Basketball
At Olympiakos, basketball became a pleasure and titles a habit
The trophy is the fourth national title Olympiacos have claimed and won. Yannis Fileris writes about the three years of building a team that plays basketball for fun, wins trophies and is worshiped by the world…
Three years have passed since the day the Angelopoulos finally shook hands with Giorgos Bartzokas for his return to Olympiacos. In a way, they ended the most difficult period of their tenure and opened a window of optimism for the future.
We remind you that he only played in the EuroLeague (with a record of 7-12). His development team was in a very difficult 12 months at A2 when, after leaving the famous cup game against Panathinaikos, Leaf’s illness intervened, the noise with the “sonic printezis” and a general restlessness and instability that forced the two presidents to putt to change the climate inside and outside the SEF dressing room at great expense.
Thirty-six months later, thanks to a rousing performance that left no room for reaction in Peristeri, Olympiacos are celebrating their second consecutive Greek Cup or, if you prefer, the fourth national title they have won. They were preceded by last season’s Championship and the Super Cup that opened this year’s.
The “Red-Whites” have an impressive 49-0 at home (including the 11th series against Panathinaikos), have remained unbeaten for 15 months (from November 22, 2021) and are the clear favorites to win the championship title again.
And that’s not all. They are back in the EuroLeague Elite. Last year they got a ticket to the Final Four and missed out on qualifying for the final with Micic’s shot, and this year they’re first and best, leading the race alongside Real Madrid.
You are happy yourself first…
We don’t know what the Angelopoulos said on their first date with Bartzokas three years ago. However, her smile upon receiving this trophy also showed her absolute satisfaction at the perfect execution of a plan that can only be compared to the two great milestones in the team’s modern history.
The first in the early ’90s when Sokratis Kokkalis and Yiannis Ioannidis propelled the team from 15 years of obscurity to the top of Greece and Europe, and the second in 2010 when Vassilis Spanoulis joined (and a year after Dusan Ivkovic’s return) changed that Course of History and Facts of Greek Basketball.
This is what the whole scene looked like in January 2020 when Bartzokas got a job in Piraeus again.
The core of players that existed or were chosen by the coach and management, checkmate moves like the acquisition of Kostas Sluka or the establishment of Sasha Vezhenkov (thanks to work and of course the player himself) in a leading role and of course great transfers of foreign players like Thomas Walkup or Mustafa Fal.
Bartzokas, who returned to Olympiakos after six years, brought with him his experience from the teams that worked abroad and his own mature basketball thinking. By clarifying his philosophy, which focuses on defense, constant movement and excellent ball circulation, he knew that at the end of the day he would build a team that would first and foremost enjoy basketball itself.
Year after year Olympiakos got better. Year after year he took on better foreigners as his competitive status gradually changed.
Without spending hundreds of millions, mainly believing in the plan, within three years he achieved the complete reversal of the data and his return to the highest level. And all this while the two most emblematic basketball players of the past decade, the two great captains, Vassilis Spanoulis and Giorgos Printezis, left the team one after the other.
The transition of Olympiakos without his two stars into an era of victories and titles is perhaps the greatest achievement of Bartzokas as well as the players who have accepted the challenge of succession and carried all the weight either on or off the field. A prime example is Kostas Papanikolaou, who is doing his best in his first season as captain.
So his chip changed too. He used to go to Heraklion but lost to AEK which today seems unthinkable and illogical. It is a team that stands out, is respected and recognized first by their opponents and is back where the club’s history and philosophy dictates. win title.
The impatience of the world
However, his main achievement is not his return to the titles, nor the great players who wear his jersey, nor the coach with his modern basketball ideas. It’s all this and more. Love for the world, manifested in every way, seems unprecedented.
It’s not the first time the team’s friends have bragged about the basketball team. Unrepeatable moments have passed either in the 90s or later in the era of two consecutive European titles or two consecutive championships (2015 and 16, especially the second with the Spanoulis saga).
