When Giorgos Sigalas took over from Panagiotis Fasoulas and was named national team captain in 1998, I asked him what he meant by that.

Although 23 years have passed since then, I remember the verse as if it were in front of me now…

“Leader means the last in joy and the first in danger“!

Sigalas, also known as “rambo“ He was certainly known for his boyishness and bravery, but his very learned descendant, Kostas Papanikolaou, doesn’t go back either…

His heart says so too and he likes to show himself in difficult times, he’s not… a cat to stand in line and hide when push comes to shove!

Leading both the National and Olympiacos teams

Sigalas and Papanikolaou are 19 years old but they are united by at least three common elements: Olympiacos, the national team and now the two captains!

It’s just that while Giorgos didn’t captain both teams at the same time, Kostas now receives that (double) honor and follows in the footsteps of the man who made Sigalas (as well as the rest of his teammates) cry on August 2, Georgia- Atlanta dome.

I mean Panagiotis Giannakis, who stepped off the stage that night after twenty years of uninterrupted and vigilant vigilance in the national watchtower.

Papanikolaou: “Huge honor and little to say”

“Price, huge price and little to sayPapanikolaou, who along with Nik Kalathis and Kostas Sloukas will already be the leader of the trinity of leaders, primus inter pares (as the ancient Romans used to say in such cases), told me yesterday.

“As simple and formal as it may sound, it’s flattering, honorable, and exciting. I feel really lucky and blessed by God who deserves to be the captain of Olympiacos and the national team at the same time“.

At Olympiakos Papanikolaou he succeeded Giorgos Printezis, who was captain last season after Vassilis Spanoulis was demobilized, while at the national team he actually took over the baton from Yiannis Bourousis (WM 2019) and at the same time took over the captaincy from Haris Giannopoulos at a major event with the national team .

Lecture by Kazantzakis

In 1957 in Antibes (France), Nikos Kazantzakis teased the journalist Manolis Gialourakis after their interview with an emblematic phrase that flatters us compatriots…

“And never forget, he says loudly, that you are Cretan. It is a great responsibility to be a Cretan. Great responsibility…“.

Papanikolaou understands the scale of the responsibility of being a leader, no one needs to point it out to him.

“National team boss, what do you say now? To represent a whole country, your homeland? To follow the legends that came before? The price is not measured, it is not measured“.

Can’t be measured, Kostakis, period!

The 13 years at the observatory and the five medals

On August 12, the Trikali forward ended his 13-year presence in the men’s national team and before that but also after (2007-2010) was an emblematic member of the representative groups of children, youth and youth, with whom he twice won gold and three silver medals at as many European and World Championships.

But hell with the men’s national team, yuck!

The magical and… weary year of 2009

In the summer of 2009 there was a milestone in his life, and it was one on four wheels: he was transferred to Olympiakos by Aris, he was crowned European champion and even became MVP and a member of the top five at the Eurobasket Youth in Rhodes, he wore at the Junior World Championships in Auckland, the silver medal on the chest and was appointed to the men’s national team for the first time.

Then Papanikolaou was passe-partout, confirming the “Greek polymath” characterization adopted by (later Nuggets trainer) Michael Malone.

Back then, Papanikolaou adapted and even copied the Sarafis shops commercial: he was originally from Trikala and had opened three branches of his own!

In three nationals at the same time

The 19-year-old twirled between three national teams and he looked bionic!

He could have already achieved a unique triple crown by winning three (and colored) medals in two months, but after careful consideration, Jonas Kazlauskas left him out of the final selection for the men’s Eurobasket.

Amidst all this paranoia and…extra time, Kostas made his debut with the men’s national team on August 12, 2009 in the friendly against Romania (score 102-57) at OAKA, in fact he was christened with him in the same swimming pool and Nick Calathes.

Corner 3 in front of the Romanian bank

Papanikolaou scored nine points in his first appearance and even remembers his first shot with Ni and Sigma!

“I was in front of the Romanian bench, the ball came into my hands and I took a 3 corner. Can I forget my first basket? he asks the rhetorical question and he is not wrong.

His teammates in this first of the 121 games he played in 13 years were Kostas Koufos (15 points), Sofoklis Schortsanitis (13), Yiannis Bourousis (10), Vassilis Spanoulis (10), Nikos Zisis (9), Yiannis Kalambokis (8), Kostas Kaimakoglou (7), Nick Kalathis (7), Antonis Fotsis (7), Stratos Perperoglou (5) and Giorgos Printezis (2).

