Giannis Ioannidis (alternate spellings: Ioannis, Yiannis, Yannis) (

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

: Γιάννης Ιωαννίδης; 26 February 1945 – 4 October 2023) was a Greek basketball 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. Ioannidis was generally considered to be the best Greek professional basketball club

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

of all-time, since he was the one with the most top-tier level major Greek national club titles won (19 in total, 14 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 Konstantinidis, Greek architect * ...

, and 5 with

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

). In all competition levels overall, he won a total of 20 club league titles as a head coach. He also holds the all-time record for the most wins as a head coach, in the history of the

Greek Championship The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repl ...

Biography

Giannis Ioannidis was born in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

on 26 February 1945. He studied Agriculture in the Faculty of

Geotechnical Geotechnical engineering, also known as geotechnics, is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics to solve its engineering problems. I ...

Sciences Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

at the

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki ( AUTh; ), often called the University of Thessaloniki, is the second oldest tertiary education institution in Greece. Named after the philosopher Aristotle, who was born in Stageira, about east of Thessa ...

. Ioannidis was married and had one daughter. He died on 4 October 2023, at the age of 78.

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 Basketball League (GBL), and also known as the Stoiximan Greek Basketball League (GBL) for sponsorship reasons, is the Greek basketball league system, first tier level professional basketball league in Greece. It is run by the ...

, 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 (; born July 23, 1957), commonly known as either Nikos Galis (), or Nick Galis, is a Greek-American former professional basketball player. Galis, who during his playing days was nicknamed, "Nick The Greek", "The Gangster", and ...

.100 χρόνια ιστορίας: Οι καλύτεροι μας παίκτες ( top10 ) .
/ref>

Coaching career

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

Cretan Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

club

Ergotelis Ergotelis Football Club () is a Greek professional Association football, football club based in Heraklion, Crete, which competes in the Heraklion Football Clubs Association, FCA Heraklion A1, the fourth tier of the Greek football league system, ...

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

and

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, Ioannidis managed to promote the club to the

Greek B Basket League The Greek B Basket League, or Greek B Basketball League (Greek language, Greek: Ελληνική Β Μπασκετ Λιγκ), is a national basketball league in Greece. It is the Greek basketball league system, 3rd-tier level of the basketball leag ...

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

. He eventually became the

, and with the club, he won a total of eight Greek League championships, five Greek Cups, and one

Greek Super Cup The Greek Super Cup (), formerly known as the Friendship and Solidarity Cup () is a Greek association football one-match competition, which is contested annually either between the champions of the previous Super League Greece season and the hold ...

. With Aris, he also participated at three consecutive FIBA European Champions' Cup (

EuroLeague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

)

Final Four In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...

s. Later, he coached

, where he won four consecutive Greek League championships, a

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

, and also participated at two consecutive editions of the FIBA EuroLeague's

Finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. Ioannidis 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, where he stayed for two seasons, and with them he managed to reach one more

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

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

, he finished his coaching career with the senior men's Greek national team, which he coached at the 2003 EuroBasket.

Teams coached

: 1977 *

: 1978–79 * G.S. Larissas: 1979–81 *

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

: 1980–81 *

: 1982–90 *

: 1991–96 * AEK: 1996–98 *

: 1999–00 *

: 2002–03

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 The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position. In an election, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the position that is up for election, regardless of whether they are seeking re-election. There may or may not be ...

Apostolos Tzitzikostas Apostolos G. Tzitzikostas (, ; born 2 September 1978) is a Greek politician who served as governor of the region of Central Macedonia from 2013 to 2024 and was formerly President of the European Committee of the Regions from 2020 until 2022. Sin ...

as Regional Governor of

Central Macedonia Central Macedonia ( ; , ) is one of the thirteen Regions of Greece, administrative regions of Greece, consisting the central part of the Geographic regions of Greece, geographical and historical region of Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia. With a ...

, 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.

Awards and accomplishments

As a player

*2nd highest career scorer of all-time in the history of the club

, with 4,970 total points scored.

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

) *

Winner:

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

(with

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

Other honors

*3×

Finalist:

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

(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 Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

(with AEK) *6×

Participation: 1988,

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

, (with

)

(with

(with AEK) *3× Greek League Finalist: 1984 (with

), 1992 (with

), 1997 (with AEK) *2×

Finalist: 1984 (with

), 1998 (with AEK) *Most wins in the history of the Greek League as a

, with a total of 418 wins.

References

External links

Giannis Ioannidis website
*
The top of the Greek bench: Giannis Ioannidis

Hellenic Federation Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ioannidis, Giannis 1945 births 2023 deaths AEK B.C. coaches Aris B.C. coaches Aris B.C. players Basketball players from 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 Greek sportsperson-politicians Gymnastikos S. Larissas B.C. coaches MPs of Thessaloniki New Democracy (Greece) politicians Olympiacos B.C. coaches Point guards Sport in Thessaloniki 20th-century Greek sportsmen