However, the bond that exists with current squad and coach Barzokas perhaps surpasses all previous ones. The SEF is filled with fans who are impatient but also sure they will enjoy another basketball show. The basketball Olympiacos has never been so strong, so exciting, even in the best days of his past.
So he reached the first round of 16 in history and highlighted the chaotic difference that sets him apart from the other teams in the country (even from Panathinaikos). A team with the final’s top scorer, the player who finished outside the 12 in the semifinals (Alec Peters).
It is also the image that this year’s Olympiacos exudes. A group of Greeks and foreigners who either rejoice in their noisy performance – every time on the field – or in their group departures, or in dedicating the successes to two members of the group (team manager Christos Buffet and gymnast Andreas Gatzoulis) that they celebrate with their health adventures experienced.
All of this shows a lot and the world is still receiving the messages that idolize everyone and George Papas, who came unknown among unknowns in the summer, but has already become the star of the “red and white” platform!
The thirst “burns” in the team
Smiling, happy but also calm, the protagonists of Olympiacos came down from the podium of the cup presentation, knowing that their work didn’t end with the Greek Cup final. “We will rest for a day and then we have a difficult game in Valencia,” commented Kostas Sloukas
The entire “red-white” organization is now concentrating on this, because the next goal is to qualify for the playoffs with home advantage. The ten games remaining before the end of the regular season will determine the battle for this year’s Final Four.
The thirst for honors and titles never quenches at Olympiacos. And his own people know that better than anyone. The work goes on and as Bartzokas said: “We are here to do a job”. And they do it very well, we might add…
PS: The last eight that we have been talking and thinking about for years, during the years of misery of the Hellinikon finals with the 600 “chosen” nomads, has become a reality. Certainly not at the level of Italy or Spain and other European countries, but there is years of experience and know-how. We understand the reluctance of the organizers and the police towards the coexistence of fans of all teams in the stadium.
Nevertheless, the organization – also with the many shortcomings or at least the disappointing picture of the empty grandstands on the first two days – had to come. He had to start. We lag behind Europeans by many years and have to eat a lot of bread to reach them in terms of physical education and culture. Think about what happened before the Spanish F8 final on Sunday, when 14,000 fans watched the final of the Mini Supercup. With groups of 14 year olds!
Nevertheless, a step forward was made. As long as the next tournament gets better based on the omissions and mistakes that happened this year…
Source: sport 24
I am a sports writer and journalist who has written for various online publications including Sportish. I’m originally from the UK but currently live in Toronto, Canada. I’m also an author on Sportish and have written several articles on a variety of sports-related topics.
Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic He escaped serious injury, Serbian publication Meridian Sport reported.
Jokic appears to be in good condition, and preliminary data suggests the knee was hyperextended without serious damage.
At the same time, there is no official update from the club at the moment. It was previously reported that Jokic would need to undergo a full examination of his left knee on Tuesday, December 30.
Nikola injured his left knee in the final seconds of the first half of the game against Miami (123:147). He was seen limping on his way to the dressing room and did not return to the field after a long break.
Nikola Jokic went down with an apparent leg injury against the Heat. pic.twitter.com/4kPf9HAOt8
— Sports Center (@SporMerkezi) December 30, 2025
Source: Sport UA
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
True, his team was left without a victory.
Over the past year, fans have become accustomed to news about records coming from overseas. Until recently, their main supplier was hockey player Alexander Ovechkin. But in the 2025/26 season, successes in the NBA were added to the achievements of our athletes in the NHL. This became possible thanks to the play of Yegor Demin, who again played a great match the day before with the Brooklyn Nets.
If the Russian does not slow down, then in the future, like Ovechkin, he has every chance to go down in the history of North American sports.
On the way to a dream
Russian representation in the NBA has always been more modest than in the NHL. And even with certain achievements, and Timofey Mozgov and Alexander Kaun, by the way, became league champions, the thought does not arise to compare the successes of Russian hockey players and basketball players overseas. How many American basketball fans now remember Sergei Monya, Yaroslav Korolev, Pavel Podkolzin?
