Olympia Larissa B.C. (alternate spellings: Olimpia, Larissas, Larisa, Larisas) (

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 ...

: Ολύμπια Λάρισας) was a Greek professional

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, based in Larissa, Greece. The club's full name was Olympia Larissa Basketball Club. It was founded in 1979, making it one of the youngest sports clubs in Greece. Its colors were orange and blue. Olympia Larissa's home arena was the

Larissa Neapolis Arena Larissa Neapolis Indoor Arena is an indoor sporting arena that is located in the city of Larissa, Greece, in the district of Neapolis. The arena is used to host basketball and volleyball games. The arena is a part of the Larissa National Sport ...

. The most notable Greek players that played for the club include:

Georgios Printezis Georgios Printezis (alternate spelling: Giorgos) ( el, Γεώργιος Πρίντεζης, born February 22, 1985) is a Greek former professional basketball player who spent the majority of his career with Olympiacos of the Greek Basket League a ...

Dimos Dikoudis Dimosthenis "Dimos" Dikoudis (alternate spellings include: Demosthenis, Demos, Ntikoudis) ( el, Δημοσθένης "Δήμος" Ντικούδης; born June 24, 1977 in Larissa, Greece), is a retired Greek professional basketball player. He is ...

, and

Nikos Oikonomou Nikolaos "Nikos" Oikonomou (alternate spellings: Ikonomou, Ekonomou) (Greek: Νικόλαος "Νίκος" Οικονόμου; born February 19, 1973) is a retired Greek professional basketball player, and a current professional basketball coach. ...

History

Olympia Larissa B.C. is a team that ascended in the mid to late 2000s, as a team primarily composed of young players on the rise, with a promising future. During the 2006–07 season, Olympia Larissa placed 7th in the Greek League regular season, and qualified to the Greek League playoffs for the first time, with core leaders such as former

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

standout Matt Walsh, 2007 NBA Draft second round draft pick

, Georgios Tsiaras, and

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 ...

Georgios Bartzokas Georgios Bartzokas (alternate spellings: Giorgos, George, Mpartzokas) ( el, Γιώργος Μπαρτζώκας, born June 11, 1965) is a Greek former professional basketball player and current head coach for Olympiacos of the Greek Basket League ...

. In the 2007–08 season of the Greek League, Olympia qualified for the playoffs for the second consecutive year, after placing 8th in the regular season standings. In the 2007–08 season of the

EuroChallenge FIBA EuroChallenge (called the FIBA Europe League in 2003–05, and FIBA EuroCup in 2005–08) was the 3rd-tier level transnational men's professional continental club basketball competition in Europe, from 2003 to 2015. It was organized and run ...

, the team reached the Top 16 stage of the competition, and that same season in the

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 ...

, the club reached the quarterfinals. In 2009, Olympia Larissa merged with

AEL 1964 Athlitiki Enosi Larissas ( el, Αθλητική Ένωση Λάρισας,e-ael.gr
''Athletic Union of Larissa''), foun ...

, under the name G.S. Olympia Larissas. After a year, the club was

relegated In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

Notable players

* Marios Batis *

Kostas Charalampidis Konstantinos "Kostas" Charalampidis (alternate spellings: Constantinos, Costas, Haralampidis, Haralambidis, Haralabidis, Charalambides) (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος "Κώστας" Χαραλαμπίδης; born April 4, 1976) is a retired Greek ...

* Sotiris Gioulekas *

Nikos Kaklamanos Nikos Kaklamanos (born July 12, 1981 in Greece) is a Greek professional basketball player. He is 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) in height. He can play at both the point guard and shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two gua ...

Fanis Koumpouras Theophanis "Fanis" Koumpouras (; born December 8, 1983) is a Greek professional basketball player. He is 6 ft 1 in (1.87 m) in height, and he plays at the point guard position. Professional career Koumpouras began his career playing with th ...

Pantelis Papaioakeim Panteleimon "Pantelis" Papaioakeim (alternate spelling: Papaeoakeim) ( el, Παντελεήμων "Παντελής" Παπαϊωακείμ) (born 9 September 1975) is a retired Greek professional basketball player. At a height of 2.06 m (6'9") t ...

Spiros Papavasileiou Spiro(s) may refer to: * Spiro, Oklahoma, a town in the U.S. ** Spiro Mounds, an archaeological site * Spiro (band), a British music group * Spiro (name), including a list of people with the name * Špiro, South Slavic masculine given name * ARA ...

Kostas Totsios Konstantinos "Kostas" Totsios ( el, Κώστας Τότσιος; born August 7, 1978) is a Greek professional basketball player who last played for Iraklis of the Greek A2 Basket League. Totsios has spent all of his career, except for two season ...

* Georgios Tsiaras Europe: *

Stephen Arigbabu Stephen Olumide Arigbabu (born 15 February 1972) is a German professional basketball coach and former player. He is 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) tall. Arigbabu played at the center position. Professional career During his professional career, Arigba ...

Steve Hansell ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

* Vladimir Krstić *

Māris Ļaksa Māris Ļaksa (born 8 September 1981 in Ventspils) is a Latvian professional basketball forward who, as of 2012, is a member of BC Rakvere Tarvas. He is also a member of Latvia national basketball team The Latvia men's national basketball team ...

* -

Franko Nakić Franko Nakić ( el, Φράνκο Νάκιτς; born June 9, 1972) is a Croatian-Greek retired professional basketball player. Under his Greek nationality, he is known by the name of Franko Nakits. Early life Nakić was born in Šibenik, to his fa ...

Aleksandar Radojević Aleksandar Radojević ( sr-cyr, Александар Радојевић, ; born August 8, 1976) is a Bosnian former professional basketball player. Standing at , he played the center position. Radojević represented the Bosnia and Herzegovina nat ...

* Sven Schultze USA: *

Erick Barkley Erick Barkley (born February 21, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player. Born in Queens, New York, he played high school basketball at Christ the King Regional High School and the Maine Central Institute and college basketb ...

Doremus Bennerman Doremus Tremayne Bennerman (born July 5, 1972) is an American former professional basketball player. College Bennerman played at Siena between 1990 and 1994. He is one of only two players in program history to score over 2,000 points (2,109). In ...

* Corey Belser * James Forrest *

Tyrone Grant Tyrone Jeremy Grant (born January 24, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player of Barbadian descent. At a height of 2.02 m (6'7 ") tall, he played at the small forward and power forward positions. He was en explosive scorer and go ...

Michael Antonio "Mike" King Michael Antonio King (born March 26, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player. College career King played collegiate for The George Washington University. He attended Lake Clifton High School in Baltimore, Maryland, where he wo ...

* Chris Massie *

Tyrone Nesby Tyrone Lamont Nesby (born January 31, 1976) is an American retired professional basketball player. Nesby went to Cairo High School in Cairo, Illinois. He played collegiately at Vincennes University (1994–1996), and at UNLV (1996–1998). After ...

* Matt Walsh

Head coaches

Women's team

The club's women's basketball section, compete in the 2015-16 season of the Greek Women's basketball second national tier, the A2 women's league.

References

External links

Eurobasket.com Team ProfileOlympia B.C. Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:G.S. Olympia Larissa B.C. Basketball teams established in 1979 Basketball teams in Greece Sport in Larissa