AEK Athens (basketball)
| AEK Athens (basketball) | |||
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| Nickname | Η Βασίλισσα (The Queen) | ||
| Founded | 1924 | ||
| Hall |
Nikos Galis Arena (18,989 seats) |
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| Homepage | www.aekbc.gr | ||
| president | Makis Angelopoulos | ||
| Team manager | Giorgos China | ||
| Trainer | Iliad Papatheodorou | ||
| league |
Champions League 2018/19 : VF. space |
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|
Basket League 2018/19 : 3rd place |
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| Colours | Yellow black | ||
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The AEKBC , completely Athlitiki Enosi Konstantinoupoleos ( Greek Αθλητική Ένωση Κωνσταντινουπόλεως , German: Sports Association Konstantinopels), better known under the name AEK Athens , is the outsourced basketball section of the Greek sports club of the same name AEK Athens . The club plays in the top national division of the Basket League . In addition to several championship and cup titles, the team also won several European titles and was the first Greek basketball team to win a title on the international stage.
history
In 1924, former Greeks expelled from the Ottoman Empire who had settled in and around Athens founded the AEK association . In addition to a section for athletics, the club initially installed a football and basketball department. Over the years, the board established further departments and grew into one of the largest associations in the region and the country.
First phase (1924–1953)
In its first year, the sports association was invited to the Athens City Championship, which it had successfully completed by winning it. The AEK defended this title in the following edition of the competition for the 1927/28 season and in the same year was also one of the first participants in the Panhellenic Championship, which was held for the first time . The club also took part in the 1928/29 competition, but withdrew with another two teams from the current competition during the season after there were disagreements with the executing association. The top-class competition, which was often interrupted by the Second World War, welcomed the sports association back into its ranks for the 1952/53 season after the AEK had passed the necessary qualifications for the regional divisions from 1949 to qualify for the top division again.
The way to the first Greek championship (1954–1959)
For the 1954/55 season, the AEK was runner-up in Greece. The club suffered its only defeat of the season against the later unbeaten champions and city rivals Panellinios . One of the outstanding players on the side of the Panellinio was Antonis Christeas at that season, who played his first Greek championship and was the top scorer of his team. While the competition could not be held in 1955/56, the AEK took fourth place for the 1956/57 season, while Panellinios defended his title. With Konstantinos Karamanlis, who played at AEK since 1949 and had since taken over the role of player-coach, the sports association won the Greek championship for the first time in the 1957/58 season and thus qualified for the second edition of the European Cup .
The golden decade (1960–1970)
At the beginning of the 1960s, the team was in a state of upheaval. During Karamanlis had already finished his career at AEK as player and coach, began with Giorgos Amerikanos another important player in the Greek basketball his career at Spielvereinigung, which was brought by XAN Nikeas. Missas Pantazopoulos, an experienced veteran, took his place in the dugout. Pantazopoulos became Greek champions as a player with Panellinios in 1939 and 1940 and was the one who made Panathinaikos the most successful team in Greek basketball at the time after the Second World War , after he led Panathinaikos to the championship title four times within five seasons . Pantazopoulos then took over as coach of the national team before he was to lead the events of the AEK. While the then still young American under Pantazopoulos should mature into the leading player and captain of the team, it was among others Antonis Christeas who should lead the club to its second championship in 1962/63. Christeas, two-time champion with Panellinios, already played in the national team under coach Pantazopoulos, who then brought him to the AEK. As the top scorer of his team, he also contributed to the fact that the game association was able to defend its title in 1963/64. Also AEK Athens was the champion of the 1964/65 season. In that season, Amerikaos was not only the most successful pitcher of his team, but also top scorer in the league. Once again, the game association repeated the title defense for the 1965/66 season and thus celebrated the fourth championship title in a row and the last under the leadership of Pantazopoulos. In that season, the team also made it into the Final Four of the European Champions Cup for the first time , making it the first Greek representative in basketball to succeed in a European club competition. In the ninth edition of the cup competition, however, the game association was defeated by the Czech champions Slavia Prague and thus missed the finals. The national dominance of the AEK broke in the 1966/67 season of the regained Panathinaikos. The AEK had to accept the only two defeats of the season against its city rivals, who had won the championship with just one defeat from 22 games. With the runner-up, the AEK qualified for the second edition of the European cup winners' competition .
