Panionios B.C. (

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 ...

: Πανιώνιος KAE), known in European competitions as Panionios Athens is the

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 (appro ...

club that is based in

Nea Smyrni Nea Smyrni (, ''Néa Smýrni'', "New Smyrna") is a municipality and a town in South Athens, Greece. At the 2021 Greek census, 2021 census, it had 72,853 inhabitants. It was named after the former Greek city Smyrna (today's İzmir in Turkey), whe ...

, and that plays its home games in

Glyfada Glyfada (, ) is a town and a suburb in the South Athens regional unit located in the Athens Riviera along the coast of Saronic Gulf. It is situated in the southern parts of the Athens#Athens Urban Area, Athens urban area. The area stretches from ...

, Greece. The club is also widely known as Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, or Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis, which is the Pan-Ionian Gymnastic Club of

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; , or ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, Turkey. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna ...

. This is usually abbreviated to the club name of Πανιώνιος Γ.Σ.Σ. Panionios B.C. is the basketball department of the Panionios Gymnastic Club that is based in Nea Smyrni. Panionios B.C. has been a long-time club of the top-tier level

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 ...

, which is considered one of the best national domestic basketball leagues in Europe. Panionios B.C. has also competed in the European-wide top-tier level

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 ...

. For sponsorship reasons, the club has also been known as Panionios On Telecoms and Panionios Forthnet, as well as several other sponsorship names. Some of the well-known players that have played with the club over the years have included: Faidon Matthaiou, Takis Koroneos, Makis Dendrinos, Dimitris Fosses, Kostas Missas, Fanis Christodoulou, Giannis Giannoulis, Boban Janković, P. J. Brown,

Panagiotis Giannakis Panagiotis "Notis" Giannakis (, ; born January 1, 1959), alternatively spelled Panayiotis Yiannakis or Yannakis, is a former Greek professional basketball player and coach. He is considered to be one of the greatest sportspeople of Greece. He st ...

, Henry Turner, Thurl Bailey, Travis Mays, Žarko Paspalj, Byron Dinkins, Mitchell Wiggins, Theo Papaloukas, Jure Zdovc, Laurent Sciarra, Nikos Chatzis, Georgios Sigalas, Angelos Koronios, Dimos Dikoudis, Nikos Oikonomou, Georgios Diamantopoulos, Stratos Perperoglou, Michalis Pelekanos, Ender Arslan, Miloš Vujanić, Alex Stepheson, Errick McCollum, and Tyrese Rice, among others.

Logos

Panionios B.C. (basketball team) logo.png, (The official logo of Panionios' parent club.) Panionios BC Logo.png , (The official logo of Panionios' basketball club.)

History

Early years

The basketball clubs' parent athletic union, the Panionios Gymnastic Club, was founded in 1890, in

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

(located today in the modern country of

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

), making it one of the oldest sporting clubs in Europe. The sporting clubs' basketball department was founded in 1919. After the Greek military suffered defeat in the Greco-Turkish War in 1922, the club was transferred to the

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

suburb of

, in Greece. The basketball department, Panionios B.C., began participation in the

starting in the 1928–29 season, and finished in second place in the league that year. Panionios B.C. finished in third place in the league the next year.

Rise of the club to prominence in Greek basketball

Panionios B.C. competed in the top-tier Greek basketball league, in consecutive years, from the 1981–82 season until the 2014–15 season. In the 1986–87 season, Panionios played in the championship finals series of the Greek League, losing out to

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 their two Greek basketball legends

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 ...

and

(Giannakis would later go on to play for Panionios). In 1991, led by Fanis Christodoulou, the team won the

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 ...

title, by defeating

PAOK PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

by a score of 73–70. Panionios also played in the finals game of the Greek Cup in both 1977 and 1995. Ιn the 1993–94 season, after an exciting run in the European 3rd-tier level

FIBA Korać Cup The FIBA Korać Cup was an annual basketball club competition held by FIBA Europe between the 1971–72 and 2001–02 seasons. It was the European professional club basketball system, third-tier level club competition in European basketball, a ...

