Ampelokipoi B.C. or Ampelokipi B.C. ( el, Α.Ο. Αμπελοκήπων, Αμπελόκηποι) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

club that is based in the

Athenian Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

neighborhood Ampelokipoi. It plays in the third local division (Γ ΕΣΚΑ), but in the past it has played in the top-tier

Greek Basket League The Greek Basket League (GBL), often also referred to as the Greek A1 Basketball League, or Greek Basketball Championship (originally called Panhellenic Basketball Championship), and also known as the Stoiximan Basket League for sponsorship reaso ...

for two seasons. The club's colours are green and white, and its emblem is three circles, like Olympic circles.

History

Ampelokipoi was founded in 1929, originally as Hephaestus Athens. In the first post-war years, the club was renamed to Athletic Union of Ampelokipoi, and in the year 1954, the club merged with Niki Ampelokipoi, and was then renamed to Ampelokipoi Athletic Club. The club had departments in all popular sports in Greece: football, basketball, and volleyball. But the club was in the shadow of the nearby Panathinaikos club. Only during the 1990s, did the basketball team have some success, when it had Georgios Kalafatakis as

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

, and was promoted up through five division levels in five seasons, ultimately reaching the top-tier

. Ampelokipoi played in the top-tier Greek Basket League for two seasons (1994–95 and 1995–96), having notable players such as

Tzanis Stavrakopoulos Tzanis Stavrakopoulos ( el, Τζαννής Σταυρακόπουλος) (born October 30, 1971) is a Greek former professional basketball player. At a height of 2.02 m (6'7 "), he played at the small forward position. Professional career Stavrako ...

, Giorgos Floros, Lawrence Funderburke, and

Ashraf Amaya Ashraf Omar Amaya (born November 23, 1971) is an American former professional basketball player. High school career Amaya attended Oak Park and River Forest High School for his freshman year, but he transferred to Walther Lutheran High School to ...

in the team. After losing the most notable players of the team, the club then played in the Greek 2nd Division for the two next seasons. In those following years, the club's most notable player was

Theo Papaloukas Theodoros Papaloukas (Greek: Θεόδωρος Παπαλουκάς; born May 8, 1977), commonly known as Theo Papaloukas or Thodoris Papaloukas, is a retired Greek professional basketball player. He was a four - time All-EuroLeague selection, a me ...

. Over the following years, Ampelokipoi started on a decline period, and the team ended up down in the local regional divisions.

Honours and titles

Domestic competitions

* Greek 2nd Division : Champions (1): 1993–94 * Greek 3rd Division : Champions (1): 1992–93 * Greek 4th Division : Champions (1): 1991–92

Notable players

Greece: * Giorgos Floros * Panagiotis Maragopoulos *

Americas: *

* Lawrence Funderburke * Aaron Williams *

Ian Lockhart Ian DeWitt Lockhart (born June 25, 1967 in Nassau, Bahamas) is a Bahamian former professional basketball player. Listed at 6 ft 8 in (203 cm) and 240 lb (109 kg) he played as a small forward. College career Lockhart played college ...

Head coaches

* Georgios Kalafatakis

Men's football club

Ampelokipoi's football team, Ampelokipoi F.C. did not manage to have the same kind of successes as the basketball club did. In 2003, the football team of Ampelokipoi merged with the local team Pyrsos, and was then renamed to Athletic Culture Club of Ampelokipoi (Αθλητικός Πολιτιστικός Σύλλογος Αμπελοκήπων).