athletes who person lived done countless tournaments with the Greek National Team – and of people its failures – are Kostas Sloukas and Kostas Papanikolaou.

They beryllium to the aureate procreation of the 1990s, which swept medals successful younker competitions and was erstwhile seen arsenic the anticipation of Greek basketball.

Bogris, Mantzaris, Pappas, Sarikopoulos, Kaselakis, and Jankovic completed that singular generation, which yet remained lone with youth-level successes.

Sloukas and Papanikolaou are its past representatives and, by each indications, are competing for the last clip with the National Team. Both astatine 35, they cognize this is their past large accidental for favoritism wearing the nationalist emblem.

The 2 are leaders connected and disconnected the court. Sloukas has said that adjacent though helium has played dozens of large games astatine nine level, the semifinal against Turkey is the top situation of his career. He admitted helium feels similar a rookie – but helium besides has the acquisition to grip it.

On the different hand, Papanikolaou appeared affectional aft the large triumph against Lithuania, saying helium felt blessed to beryllium successful this position.

Papanikolaou and Sloukas started unneurotic successful the National Team astatine Eurobasket 2011, with Papanikolaou adjacent successful the preliminary squad successful 2009. In 2011 they finished 6th, followed by 2 Round of 16 exits successful 2013 and 2014, portion successful 2015 and 2017 the dreams ended successful the quarterfinals.

The Olympiacos skipper has not missed a azygous tourney with the National Team since 2011, portion Sloukas missed the 2023 World Cup and the 2024 Olympics. That’s 12 retired of 12 for “Pap,” 10 retired of 12 for “Slouky Luke.”

In 2022, they excessively were portion of the bitter nonaccomplishment to Germany successful the quarterfinals, and present they are acceptable to instrumentality their revenge – archetypal for themselves and 2nd for their aureate generation. As Sloukas said, the 2 of them volition permission a bequest for the generations to come.