, and after scoring a couple of wins against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the quarterfinals, Panionios reached the semifinals, and played against PAOK Bravo. This marked the first civil conflict between Greek basketball clubs in European-wide competitions, ever. The club finished in 3rd place in the Greek League in the 1995–96 season, under their

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 ...

at the time, Dušan Ivković, and thus qualified to the

for the 1996–97 season. In the FIBA EuroLeague 1996–97 season, the team was coached by Efthimis Kioumourtzoglou. Two years later, in 1999, Panionios once again reached the semifinals of the FIBA Korać Cup, where they were again eliminated, this time from the super favorites of the tournament,

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

, which featured Sasha Djordjević. In the Greek League 2007–08 season, under the ownership of Elias Lianos, the founder of Proton Bank, Panionios, led by Ivan Zoroski, Giannis Kalampokis, and charismatic head coach Nenad Marković, finished in 3rd place in the Greek League. They came back from an 0–2 series deficit in the deciding best-of-five league third-place series against Maroussi, and won the series 3–2. That secured the team a place in the

competition for the EuroLeague 2008–09 season. This marked the club's first EuroLeague appearance in more than a decade.

Decline of the club

After the 2014–15 season, Panionios was

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

to the Greek 2nd Division, after 33 consecutive seasons with a presence in the top-tier level

. For the 2015–16 season, Panionios preferred to play in the third-tier of Greece, the semi-pro level

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 ...

, due to financial difficulties. They were promoted up to the Greek 2nd Division for the 2016–17 season. They won the Greek 2nd Division title of the 2016–17 season, and were promoted back up to the top-tier level league, for the 2017–18 season. Due to financial difficulties, Panionios was demoted down to the Greek 3rd Division, prior to the 2020–21 season.

Panionios in international competitions

Arenas

Panionios played its domestic Greek League home games at "Artakis" Nea Smyrni Indoor Hall, a now demolished 1,832-seat arena that was owned by the Nea Smyrni municipality. They used the arena from its opening in 1979 to 2006, and from 2009 to its close in 2019. From 2006 to 2009, the club used the Helliniko Olympic Arena, which was built for the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

, and has a capacity of 15,000, as its home arena. At various times, the club has also used the National Athletic Center Glyfada Makis Liougas, which has a capacity of 3,232. In 2019, the club moved into the Sofia Befon Palaio Faliro Indoor Hall for the 2019–20 season. The arena seats 1,204 people. It was opened in 2017. The municipality of Nea Smyrni has begun the construction of a new modern-style multi-use indoor arena, called the Boban Janković Indoor Hall, named after Boban Janković, which is being built on the same location as the old Nea Smyrni Indoor Hall. The new arena was scheduled to open for the 2022–23 season but after many delays the stadium is still unfinished. The club will play at a smaller arena in Nea Smyrni neighborhood, Andreas Varikas Indoor Hall, until its new arena is completed.

Retired numbers

Roster

Current roster

Depth chart

Honours and titles

Domestic competitions

* Greek League : ''Runners-up (1)'': 1986–87 *

: Winners (1): 1990–91 : ''Runners-up (2)'': 1976–77, 1994–95 * Greek 2nd Division (1961–1986) / Greek 2nd Division (1986–present) : Winners (3): 1973–74, 1980–81, 2016–17 : ''Runners-up (1)'': 2023-24 * Greek 3rd Division : Winners (1): 2015–16 * Greek UNICEF Basketball Cup : Winners (2): 2022–23, 2023–24

European competitions

: ''Semifinalist (2)'': 1993–94, 1998–99

Other competitions

* Athens, Greece Tournament : Winners (1): 2011

International record

Season by season results

Notable players

* Greece: * Dimitris Agravanis * Vangelis Angelou * Ioannis Athanasoulas * Ioannis Athinaiou * Nikos Barlos * Marios Batis * Georgios Bogris * Nikos Chatzis * Christos Christodoulou * Fanis Christodoulou * Makis Dendrinos * Georgios Diamantopoulos * Dimos Dikoudis * Makis Dreliozis * Dimitris Fosses * Georgios Gasparis * Ioannis Georgallis *

* Charis Giannopoulos * Alexi Giannoulias * Giannis Giannoulis * Savvas Iliadis * -

Vlado Janković Vladimir "Vlado" Janković (, Vladimiros "Vlando" Yankovits, ; born March 3, 1990) is a Serbian-Greek professional basketball player who last played for Peristeri of the Greek Basketball League (GBL). Standing at 2.02 m (6 ft 7 in), he main ...

