ESAKE, the organizing authority of the A1 championship, is celebrating its 30th anniversary since its inaugural general assembly was held on March 11, 1992 as it is today. Speaking on the ESAKE website, the first president, Theodoros Karatzas, recalled that time The beginning of a golden period for Greek basketball.

The tribute posted on the ESAKE page in detail:

“Exactly 30 years ago, on March 11, 1992, the inaugural meeting of the Association of Paid Basketball Players (ESAK), which was renamed ESAKE (Hellenic Association of Basketball Players) Association in 1997, took place at the St. George Likabetous Hotel, remembers Theodoros Karatzas the first steps of Greek professional basketball.

The law establishing ESAK was passed by Parliament on August 5, 1991, on the proposal of Deputy Sports Minister Fanis Palli Petralia.

On March 11th the founding General Assembly of ESAK took place in the presence of Fotis Athanasopoulos (from Pagrati), Nikolaos Vezirtzis (PAOK), Vassilios Giavroutas, (Representative A2) Athanasios Giannakopoulos (Panathinaikos), Frangiskos Danipas (Danigidos Olympikos) ), Theodoros Karatzas (Papagou), Konstantinos Katsiki (Dafni), Pavlos Korkidis (Panionios), Filippo Kotsi (Peristeri), Christos Michailidis (Aris), Dimitris Rousakis (AEK), Konstantinos Haitoglou (Iraklis). in which, after appointments, the first chairman of the board was elected:

Chairman: Theodoros Karatzas

Vice President: Fotis Athanasopoulos

Secretary General: Filippos Kotsis

Treasurer: Frangiskos Daniilidis

“In the 1990-91 season, when my team, Papagou, was promoted to A1, in the informal meetings we had, the teams were determined to go ahead with the creation of professional basketball.” Theodoros Karatzas reminds and emphasizes: “We had taken all teams out of discussions about our rivalries and agreed on the common goal of making basketball a pro. At that time there was a very strong group of players in basketball and I feel that because people do everything. “Both the good guys and the bad guys.”

– How did you become President?

“Initially, as President of Papagos, I did not engage in issues unrelated to the internal affairs of my team, but at the urging of the late General Secretary of Panathinaikos, Giannis Malakate, I took part in the informal meetings of other clubs and as ESAK was founded, he decided to become president.

I had the advantage of coming from a small team and being neutral in the bigger club rivalries. Something like the UN (laughs)”.

– Was there government aid for professional basketball?

“The state decided by law to become the ESAK. We didn’t get a single cent from the state. We worked with our own resources, our own staff and independently of the teams and we were a successful league. When I left after ten years, I left a good cash register”.

– What has changed in Greek basketball as a result of professionalism and the creation of ESAK?

“With the creation of ESAK, a lot has changed in basketball. We created strict regulations that we followed and didn’t change during the season. All the problems we found in the championship, we corrected over the summer by changing the Adjusted rules for the next championship or created new ones.

We gave the teams the opportunity to get a second foreigner. Until then, one foreigner was allowed in the championship and the teams playing in Europe only got a second foreigner for the European competitions.

In addition, until then, the basketball games were only played on Saturdays, we also played on Sundays, while we moved the TV games to prime time. This dramatically increased the groups’ television revenues.

When ESAK took over the championship, A1 cost 60 million drachma and after a few years reached 11 billion drachma (about 33 million euros). The clubs themselves negotiated their championship very well and we got to the point where we got the most money from any European league. Also the first Secretary General of ESAK, Filippos Kotsis, helped a lot in this area “.

– What were the results of these steps?

“The spectacular increase in sales, but also the distribution of money for 14, i.e. equal money for all teams, and the entry of the second foreigner had two main results.

They made the championship more competitive. The English say, to tell you how good the championship is, tell me how many defeats the first in the general classification suffered and how many times the first lost in those years.

The second result was that top players came from abroad and the Greek championship became the best in Europe, according to the foreign coaches and basketball players who played here.

The… crème de la crème of Europe played in our All Star Game, we even made it into the ULEB, the League of Leagues of Spain, France and Italy and together with Mr Portelas because the Italians and the French did . .. back “We organized the Euroleague without guaranteed contracts”.

– Do you remember a typical moment from the ESAKE years?

“I remember the efforts I made to prevent PAOK 2” before the end of the 5th final of the 1993-94 season against Olympiakos at SEF. It was the 2nd championship we organized and they had to end up on the field.

– What do you wish for ESAKE’s birthday?

“Let’s all do our best. The change that has taken place in the administration of the federation is an opportunity for all of us to work together to make basketball the number one sport in the country again. Basketball is worth it because it brought a lot of joy to Greek fans.

“May we relive times like the early years of ESAK, when we had the best players in our championship and we managed to win the first titles of the European Champions Cup, the forerunner of the Euroleague.”