The many lives of the great Giannis Ioannidis

I never thought the moment would come when I would write the obituary for Yannis Ioannidis. He always seemed to me invulnerable, invincible, a man who slept little, I never heard him say “I’m tired”, his eyes sparkled, an unceasing energy flowed from him.

And yet. The life he remembered so fondly (his famous quotes always began with the phrase “in life…”) ended up being treated very unfairly. In essence, his death was a redemption for him and his family, his partner Iula, whom he had loved since childhood, and his only daughter Theodora-Elene.

His illness had kept him down in his home in Vari and kept him away from the public eye. But sit down? Do such people really die? In the end, let the “blonde” manage to live not just one, but five lives together.

Orphaned by his father at a young age, he was an excellent student but also an unrepentant rioter who, as soon as he closed his books, went out to play, only to break his arms, legs and heads (or, at best, bleed). ). He could have become an excellent scientist (agricultural science graduate) if he had not been interested in basketball.

From a player he became a coach overnight, he walked through the benches of three major teams (Aris, Olympiacos, AEK), he managed the national team in two different seasons, and when he left the benches he walked through the door of Parliament, after he won the election campaign. He never thought he would lose. It was what he hated most.

During his first training session with Aris, he wore sandals and a bandage on his hand because he had an infection on his finger! Within two or three months, he had convinced Anestis Petalidis that the delicate blonde would surpass his peers and elders in basketball, even if he had never held the orange ball in his hands.

He fell in love with basketball at first sight. Sport at home and abroad owes him a lot. A large part of his success is due to his own perfectionism and the passion that filled him every time: winning!

He later demanded of his players this, which he himself did as a child: “I want to see you fall, break your arms and heads, but above all win.” The way basketball was played in Greece is also a Result of his own philosophy. Let’s not forget that Ioannidis founded two dynasties, Aris in the 80s and Olympiacos in the 90s, each time building on the national team’s successes and continuing them on a collective level.

Yes, he never claimed to have won the highest European Cup, but the destination doesn’t matter, but the journey, the blonde and his teams were first class and exciting journeys.

When he lost the championship and the cup within a week in 1984, in his mind, which was always working with thousands of revolutions, the only idea for Galis and Giannakis to live together was the path to empire. This duo was the mainstay of Aris, but as it turned out, also of the national team, as the equally visionary Kostas Politis had the same concept.

However, in order for the two legends of Greek basketball to become big in our representative group, they had to get used to each other and this could only happen at the highest level of Ares. Ioannidis moved gods and demons – as he did every time he set his mind to something – to achieve his goal, and although it seemed more logical for Giannakis to end up in Panathinaikos or AEK with state intervention from the general director Kimonas Koulouris, he left to Thessaloniki.

Above all, fair

Ioannidis made life unbearable for his players. It wasn’t at all easy to go through the endless preparations or endure it all year round. But as Panagiotis Fasoulas once told me over the years, you knew that, above all, you were dealing with a fair coach.

They may have acrobated between excitement and famous charms, but he knew how to repay faith and patience. The blonde wanted master players. And those who could follow him did. He left behind a great legacy, but also a great achievement. Wherever he went, he was worshiped and idolized from the podium.

There was no other way on Mars. It was his own meat, his team. Olympiacos became his second home, and he was idolized even in AEK, which didn’t stay long. He had loyal followers and rabid fans everywhere who drank water in his name. His departure from the “Red and Whites” caused almost civic grief in Olympiacos and was so loud that it even inspired the publication of a sports newspaper.

Behind his voices and obsessions

Ioannidis was not an easy man. He was obsessive, he was overprotective, you had to know his quirks in order to get along with him or work with him. He always demanded the best, pushed you to the limit, but always prevailed. He thought he had – almost – infallibility, he shouted, he was angry.

That dynamic, the swagger that his opponents loved… hated, was a side of him. The other one was completely different. Again, it was Ioannidis, but not the one obsessed with basketball, but a man who loved the arts – he also became a rare collector – and had sensibilities that no one could have imagined.

You could say that his calls, his fights on the field were also a kind of defense. Like the ones his teams played and no opponent could beat.