Vassilis Spanoulis

Vasileios Spanoulis
Houston Rockets
Position	Point guard
League	NBA
Personal information
Born	August 7, 1982 (age 41); Larissa, Greece
Nationality	Greece
Listed height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Listed weight	195 lb (88 kg)
Career information
NBA draft	2004: 2nd round, 50th overall
	Selected by the Dallas Mavericks
Playing career	1999–present
	Stats at NBA.com
	Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Vasileios Spanoulis (Greek: Βασίλης Σπανούλης; born August 7, 1982 in Larissa, Greece) is a Greek professional basketball player who currently plays point guard for the Houston Rockets of the NBA. Spanoulis was selected by the Dallas Mavericks in the 2nd round (50th overall) of the 2004 NBA Draft.

Amateur Career 1994-1999

Spanoulis, a 6'4"/1.93m play maker guard began his basketball career with the Keravnos Larissa youth teams in Greece. He was a member of the bronze medal team at the 2000 European Junior Championship, and won a gold medal at the 2002 European Under-20 Championship.

Pro Career 1999-Current

His professional debut was with Larissa in the A2 League during the 1999-00 season. Two years later he signed with Maroussi Athens and played there until 2005.

2005-2006 Season

In 2005 he signed with Panathinaikos Athens and won the A1 League championship and cup. He played in the 2005 Greek All Star Game, and was also selected to the 2005-06 All-Euroleague 2nd Team.

International Career

Spanoulis was a member of the Greece national basketball team during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. He was a part of the Gold Medal team Panathinaikos at the Eurobasket 2005, the European Championship. Spanoulis helped to lead the Greek national team to the Silver Medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship World basketball championship.

NBA Career 2006-Current

In July 2006, Spanoulis signed a three-year deal (2 years guaranteed) with the Houston Rockets who bought out his contract from Panathinaikos. The contract was worth $5,832,000[1], in addition to his $400,000 buyout. The Rockets had acquired the rights to Spanoulis on draft night 2004, when Houston swapped draft pick #55 Luis Flores and cash considerations of $300,000 for #50 (Spanoulis).

2006-2007 NBA Season

Spanoulis' NBA rookie season was not very impressive. He had limited playing time in his rookie season with Houston averaging 8.7 minutes per game, scoring 2.7 points per game on 31.9% field goal shooting, in 31 games played off the bench.

During Spanoulis' first NBA season there was a dispute between him and the team's head coach Jeff Van Gundy over playing time. Much of this stemmed for the team's General Manager Carroll Dawson having promised Spanoulis about 20 minutes of playing time each game off the bench, playing at both of the guard spots. There was an issue between the team's management, Spanoulis, and the coach as well over the contract that Spanoulis had signed. In order to sign with the Rockets and fulfill his dreams of playing in the NBA, Spanoulis took a considerably smaller contract than the one that was being offered to him by his Euro team Panathinaikos. He still had one year under his contract with Panathinaikos, but his buyout was small and could be paid by the Rockets. Panathinkaikos countered the Rockets contract offer of $5,832,000 US dollars (equivalent to 4,665,600 Euros at the time) over 3 years with an offer of 13,200,000 Euros over 5 years, a contract that at the time (July 18th, 2006) was worth the equivalent of $16,500,000.

This meant that Spanoulis essentially agreed to play for Houston at a price of $1,944,000 per season for 3 years, passing up on Panathinkaikos' offer of $3,300,000 per season over 5 years, just for a chance of playing in the NBA. Since Spanoulis gave up a total of $10,668,000 in order to play for the Rockets and was promised playing time in return as one of the contract negotiations, it led to a falling out between Spanoulis and the team's coach Van Gundy, after Van Gundy benched Spanoulis, citing that rookie players are dangerous for coaches that are in contract years and that Spanoulis was too foul prone and lacking in outside shooting touch to be a good fit in Van Gundy's offensive system. Van Gundy was in fact in a contract year, as he had just an option year left on his coaching contract with Houston.

Trivia

Because of his long name, fans have dubbed him V-Span and Kill Bill.
The correct pronunciation of his name is Va-SILL-is spa-NOO-lis.
He is the first Greek player to play for the Houston Rockets.
The premature death of his father (in 1996 or 1997??), pressured his brother Dimitris, who is 3 years older than him, to take up the role of protector. For this reason the two brothers share a special bond with each other, although they both agree that their biggest weakness is their mother who has never stood in the way of their choices in life.
His brother Dimitrios is also a basketball player and has a tattoo of his father's likeness on his arm. He is also responsible for bringing the basketball "bug" into the Spanoulis family.
Vassilis speaks Greek, English and Italian.
His hobbies are watching television, listening to music, playing pool and social relations.
Best friends with Nikos Zisis (fellow national Greek team player, formerly with AEK BC Athens and now plays with Benetton Treviso) and Rodrick Blackney, with whom he played at Maroussi BC.
Dubbed "The Greek Steve Nash" in many FIBA basketball circles.

Player profile

“He’s a very versatile ball handler,” Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson said. “He’s a good finisher and a very good prospect. He wants to be a great player. Everybody is going to like this young man because he is a very hard-nosed player. We have watched his progress very closely,” Dawson said. “It’s a big adjustment to come to the NBA from Europe, but he is a hard worker.”[2]

Career stats

Gymnastikos Larissa [[3]] (A1 Ethniki): 1994-1998-1999-2001.
Keraunvos Larissa [[4]] (GRE-B): 1998-1999
Maroussi Athens (A1 Ethniki): 2001-2005.
Panathinaikos (A1 Ethniki): 2005-2006.
Houston Rockets (NBA): 2006-2007.

**Statistics**
Season	Team	Games	Points Totals	Points Per Game
1994-1995	Gs Larisa	N/A	N/A	N/A
1995-1996	Gs Larisa	N/A	N/A	N/A
1996-1997	GS Larisa	N/A	N/A	N/A
1997-1998	Gs Larisa	N/A	N/A	N/A
1998-99	Keraunvos Larisa	10	11	1.1
1999-00	Gs Larisa	13	90	6.9
2000-01	Gs Larisa	26	213	8.2
2001-02	Maroussi BC	12	59	4.9
2002-03	Maroussi BC	29	299	10.3
2003-04	Maroussi BC	33	367	11.2
2004-05	Maroussi BC	35	558	15.9
2005-06	Panathinaikos BC	34	368	10.8
2006-07	Houston Rockets	31	85	2.7

Achievements

Won a bronze medal at the 2000 European Junior Championship
Won a gold medal at the 2002 European Under-20 Championship
Enducted to the 2005-06 All-Euroleague 2nd Team
Played in the 2005 Greek All Star Game
Won a gold medal at the 2005 European Championship
Won the 2005-06 double with Panathinaikos Athens
Won a silver medal at the 2006 World Championship

External links