In the 1967/68 season, coach Nikos Milas led the AEK back to the championship title. This won his players without defeat, and in the European Cup , the game association reached the semi-finals of the competition. There she met the Italian representative Ignis Varese around the then still young Dino Meneghin . Varese was one of the most dominant European teams of that era and was also the defending champion of the tournament the club had won against Maccabi Tel Aviv the previous year . In front of an estimated 5,000 spectators, the AEK had lost the first leg in Italy with 60:78 points, not unexpected by many. The second leg in Greece nevertheless attracted around 60,000 fans to the sold-out stadium, who hoped for the chance that the AEK could turn the result of the first game in order to make it into a European final for the first time in the club's history. Something that the supporters of the AEK had not been granted two years earlier. The Athenians won their second leg with 72:52 points and thus withdrew their ticket for the final, which was to be played in Athens that season.
On April 4, 1968, the game association AEK Athens met in the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup on Slavia Prague. Two years earlier, the AEK had failed to Slavia in the semi-finals of the European championship competition, and this time too, the Prague experts were favored by most of the experts for winning the title. The guests were led by their star player Jiří Zídek , who was one of the best centers in Europe at the time . The game association's entry into the finals had caused euphoria across all of Greece. 80,000 people crowded into Kallimarmaro , which actually holds 60,000 spectators . This number of viewers was confirmed as an official record by the Guinness World Records . Never before had so many spectators followed a basketball game on site. According to reports by Pierre Tessier for the French L'Équipe , about 20,000 more people are said to have been on the open side of the stadium, many more in the immediate vicinity, in order to be able to watch the game up close. Thousands more people across the country followed the radio coverage.
In a closely led game, the game association managed to defeat the big favorites Slavia with 89:82 points. The game association crowned itself the first European cup winner in Greece that evening and thus got its nickname, the Queen of Europe, or “The Queen” for short. This game was able to increase the already great interest of the Greek people in basketball and became a model for other Greek clubs that wanted to do the same as the AEK. Once again, this team provided the Greek champions for the 1969/70 season, before the great players of this club gradually ended their active careers.
Subsequent years (1971–1979)
The AEK was still one of the best teams in Greece, but the club had lost its former supremacy to Panathinaikos. From 1971 onwards, he was the Greek champion five times in a row. In addition, the AEK got to do with an ambitious Olympiakos , who had developed into the main challenger for the championship and had taken it from the Panathinaikos in the 1975/76 season. In the same season Olympiakos had also reached the final of the newly introduced national cup competition and there defeated the game association AEK with 81:69 points. The new edition of this final took place two years later. Again the AEK failed to defeat Olympiakos and was defeated by them with 88: 103 points in the 1978 final. Minas Gekos , who was still young at the time, earned the most points for the AEK . He was only signed the year before and scored 19 points in this final. The AEK hoped to be able to build a new successful team to Gekos. In the summer of 1979 the AEK made another important transfer. The club's management had succeeded in signing Vasilis Goumas . Several clubs were interested in Goumas, after all, the forward was the top scorer in the Greek league in 1970, 1974, 1975 and 1977. With Paulos Stamelos , the top scorer of 1978 could also be signed and yet the game association did not make the top transfer that summer. The master at the time, Aris, succeeded in doing this with the engagement of Nikos Galis . The AEK was able to reach the final of the cup competition once more and was once again defeated by Olympiakos with 80:85 points.
The new beginning (2014-2017)
For the 2014/15 season , the AEK returned to the House of Lords. In the long term, the club announced, the club wanted to return to its old heyday and play an important role in the Basket League . At first, however, the new beginning was difficult. The Athenians lost four of their first five games and then parted ways with their coach Vangelis Ziagos. With Dragan Šakota , a former AEK coach returned to the coaching bench, under which the club was able to celebrate its last championship. With Šakota, the team reached fifth place at the end of the main round. In the following playoffs for the championship, the AEK failed in the first round against league rivals Aris Saloniki .