Only Andrei Kirilenko stands out from the general background – the Russian forward played in the NBA for quite a long time. I even once went to an all-star game, where I played side by side with people like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming, Allen Iverson. But how many star matches did our hockey players have overseas?
With all due respect to the AK-47 game, he still does not reach the level of a North American basketball legend. Time will tell whether Yegor Demin, who powerfully broke into the NBA at the age of 19, will be able to write his name into history. But for now, the Brooklyn Nets basketball player is doing everything possible to make his dream come true.
Prolific newcomer
Kirilenko was selected by the Utah Jazz in the first round of the NBA draft as the 24th pick, and Brooklyn took Demin eighth. But these were still advances, which have so far been fully justified. The newcomer regularly appears on the court, and with the exception of the first couple of weeks of the season, in the starting lineup. At the same time, Egor is not just serving his number: in the last six matches he scored at least 14 points, in two cases he reached the 20 point mark.
In the next regular season game, the first basketball player in the league with the letter “e” on his uniform scored 23 points in the match against Golden State. Demin managed not only to repeat his best result, but also set a Brooklyn record for three-pointers among newcomers – seven accurate hits from behind the arc. True, the Russian team still lost with a score of 107:120, but in the context of the personal success of our basketball player overseas, this is a secondary issue.
Of course, to achieve sporting greatness, Egor needs to spend more than one season at this level, but at least a dozen and a half. Demin, with 275 points in the NBA, did not even reach the results of Sergei Karasev (287), although he can do this in the next game. And then new landmarks will appear: Viktor Khryapa (643), Alexey Shved (1349), Timofey Mozgov (3072) and, of course, Andrey Kirilenko (9431). When the Russian surpasses the results of the AK-47, then we can talk about an established star in the NBA. In the meantime, we can only wish our basketball player not to lower his demands on himself and avoid serious injuries.
Source: Sportbox
I am a sports journalist who has been writing for a news website since 2015. My work primarily focuses on sports news, but I have also written about other topics such as technology and the arts. I have an extensive background in journalism, having worked as a reporter for a local newspaper before moving to a news website.
11 games were played in the NBA regular season on the night of December 29-30.
Miami hosted Denver and earned a landslide victory.
The home team was ahead by 12 points with 41:29 to play in the first quarter, but the Nuggets were able to slowly win back in the second quarter. The teams entered a long break with the score tied at 63:63. The decisive factor in the match was the third quarter, when the Heat made an 11:0 move and led by 15 points at 84:69. After that the home team completely controlled the course of the game and only increased their advantage, achieving a crushing victory – 147:123.
The most productive player of the match was Powell, who brought 25 points to Miami, while Jaques (20 points + 11 assists) and Adebayo had double-doubles with 13 points + 10 rebounds.
San Antonio hosted Cleveland and suffered a sensational defeat.
Three-quarters of the meeting was fought evenly, with the teams responding to each other’s pushes with their own pushes and often staying within a shot or two of each other. That changed in the fourth quarter, as the Cavaliers went on a 15-2 run to take a 10-point lead, 94-84. They then maintained their advantage and won with a score of 113:101.
Cleveland’s main hero in this game was Allen, who had a double-double with 27 points and 10 rebounds. Garland can achieve the same success with 15 points and 11 assists.
Toronto beat Orlando at home.
Magic started the match better and made a 14:2 move at the start. Afterwards, they took control of the course of the game and increased the advantage completely to +21 – 51:30 in the second 12 minutes. After that, the home team slowly started to close the gap and entered the long break with a score of 11-11 at 54:65. The third quarter was tied, so Orlando still had a double-digit advantage ahead of the final: 94:84. At the beginning of the match the play followed the same scenario but in the middle Toronto made a move with 15:0 and not only won it back but also took the lead with 105:102. The fate of the game was decided by Barnes’ free throws, which set the score at 107:106 with 1 minute and 27 seconds left in the quarter.
