Giannis Ioannidis (alternate spellings: Ioannis, Yiannis, Yannis) ( Greek: Γιάννης Ιωαννίδης; born 26 February 1945 in Thessaloniki, Greece) is a former Greek

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player, professional

basketball coach Basketball coaching is the act of directing and strategizing the behavior of a basketball team or individual basketball player. Basketball coaching typically encompasses the improvement of individual and team offensive and defensive skills, as wel ...

, and Greece New Democracy (ND) politician. He is generally considered to be the best Greek basketball

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 Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...

of all-time, since he is the one with the most major Greek national titles won (18 in total, 13 with

Aris Aris or ARIS may refer to: People * Aris (surname) Given name * Aris Alexandrou, Greek writer * Aris Brimanis, ice hockey player * Aris Christofellis, Greek male soprano * Aris Gavelas, Greek sprinter * Aris Howard, Former President of the J ...

, and 5 with

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a numbe ...

Biography

Ioannidis was born in Thessaloniki, and studied Agriculture in the Faculty of

Geotechnical Geotechnical engineering is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics for the solution of its respective engineering problems. It al ...

Sciences at the

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

. He is married and has one daughter.

Basketball career

Playing career

During his youth, Ioannidis became a member of the youth clubs of Aris, in 1959. He joined the senior men's team of

, of the

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 ...

, in 1960. He played with Aris in the Greek League, until 1978, when he retired. With 4,970 points scored as a member of Aris, he is the second highest scorer of all-time in the history of the club, after

Nikos Galis Nikolaos Georgalis ( el, Νικόλαος Γεωργαλής; born July 23, 1957), commonly known as either Nikos Galis ( el, Νίκος Γκάλης), or Nick Galis, is a retired Greek professional basketball player. Galis, who during his playin ...

Coaching career

Still in his playing years, Ioannidis agreed to assume the head coach position at

Cretan Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

club

Ergotelis The Gymnastics Club «Ergotelis» Heraklion Crete ( el, Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος «O Εργοτέλης» Ηρακλείου Κρήτης, Γ.Σ. Εργοτέλης), commonly known simply as Ergotelis ( el, Εργοτέλης), ...

in 1977, after being offered the job by longtime friend and fellow

student Manolis Nikiforakis.Όταν ο Γιάννης Ιωαννίδης ανέβαζε κατηγορία τον Εργοτέλη! 8 February 2016
/ref> Travelling back and forth between Thessaloniki and

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...

, Ioannidis managed to promote the club to the

Greek B Basket League The Greek B Basket League, or Greek B Basketball League (Greek: Ελληνική Β Μπασκετ Λιγκ), is a national basketball league in Greece. It is also known as the Second National Championship, B National Championship, Second National ...

. After retiring from playing basketball, Ioannidis became a full-time

. He eventually became the

, and with the club, he won a total of 8 Greek League championships, and 5 Greek Cups. With Aris, he also participated at 3 consecutive FIBA European Champions' Cup (now called EuroLeague) Final Fours. Later, he coached

, where he won 4 consecutive Greek League championships, a

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most imp ...

, and participated at 2 consecutive FIBA EuroLeague

Finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. He was the architect of the most glorious victory of

, which came against Panathinaikos, in the last game of the 1995–96 Greek League Finals, with a winning score of 73-38. That was his last game coaching with

at that time. The next year, he joined

AEK A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadel ...

, where he stayed for 2 seasons, and with them he managed to reach one more

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

of the FIBA EuroLeague. After a short come-back to

, he finished his coaching career with the senior men's

Greek national basketball team The Greece men's national basketball team ( el, Eθνική Oμάδα Καλαθοσφαίρισης Ελλάδος) represents Greece in international basketball. They are controlled by the Hellenic Basketball Federation, the governing body for ...

, which he coached at the

EuroBasket 2003 The 2003 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 2003, was the 33rd FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe, which also served as the Europe qualifier for the 2004 Summer Olympics, giving a berth ...

Teams coached

: 1977 *

: 1978–79 * G.S. Larissas: 1979–81 * Greek national team: 1980–81 *

: 1982–90 *

: 1991–96 *

: 1996–98 *

: 1999–00 * Greece: 2002–03

Awards and accomplishments

As a head coach

Titles won

*12× Greek League Champion: 1979, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 (with

), 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 (with

) *6×

Winner: 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 (with

), 1994 (with

) * Greek 2nd Division Champion: 1980 (with Gymnastikos)

Other honors

*3× Greek League Runner-Up: 1984 (with

), 1992 (with

), 1997 (with

) *2×

Runner-Up: 1984 (with

), 1998 (with

) *3× EuroLeague

Runner-Up:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake stri ...

(with

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

(with

) *6× EuroLeague Final Four Appearance:

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicentenn ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

, (with

)

(with

)

Political career

Ioannidis announced his retirement from professional basketball in the year 2004, before he was elected a New Democracy MP for the Thessaloniki A constituency in the 2004 general election, and re-elected in 2007. Since September 2007, he has been Deputy Minister Of Culture Responsible for Sports. In the 2014 regional election, he challenged incumbent

Apostolos Tzitzikostas Apostolos G. Tzitzikostas ( el, Απόστολος Τζιτζικώστας; born 2 September 1978) is a Greek politician of the New Democracy party, governor of the region of Central Macedonia since 2013 and First Vice-President of the Europ ...

as Regional Governor of

Central Macedonia Central Macedonia ( el, Κεντρική Μακεδονία, Kentrikí Makedonía, ) is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece, consisting of the central part of the geographical and historical region of Macedonia. With a populat ...

, after Tzitzikostas had lost his party's support. He was however clearly defeated in the second round. At the January 2015 legislative election, he also lost his parliamentary seat.

References

External links

Giannis Ioannidis website
*
The top of the Greek bench: Giannis Ioannidis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ioannidis, Giannis 1945 births Living people AEK B.C. coaches Aris B.C. coaches Aris B.C. players Sport in Thessaloniki Ergotelis B.C. coaches Greece national basketball team coaches Greek basketball coaches Greek Macedonians Greek men's basketball players Greek MPs 2004–2007 Greek MPs 2007–2009 Greek MPs 2009–2012 Greek MPs 2012 (May) Greek MPs 2012–2014 MPs of Thessaloniki Greek sportsperson-politicians Gymnastikos S. Larissas B.C. coaches New Democracy (Greece) politicians Olympiacos B.C. coaches Basketball players from Thessaloniki Point guards