* Panagiotis Kafkis * Georgios Kalaitzis * Giannis Kalampokis * Andreas Kanonidis * Georgios Karagkoutis * Vassilis Kavvadas * Vassilis Kikilias * Takis Koroneos * Angelos Koronios * Alexis Kyritsis * Georgios Limniatis * Nikos Linardos * Antonis Mantzaris * Dimitris Marmarinos * Faidon Matthaiou * Dimitris Mavroeidis * Kostas Missas * Nikos Oikonomou * - George Papadakos * Theo Papaloukas * Dimitris Papanikolaou * - Nikos Pappas * Michalis Pelekanos * Stratos Perperoglou * Nondas Papantoniou * Vangelis Sakellariou * - Dušan Šakota * Christos Saloustros * Zisis Sarikopoulos * Georgios Sigalas * Alexandros Sigkounas * Ioannis Sioutis * Vangelis Sklavos * Gaios Skordilis * Dimitris Stamatis * Tzanis Stavrakopoulos * Vassilis Symtsak * Christos Tapoutos * Dimitris Verginis * Vassilis Xanthopoulos Europe: * Stephen Arigbabu * Ender Arslan * Dejan Borovnjak * Branko Cvetković * Boris Dallo * Uroš Duvnjak * Zoran Erceg *

Vassil Evtimov Vassil Iliev "Vasco" Evtimov () (born 30 May 1977) is a French-Bulgarian former professional basketball player and head coach of Cherno More Ticha in National Basketball League. A 2.08 m power forward, he played professionally in ten different ...

* Boban Janković * - Dušan Jelić * Gintaras Kadžiulis * Antanas Kavaliauskas * Dragan Lukovski * Nenad Marković * Guy-Marc Michel * Vladimir Micov * Goran Nikolić * Žarko Paspalj * - Miroslav Pecarski * - Miroslav Raičević * - Tyrese Rice * Joao Santos * Laurent Sciarra * Nikoloz Tskitishvili *

Kristaps Valters Kristaps Valters (born September 18, 1981) is a Latvian former professional basketball player. After retiring he became a coach, and is currently working as a head coach for Valmiera/ORDO. Playing career Valters first played professionally in ...

* Jure Zdovc USA: * William Avery * Thurl Bailey * Toby Bailey * Lonny Baxter * Davion Berry * Chris Booker *

P.J. Brown Collier "P. J." Brown Jr. (born October 14, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The , center/power forward was selected out of Louisiana Tech University by the New ...

* Travon Bryant * T. J. Carter * Mateen Cleaves * Jon Diebler * Byron Dinkins * Joey Dorsey * Ruben Douglas * Muhammad El-Amin * Luke Hancock * Antonio Harvey * Donnell Harvey *

John Hudson John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Ep ...

Andre Hutson Andre Davon Hutson (born January 12, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player. Born in Dayton, Ohio, the tall Hutson, played as a power forward and Center (basketball), center, during his professional career. High school Hutson ...

* Chris Jent * Billy Keys *

Randolph Keys Randolph Keys (born April 19, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player who played five National Basketball Association (NBA) seasons in his career for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee ...

* Mark Landsberger * Kevin Langford * Travis Mays * Amal McCaskill * Errick McCollum * Jeff McInnis * Gerry McNamara * Landon Milbourne * Aaron Miles * Chris Owens * Mark Payne * Gabe Pruitt * Rod Sellers * Paul Shirley * E. J. Singler * Ed Stokes * Jimmie Taylor * Henry Turner * John Wallace * Travis Watson * Mitchell Wiggins * Kennedy Winston * Rashad Wright Rest of Americas: * - Levon Kendall * Samardo Samuels Africa: * - Chinemelu Elonu Oceania: * Brad Newley

Head coaches

Top players in games played and points scored in the Greek Basket League (since the 1992–93 season)

Panionios team leaders in games played and points scored, since the

became fully

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

, starting with the 1992–93 season. * Through the 2019–20 season. : :

References

External links

Panionios B.C. Official Website

Eurobasket.com Team Page

Greek Basket League Team PageEuroCup Official Team PageEuroleague.net Panionios B.C. Team ProfilePanionios Panthers Club
{{Greek Basket League

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 (appro ...

Basketball teams in Attica Nea Smyrni Greek Basket League teams