Barnes could not make a triple-double this time, but he did a double-double and got 13 points and 11 rebounds, while the most productive name in the victory was Shead with 19 points.
NBA. Regular season, December 30
Miami – Denver – 147:123 (41:29, 22:34, 47:36, 37:24)
Miami: Powell (25), Weir (19 + 9 rebounds), Wiggins (19 + 6 assists), Adebayo (13 + 10 rebounds), Mitchell (10 + 9 assists) – start; Jovic (22), Jaques (20 + 11 assists), Smith (11), Larsson (3), Fontecchio (3), Johnson (2), Yakucionis (0), Gardner (0).
Denver: Jokic (21 + 8 assists), J. Murray (20 + 11 assists), Hardaway (16), Jones (16), Watson (11) – start; B. Brown (15), Valanciunas (6), Holmes (4), Strother (4), Nnaji (4), Pickett (2), Jones (2), Tyson (2).
San Antonio – Cleveland – 101:113 (26:25, 29:24, 23:27, 23:37)
San Antonio: Vembanyama (26 + 14 rebounds), Castle (15 + 8 assists + 5 losses), Fox (14), Vassell (7), Barnes (3) – start; Harper (11), Cornet (10 + 9 rebounds), K. Johnson (8), Shempeni (7), Brian (0).
cleveland: Allen (27 + 10 rebounds), E. Mobley (16 + 7 rebounds), Garland (15 + 11 assists), Mitchell (10 + 7 assists), Wade (10) – start; Hunter (11 + 9 rebounds), Tyson (11), Tomlin (6), Merrill (5), Porter (2).
Toronto – Orlando – 107:106 (18:29, 36:36, 30:29, 23:12)
toronto: Ingram (17 + 9 rebounds), Barnes (13 + 11 rebounds), Mamukelashvili (13), Agbadzhi (10), Quickley (4) – start; Shed (19), Dick (15), Walter (10 + 7 rebounds), Murray-Boyles (4 + 12 rebounds), Bettle (2), Bamba (0).
Orlando’s: Black (27), Banchero (23 + 15 rebounds + 10 assists), Bane (18), Jones (10), Carter (9) – start; Richardson (7), da Silva (6), Kane (3), Bitadze (2), Penda (1), Isaac (0).
Washington – Phoenix – 101:115 (23:22, 31:39, 25:26, 22:28)
washington: Johnson (24), McCollum (17), Coulibaly (13 + 7 rebounds), Watkins (3), Sarr (2) – start; Shempeny (11), Carrington (10), Riley (10), Bagley (7+7 rebounds), Brenham (4), Johnson (0), Hill (0).
Phoenix: Brooks (26), Gillespie (25 + 6 assists), Booker (22), O’Neal (15), Igodaro (6 + 10 rebounds) – starter; Goodwin (14 + 7 rebounds), Livers (3), Buey (2), Richards (2 + 9 rebounds), Hayes-Davis (0), Fleming (0), Maluach (0).
Charlotte-Milwaukee-113:123 (26:25, 40:38, 23:32, 24:28)
Charlotte: Miller (31 + 8 rebounds), Ball (26 + 7 assists + 6 losses), Diabate (14 + 9 rebounds), Bridges (3), James (0) – start; Sexton (16 + 8 assists), Green (10), McNeely (7), Hall (3), Hall (3 + 11 rebounds), Mann (0).
Milwaukee: Y. Antetokounmpo (24 + 7 assists), Turner (23 + 4 blocked shots), Porter (15 + 11 assists), Rollins (13), Green (5) – start; Portis (25), Trent (9), Kuzma (6), G. Harris (3), Sims (0).
Brooklyn – Golden State – 107:120 (30:28, 27:31, 28:30, 22:31)
Brooklyn: Porter (27 + 9 rebounds), Demin (23), Claxton (15 + 9 rebounds), Clowney (11), Mann (4) – start; Thomas (13), Traore (9), Sharpe (3), Powell (2), Wolfe (0).