He left the marriage, but he didn’t choose Holly

Four years earlier, Papanikolaou, like… Usain Bolt or Thanasis Vengos, had run out of a church home to see Dimitris Diamantidis perform “Put My Boy” and celebrate qualifying for the Eurobasket Finals!

“At the time of the semi-final against France, we were at a family wedding in Fotada, Trikala Prefecture. I was sitting on burning coals and at some point I left the church and entered the house in a daze. Luckily, I caught the last few seconds and Diamantidis’ three-pointer“.

Seventeen years later, at the age of 32, Papanikolaou has the honor of being the… kakiouzis of modern times, but his eloquence does not represent the village lunatic!

Then, after the three defeats at the Porto San Giorgio tournament, Michalis had guessed that… “we will get the gold medal in belgrade” in a saying that went down in history.

The small basket and forearm below

Now Papanikolaou does not deviate from such a prophecy and holds a small basket, wishing to see it grow as a product of the times.

Here is his rationale:

“This year I have a different approach to things, a different rationale. We all and I personally have expectations and demands, but I prefer not to set the bar too high. We’ve eaten a lot of straws in the past few years, and we need to be humble and reserved. As a people and as an athletic caste, we are easily agitated and disappointed, so let’s keep our heads down and keep working hard to achieve our goal“.

The notorious and in such cases inclined “cautious optimism” does not prevent the first-class leader of the national team from dreaming, with the hope that the dream will not fall asleep, but will become flesh and bones in the waking state!

“We have a good team that can and should get better every day. There are many high-level players in their prime and on top of that Giannis is complete and dominant now. Also, the team is fortunate to be led by Dimitris Itoudis and an excellent technical team, with pluralism and many recruits from the Euroleague, Greek League and NBA. But I stand by what I said before: we have to be humble and play the ball down“!

On August 25, the national team meets Serbia in the qualifying phase of the 2023 World Cup in Belgrade and Papanikolaou meets an old friend from the NBA…

Life with Jokic

“joker, right? Player. good player” highlights Olympiacos striker going back seven years to remember their parallel lives…

The two were teammates in the 2015-16 season with the Denver Nuggets, where Papanikolaou (in his second NBA season) joined from the Houston Rockets, while Jokic was a rookie after his stint in the Mega Basket and his 41st-ranked option through 2014 The design.

“I then saw a chubby kid who still had a lot of talent. He was very intelligent and could see the pitch and use the spaces. It looked like he could make a career of it in the NBA, but to be honest I didn’t imagine him getting that high and becoming a two-time NBA MVP.“.

In the 2015–16 season, the Nuggets finished 10th in the Western Conference with a 33–49 record and missed the playoffs for the third straight season.

Papanikolaou stayed with the Nuggets until January 7, 2016 before returning to Olympiakos and averaging 2.6 points and 1.5 rebounds in 11.3 minutes in 26 games that season (of which he started six).

Joker played in 80 games (including 55 as a member of the starting five), averaging 10.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists and a steal in 21.7 minutes.

The Nuggets and Agravanis

They were joined that season by Danilo Gallinari, Gary Harris, Emmanuel Mundio, Will Burton, Kenneth Faried, DJ Augustin, Joffre LaVergne, Jusuf Nurkic and later Panathinaikos and Olympiakou, Sean Kilpatrick and Eric Green.

In a recent FIBA ​​video, Kostas Papanikolaou and Dimitris Agravanis were asked to answer which three players they would like to play against in the upcoming Eurobasket.

The two former Olympiacos and now international team-mates were unanimous in their choice of Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic, with Papanikolaou placing Nikola Milutinov in third place and Agravani giving preference to Shane Larkin.

The two will find Jokic in front of him next Thursday in Belgrade, in fact both opened plots with them a long time ago and managed to open them!

Papanikolaou played with him in the Nuggets and Agravanis scored with the national team (as well as Yiannis, Thanasis, Kalathis, Papapetrou and Dorsey from the current national team members) in the friendly on June 28, 2016 in Belgrade, where Jokic scored 20 points to take Serbia to a 91st place -76 victory to lead.

Short Psalm Hallelujah!