In the 2015/16 season , the AEK presented itself again on a European level by participating in the Eurocup . Once again, however, the club started the new season unsatisfied. At the beginning there was a defeat in the quarterfinals of the cup competition against Aris Saloniki, which they lost with 61:64 points. Although things went better in the league, with two defeats in the first two games of the Eurocup they fell short of their own expectations. In the first game against Volgograd it was a narrow defeat in extra time with 94:96 points despite an outstanding 42 points from Loukas Mavrokefalidis and the lead at the end of the third quarter. The AEK lost the second game against Galatasaray Odeabank Istanbul with 65:89 points. In this game the AEK showed a very poor team performance, which led to the first consequences. Sotiris Manolopoulos was hired as another assistant coach, which meant that Angelos Koronios , previous assistant in the coaching staff, gave up his position, as he interpreted the obligation of another assistant coach as criticism of himself. The AEK squad was strengthened with the players Dimitris Mavroeidis and Donell Cooper , for which Oderah Anosike and Chris Warren had to give way. In the domestic league, the club was consistently stable, and the first victories were also achieved in the Eurocup. But these were not enough to secure a possible advancement. After the following board and coaching staff had taken stock, it was announced that the previous coach Sakota would take over the post of general manager, but would give up the role of coach. Jure Zdovc was introduced as the association's new game director on December 20, 2015. The Slovenian had signed for the next two and a half years. Zdovc made his debut in the AEK dugout on the eleventh day of the season. Again, the team was unsettled by all the changes and only defeated the Colossus Rhodes in extra time with 86:85 points. Also in the following encounter with series champion Panathinaikos, whom they met at eye level throughout the game, they gave away a possible victory after the team showed nerves shortly before the end and ultimately had to admit defeat with 64:67 points. The first half of the season ended the union with a victory over Arkadikos , which they had defeated with 78:74. The team counted 10 wins from 13 games in the first half of the season and thus delivered the best first half series since the 2002/03 season, which had ended with 11 wins from 13 games. At the start of the second half of the season, the AEK was defeated by the PAOK from Thessaloniki with 75:79 points. After further defeats, including against the Rethymno Cretan Kings , the club finished the main round in fourth place. In the following playoffs, the AEK earned third place.
AEK had also secured this placement for the 2016/17 season , while the club participated internationally in the Basketball Champions League newly installed by FIBA , but failed there in the second round at AS Monaco , whereupon the club management coach Zdovc through Manolopoulos had replaced.
Return to the top (since 2017)
Although Manolopoulos managed to coach AEK through to the final of the Cup in the 2017/18 season , record holder Panathinaikos was defeated with 73:69 points in the semifinals, but the coach had to vacate his chair at the beginning of December 2017 because the start in the domestic league as well as in parallel in the Champions League for the club management was not satisfied. He was replaced by Sakota who, according to official information, should continue to lead the position of manager in the club. Subsequently, the Athenians had qualified for the knockout phase of the Champions League and with the victory over Olympiakos with 88:83 points in the cup final, they achieved the fourth cup success in the club's history. After victories over ČEZ Nymburk and Strasbourg IG the entry into the Final Four followed , for which Athens was chosen as the venue. With the victory over UCAM Murcia in the semifinals and the success over AS Monaco with 100: 94 points in the final, AEK had also won the title in the Champions League.
