Sotirios Alex Manolopoulos ( el, Σωτήρης Μανωλόπουλος; born June 27, 1970) is a Greek retired professional

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 and current basketball head coach, who is the head coach of Romanian side

Dinamo București A dynamo is a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator. Dynamo or Dinamo may also refer to: Places * Dinamo (Moscow Metro), a station of the Moscow Metro, Moscow, Russia * Dinamo (Yekaterinburg Metro), a station of the Yekaterin ...

. Born in

Athens 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 ...

, he played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

. After graduating, he returned to his native Greece, to play professional basketball. He had served as an assistant coach in several teams in 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 ...

, before he was appointed the

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 ...

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

in May 2015.

Playing career

College career

Manolopoulos played

, with the

Boston University Terriers The Boston University Terriers are the ten men's and fourteen women's varsity athletic teams representing Boston University in NCAA Division I competition. Boston University's team nickname is the Terriers, and the official mascot is Rhett the ...

. He was twice named to the America East Academic Honor Roll (1992, 1993). He appeared in 58 games for the Terriers, from 1989 to 1993, averaging 3.6 points, 1.1 rebounds, and 0.7 steals per game.

Professional career

Manolopoulos played professionally with

Papagou Papagou ( el, Παπάγου or Παπάγος ''Papagos'') is a suburb and municipal unit in the eastern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. The town is named after Marshal Alexandros Papagos, a general who led the Greek Army in the Second ...

Maroussi Marousi or Maroussi ( el, Μαρούσι, also Αμαρούσιο ''Amarousio'') is a suburb in the northeastern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. Marousi dates back to the era of the ancient Athenian Republic; its ancient name was Athmon ...

, and

Doukas The House of Doukas, Latinized as Ducas ( el, Δούκας; feminine: Doukaina/Ducaena, Δούκαινα; plural: Doukai/Ducae, Δοῦκαι), from the Latin title ''dux'' ("leader", "general", Hellenized as 'ðouks'', is the name of a Byzant ...

. While playing with Maroussi, he won the

FIBA Saporta Cup The FIBA Saporta Cup was the name of the second-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, where the domestic National Cup winners, from all over Europe, played against each other. The competition was organized by FIBA ...

2000–01 season championship.

Coaching career

Manolopoulos started his coaching career as an assistant coach with

Peristeri Peristeri (Greek language, Greek: Περιστέρι, meaning "pigeon/dove" in Greek) is a suburban municipality in the western part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. With 139,981 inhabitants (2011 census), it is the seventh-largest municipali ...

, in 2004. In the 2005–06 season, he was appointed the assistant coach of Makedonikos. He moved to

for the next season, with whom he stayed until 2011. He was named Aris' assistant coach in 2011. He was given the assistant coach job of

, in 2012. On May 4, 2015 he was appointed as

, after the removal of

Duško Ivanović Duško Ivanović (born September 1, 1957) is a Montenegrin professional basketball coach and former player who currently serves as head coach for Crvena zvezda of the Adriatic League and the EuroLeague. Professional playing career As a player, I ...

from the position. On 22 October 2015, he was appointed as an assistant coach for

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

. On 18 December 2015, he was appointed as the head coach of

, after the removal of

Dragan Šakota Dragan Šakota (Serbian Cyrillic: Драган Шакота, Greek: Ντράγκαν Σάκοτα; born June 16, 1952) is a Serbian professional basketball coach, currently with LBa basketball club, Pallacanestro Reggiana. Playing career Šakot ...

from that same position, so that he could become the

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the team. On March 21, 2017, after the departure of head coach

Jure Zdovc Jurij "Jure" Zdovc (born 13 December 1966) is a Slovenian former professional basketball player and coach Zdovc Returning to Helm of National Team.] As a player, he was a 1.98 m (6'6") tall point guard, who began his professional playing career ...

from the club, Manolopoulos became the new head coach of the club, after signing a contract with them, through the year 2018.

Honors and titles

Playing career

Champion: ** 2000–01 FIBA Saporta Cup, 2001

References

External links

FIBA Archive Player Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manolopoulos, Sotiris 1970 births Living people Boston University Terriers men's basketball players AEK B.C. coaches Doukas B.C. players Greek basketball coaches Greek expatriate basketball people in the United States Greek men's basketball players Ifaistos Limnou B.C. coaches Maroussi B.C. players Panathinaikos B.C. coaches Papagou B.C. players Point guards Shooting guards Basketball players from Athens