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Basketball superstar Nikos Galis
Photo:
Claus Bergmann / IMAGO
In the evening they will sit in front of the television in Thessaloniki and Athens.
They'll be cheering on the Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, their national basketball hero who will try to knock out hosts Germany in the Euro Quarterfinals (kick-off 8.30pm RTL).
Just as the Greeks had already done in 2005 in the final of the European Championships, when they defeated Dirk Nowitzki and Co. and were crowned European champions.
Greece is a basketball country.
Olympiacos Piraeus and Panathinaikos Athens belong to the European nobility, multiple winners of the Euroleague, Giannis Antetokounmpo and his brothers Kostas and Thanasis are currently probably the most popular sports family in the country.
The turning point on June 14th
That was not always so.
Greece's rise to the Belle Epoque of basketball can even be dated to one day, June 14, 1987. The Greek sports portal Agona once wrote: »The history of Greek basketball can be divided into two periods: before 1987 and after 1987 .«
On that day, Greece played against the seemingly overpowering Soviet Union, the European Basketball Championship was held in Greece for the first time, and coach Kostas Politis' team actually made it into the final.
That in itself was a small sensation, until then an eighth place was the best placement that Greece could achieve at European Championship tournaments, they had not been able to qualify for the Olympic Games since 1952.
The Greeks had already lost two preliminary round matches at their home tournament, against Spain and against the Soviets.
The team finished fourth in the group stage and narrowly qualified for the knockout stages.
Then it began, the Greek fairy tale.
The hall is seething
Favored Italians and Yugoslavs were defeated on the way to the final, while the Greeks, who previously had only moderate interest in this sport, are becoming more involved from game to game.
When the final kicked off in Athens, the hall was seething.
The opponent, the USSR, was the defending champion.
By then they had won the European Championship 14 times, no other nation could boast such a record.
They had been denied the Olympic Games in Los Angeles three years earlier because of the boycott, they had compensated themselves with the runners-up World Championship in 1986.
The team consisted of the Baltic artists Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Valdemaras Chomičius and Valdis Valters, under the basket the giants Alexander Volkov and the 2.21 meter giant Wladmir Tkachenko grabbed everything that was possible.
They marched through the tournament undefeated in the final.
On the sidelines was white-haired coaching guru Alexander Gomelski.
Who should be able to defeat this team?
The Greeks had one in the team who took over this task that evening.
Until then, Nikos Galis had played a strong, sometimes outstanding tournament, on this evening he surpassed himself.
Raised in the US
Galis was born and raised in New York, he learned to play basketball in the USA and even absorbed it.
As a young man, he didn't even know that there were people in distant Greece who practice this sport.
They didn't want the young man in the NBA, so he moved to Europe and won pretty much everything there is to win in Europe with Aris Thessaloniki.
In Greece he was already revered when the throwing took place that evening.
Two hours later, Nikos Galis was a national monument.
The game was an ebb and flow, with the Soviets slightly ahead most of the time, with a five-point lead two minutes from time.
Only five because Galis scored from every position and kept Greece in the game.
With the USSR 89-87, the Greeks got two free throws with 30 seconds to go, which Liveris Andritsos sunk.
extension is a miracle
The USSR countered again, the ball landed in the basket to make it 91:89, the Soviets hugged each other, but the time was up by a second.
Coach Gomelski's protest was useless, the result was reset to 89:89.
It went into overtime, and that in itself was a small miracle.
The hall roared, enthusiasm swept from the field to the audience and back again, the Soviets were impressed.
Even now, no team could break away, there were only five seconds left, the score was 101:101, a last Greek attack: Galis, who had long since been man-marked, initiated the attack, over three stops he landed on Argiris, who was posted under the basket Kambouris, Kambouris jumped up with the ball, he was prevented from throwing, the referees whistled, deafening cheers.
There were free throws, four seconds before the end, the volume in the hall couldn't be surpassed, Kambouris took a deep breath and converted both free throws to 103:101, cold as ice.
The rest went down in dizziness.
Nikos Galis scored 40 of those 103 points.
40 points in a final, 296 total points in the tournament.
He was voted the most valuable player at the European Championship.
The NBA now showered him with offers, he gave them the cold shoulder and stayed in Greece until the end of his career.
As under Otto Rehhagel
Nikos Galis, Panagiotis Giannakis and Panagiotis Fasoulas, Fanis Christodoulou, and Memos Ioannou, these are names that every Greek sports fan can recite to this day.
Just like 17 years later the names of Angelos Charisteas, Antonios Nikopolidis, Traianos Dellas and Giorgios Karagounis, the soccer heroes of Otto Rehhagel's EM 2004.
Their popularity remains so great, Fasoulas is then elected mayor of Piraeus, Giannakis, as national coach, leads Greece to the 2005 European Championship title and 2006 World Cup runners-up.
At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, US hockey players sensationally won the final against the USSR, it was the Miracle on Ice.
The 1987 basketball final was the Greek Miracle on Ice.
When it comes to the semi-finals against Germany tonight, Greece is no longer an outsider.
Galis paved the way for a basketball future for the country.
It took one evening and 40 points.