Current squad
As of November 19, 2019
| No. | Surname | nationality | position | Size (cm] | vintage | since |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dimitris Moraitis |
|
Guard | 194 | 1999 | 2015 | |
| 27 | Nikos Rogkavopoulos |
|
Guard | 202 | 2001 | 2017 |
| Ioannis Agravanis |
|
Forward | 198 | 1998 | 2017 | |
| 26th | Howard Sant-Roos |
|
Forward | 198 | 1991 | 2018 |
| 8th | Jonas Mačiulis |
|
Forward | 200 | 1985 | 2018 |
| 20th | Nikos Gkikas |
|
Guard | 186 | 1990 | 2019 |
| 4th | Vasilis Toliopoulos |
|
Guard | 188 | 1996 | 2019 |
| 14th | Dimitris Kaklamanakis |
|
center | 206 | 1994 | 2019 |
| 5 | Keith Langford |
|
Guard | 193 | 1983 | 2019 |
| 44 | Marcus Slaughter |
|
center | 204 | 1985 | 2019 |
| 0 | Kendrick Ray |
|
Guard | 188 | 1994 | 2019 |
| 22nd | Dimitris Mavroeidis |
|
center | 212 | 1985 | 2019 |
| 15th | Linos Chrysikopoulos |
|
Forward | 208 | 1992 | 2019 |
| 33 | Stefan Janković |
|
Forward | 211 | 1993 | 2019 |
| Mario Chalmers |
|
Guard | 188 | 1986 | 2019 | |
| 11 | Vladimiros Giankovits |
|
Forward | 202 | 1990 | 2019 |
| 31 | Charis Giannopoulos |
|
Forward | 200 | 1989 | 2018 |
Legend: Player on loan
Cadre depth
| Item | starter | Bank | Bank | reserve |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C. | Slaughter | Mavroeidis | Kaklamanakis | |
| PF | Chrysikopoulos | Janković | Tsalmpouris | |
| SF | Sant Roos | Mačiulis | Giankovits | Giannopoulos |
| SG | Langford | Ray | Rogkavopoulos | |
| PG | Gkikas | Chalmers | Toliopoulos |
Significant or famous former players
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Retired Numbers
Numbers withdrawn from the association and not given further:
Giorgos Americos , Forward, 1959-1975
Georgios Trontzos , Center, 1963-1980
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mascot
Panda Pandou is the official mascot of AEK BC. The anthropomorphic yellow-black panda was presented to the public and fans on matchday 13 of the 2016/17 season at a home game against Aris Saloniki on January 7, 2017. The panda wears the AEK basketball jersey with the number 68 on the back. The 68 stands as a reminder of the first European success in 1968. The mascot owes its name to a catch song by its fans. “AEK, AEK, GIA PANTA KAI PANTOU” ( Greek “ΑΕΚ, ΑΕΚ ΓΙΑ ΠΑΝΤΑ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΝΤΟΥ” , pronunciation for example A-eK, A-ek, jia panda ke pandou ), translatable in German as “AEK, AEK, forever and all over". The main task of the panda is to animate fans before and during a home game. In addition, Panda Pandou takes part in various events in and around Athens.
statistics
The highest victories in the A1 Ethniki
Results from 1992 onwards are taken into account.
| encounter | Result | difference | season |
|---|---|---|---|
| AEK - Aris Saloniki | 110-56 | +54 | 2000/01 |
| AEK - Ionikos Neas Filadelfias | 121-77 | +44 | 2001/02 |
| Apollo Patras - AEK | 48-89 | +41 | 2014/15 |
| AEK - Lavrio - DHI | 96-56 | +40 | 2016/17 |
| AEK - Apollon Patras | 94-56 | +38 | 1998/99 |
title
- Greek master (8 ×): 1958, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1970, 2002
- Greek Cup Winner (5 ×): 1981, 2000, 2001, 2018, 2020
- Saporta Cup (FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup) (2 ×): 1968, 2000
- Champions League : 2018
- Intercontinental Cup : 2019
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Game statistics from 1968
- ↑ The "Emperor" Vasilis Goumas (Greek)
- ↑ AEK: Definitive end for Ziagos (Greek)
- ↑ You go, you come to the AEK (Greek)
- ↑ Zdovc announced (Greek)
- ↑ Match report AEK Panathinaikos (Greek)
- ↑ Manolopoulos story at the AEK (Greek)
- ↑ Sakota instead of Manolopoulos at the AEK (Greek)
- ↑ Royal in the cup competition (Greek)
- ↑ AEK Queen again (Greek)
- ↑ AEK presents new mascot (Greek)
- ↑ List of the highest victories AEK Athens