Golden State: Curry (27), Butler (21), Dr. Green (7), Moody (4), Post (3) – start; Jackson-Davis (11), Payton II (10), Melton (10 + 8 rebounds), Richard (10), Podziemski (7), Hield (6), Spencer (4), Santos (0).
New Orleans – New York – 125:130 (41:37, 34:35, 28:24, 22:34)
New Orleans: Williamson (32), Bay (26 + 6 assists), Murphy (21), Quinn (7 + 9 rebounds + 6 assists), Fiers (4) – start; Poole (26), Peavey (3), Hawkins (2), Missy (2), Looney (2 + 9 rebounds).
new York: Brunson (28 + 10 assists), Anunoby (23 + 11 rebounds), Diawara (18), Towns (12 + 12 rebounds), Bridges (6 + 10 assists) – start; McBride (14), Yabusele (9), Clarkson (9), Kolek (7), McCullar (2), Jamison (2), Hookporty (0).
Oklahoma – Atlanta – 140:129 (35:38, 35:36, 43:29, 27:26)
Oklahoma: Gilgeous-Alexander (39 + 6 assists), Holmgren (24 + 9 rebounds), Jaylen Williams (20 + 9 rebounds + 7 assists), Wallace (17 + 7 rebounds), Dort (6) – start; Caruso (16 + 9 rebounds), Mitchell (10), Carlson (6), Wiggins (2), Joe (0), K. Williams (0).
of Atlanta: Alexander-Walker (30), Okongwu (26 + 14 rebounds + 6 assists), Krejci (18), Daniels (13 + 7 assists), Risache (12) – start; Kennard (12), Wallace (9), Newell (9), Gueye (0).
Houston – Indiana – 126:119 (30:25, 36:23, 39:30, 21:41)
Houston: Durant (30), Smith (21 + 10 rebounds), Thompson (20 + 8 rebounds + 7 assists), Eason (13 + 8 rebounds), Adams (8) – start; Sheppard (13), Finney-Smith (6), Capela (6+7 rebounds), Okogie (3), Davison (2), Tate (2), Green (2), A. Holiday (0).
indiana: Siakam (23), Maturin (14), Nembhard (11), Furphy (9), Huff (8) – start; Nesmith (14), Walker (12), Jackson (7), McConnell (6), Peter (6), Jones (4), Potter (3 + 6 assists), Thompson (2), Bradley (0).
Chicago – Minnesota – 101:136 (23:21, 27:34, 28:40, 23:41)
Chicago: Vucevic (23), Buzelis (13), Giddy (11), Okoro (4), White (0) – start; Smith (12), Jones (11), Dosunmu (10 + 7 assists), Herter (8), Williams (7), Phillips (2), Carter (0), Terry (0).
Minnesota: Edwards (23), Randle (17 + 14 assists), DiVincenzo (12), Gobert (9 + 10 rebounds + 4 blocks), McDaniels (7) – start; Reed (33 + 7 rebounds), Hyland (12), Clark (11), Dillingham (5), Miller (3), Juzeng (2), Conley (2), Beranger (0).
Portland – Dallas – 125:122 (42:29, 33:34, 22:30, 28:29)
Portland: Avdija (27 + 9 rebounds + 11 assists + 8 losses), Sharpe (24), Klingin (18 + 11 rebounds), Kamara (9), Sissoko (6) – start; Love (24), Ruper (9), R. Williams (8 + 8 rebounds), Yang Hansen (0).
dallas: Christie (25), Gafford (17 + 10 rebounds), Flagg (15 + 7 assists + 5 turnovers), Washington (8), Nembhard (0 + 6 assists) – start; Williams (22), Marshall (17), Thompson (14), Powell (2), Caleb Martin (2).
tournament tables
Western Conference
Eastern Conference
Source: Sport UA
I am a sports journalist who has written for various websites and magazines. I currently work as an author at Sportish, a news website that covers sports news. My main focus is writing about soccer, rugby and other sports in the world.
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