Esperos Kallitheas B.C. is the men's basketball section of the Greek
multi-sports club
A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports.
Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...
of
Esperos Kallitheas
Esperos (in el, Π.Ο.Κ. Έσπερος) is a sports club in Kallithea (within greater Athens, Greece), founded in 1943 during the Nazi occupation of the country (1941–44).
History
Started as a football club and participated during World Wa ...
(full name: POK Esperos/Panathlitikos Omilos Kallitheas Esperos). The basketball club was founded in 1945, two years after the establishment of the parent athletic club.
The club has played six times in the
top-tier level
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 ...
, (the last time was in the 1999–2000 season).
History
Esperos Basketball Club was founded in 1945, thanks to the efforts of Takis Kontouzoglou. In the 1972–73 season, they played for first time in the
top-tier level
Greek first division. They also played in the Greek first division in another 5 seasons (in the 1978–79, 1980–81, 1982–83, 1989–90, and 1999–2000 seasons), making it six seasons in total that they played in Greece's first division, counting the 1972–73 season.
[
Esperos also won the Greek 2nd division championship once, in the 1998–99 season, and they have also won four Greek B League championships (Greek 3rd-tier), in 1978, 1980, 1982, and 1987.
]
Notable players
* Liveris Andritsos
Liveris Andritsos ( el, Λιβέρης Ανδρίτσος; born December 31, 1959, in Athens, Greece) is a retired Greek professional basketball player and coach. At a height of 2.02 m (6'7 ") tall, he could play at both the small forward and po ...
* Dimitris Dimakopoulos
Dimitris Dimakopoulos (alternate spelling: Dimitrios) ( el, Δημήτρης Δημακόπουλος; born January 28, 1966 in Thessaloniki, Greece) is a former Greece, Greek professional basketball player.
Professional career
Dimakopoulos start ...
* Makis Nikolaidis
Prodromos "Makis" Nikolaidis (alternate spelling: Nikolaides) (Greek: Πρόδρομος "Μάκης" Νικολαΐδης; born July 13, 1978) is a former Greek-Cypriot professional basketball player. At a height of 2.01 m (6'7") tall, and 102&n ...
* Dimitrios Marmarinos
Dimitrios Marmarinos (alternate spelling: Dimitris) (Greek: Δημήτρης Μαρμαρινός; born on May 14, 1976 in Chalkida, Greece) is a Greek former professional basketball player. At a height of 2.07 m (6'9 ") tall, he played at the p ...
* Giannis Giannoulis
Giannis Giannoulis (alternate spellings: Gioannis, Yannis, Ioannis, Yiannis (Greek: Γιάννης Γιαννούλης; born June 5, 1976) is a Greek-Canadian former professional basketball player. During his playing career, at a height of 2.08 ...
* Alekos Petroulas
Alexandros "Alekos" Petroulas (Greek: Αλέξανδρος "Αλέκος" Πέτρουλας; born June 2, 1978) is a Greek professional basketball player. At a height of 2.02 m (6' 7") tall, he can play at both the power forward and center posit ...
* Dimitrios Katiakos
Dimitrios Katiakos (alternate spelling: Dimitris) (born March 10, 1987 in Cholargos, Attica, Greece) is a Greek former professional basketball player. At a height of 2.05 m (6' 8" tall, he played at the power forward and center positions.
Profes ...
* Spyros Magkounis
Spyridon "Spyros" Magkounis (alternate spellings: Spiridon, Spiros, Magounis) ( el, Σπυρίδων "Σπύρος" Μαγκουνής; born December 10, 1985 in Greece) is a Greece, Greek professional basketball player. He is a 2.02 m (6 ft ...
* Nikos Michalos
Nikolaos "Nikos" Michalos (alternate spelling: Mihalos) (Greek: Νικόλαος "Νίκος" Μίχαλος; born May 21, 1977 in Maroussi, Athens, Greece) is a Greek former professional basketball player. At a height of 1.92 m (6'3 ") tall, he ...
* Roy Tarpley
Roy James Tarpley (November 28, 1964 – January 9, 2015) was an American professional basketball player. He played the power forward and center positions in the National Basketball Association (NBA), earning an NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in ...
* Alvin Young
Alvin Jerome Young (born November 12, 1975) is an American professional basketball player.
Early life
Young was raised in Brooklyn, New York, where he attended Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School. He learned to play basketball at the church wher ...
Head coaches
* Minas Gekos
Minas Gekos (alternate spelling: Gkegos) (Greek: Μηνάς Γκέκος; born November 7, 1959 in Kurtuluş, Istanbul, Turkey) is a Greek professional basketball coach and a retired professional basketball player. At 6' 1" (1.87 m) in height, he ...
* Antonis Mantzaris
Antonis Mantzaris (alternate spelling: Antonios) ( el, Αντώνης Μάντζαρης; born 20 June 1986) is a Greek professional basketball player and coach. He is 1.93 m (6'4") tall. He can play at the shooting guard and small forward positi ...
Women's team
Esperos also had a women's basketball team. The women's team was one of the original founders of the successful club Esperides Kallitheas
Esperides Kallitheas is a women's basketball club, based in Kallithea, Athens. Esperides was founded in 1995, and at the end of 2012, changed its name and its emblem, and restarted as GS Ikaros kallitheas. This was because since Esperides faced fi ...
, that was founded in 1995.
References
External links
Official website
{{in lang, el
Eurobasket.com Team Page
Basketball teams in Attica
Basketball teams in Greece
Basketball teams established in 1945
Kallithea