The 2016/17 Basket League season , officially STOIXIMAN.GR Basket League for sponsorship reasons , was the 77th edition of the Greek championship in basketball . The regular season began on October 8, 2016 and ended on April 13, 2017. In the following playoffs , Panathinaikos won the Greek championship on June 11, 2017.
During the summer break, AO Faros Keratsiniou , who was actually eligible for promotion , had announced that he did not want to take part in the Basket League competition. According to internal information from the club, the board found its squad to be insufficiently competitive and therefore decided not to take part in the first-class competition. Faros Keratsiniou's eligibility to participate was transferred to Promitheas Patras , who had finished his season in third place in the A2 Ethniki and followed first-placed GS Kymis into the upper house. After the basketball club Kifisia could not apply for a license for the current season and withdrew from the first division due to financial difficulties, several clubs applied for the vacated starting place, which was transferred to the club Doxa Lefkadas by wildcard . The club based on Lefkada finished their season in sixth place in the second division.
The betting company Stoiximan.gr became the league's new name sponsor. The company and the executing association ESAKE agreed on a cooperation over the next two seasons. The league is henceforth presented under the name STOIXIMAN.GR Basket League .
For this season had FIBA competition of Basketball Champions League installed in direct competition with the ULEB discharged Euro League stands. In order to maintain its own gaming operations and to prevent the participating clubs from being poached by the FIBA, the ULEB redesigned its competition. Instead of the previous 24 clubs, 16 teams took part in the competition, competing against each other in only one instead of two groups. Of these 16 teams, 11 clubs were given an A license and enjoyed a permanent right to start in the Euroleague, regardless of their actual placement in the domestic competition. However, these teams had undertaken to compete exclusively in the Euroleague for the next ten years. On the Greek side, the A license participants include the Olympiakos and Panathinaikos teams. The clubs PAOK and Aris competed in the Champions League this season. The financially more attractive and stronger Euroleague enables the winner of its second competition, the Eurocup , to start the Euroleague. The AEK signed up for the Eurocup, which has been sponsored by the Greek food manufacturer 7DAYS since this season and officially bears its name. However, FIBA exerted massive pressure on the Greek basketball association and threatened it with the exclusion of the national team from future international competitions, insofar as this would allow Greek teams to participate in the Eurocup. The basketball federation then refused the AEK's newcomers an eligibility to play in the Basket League, which, if maintained, would have led to the AEK's relegation. He finally bowed to the pressure and withdrew his participation from the Eurocup and subsequently registered for the Champions League competition. FIBA also applied this practice to other associations, so that several clubs withdrew their participation in the Eurocup, which then had to reduce their actual field of participants from 24 to 20 teams.
With Michalis Kakiouzis and Dimitris Diamantidis , two legends of Greek basketball had declared their active careers over this summer. Together they both belonged to the squad of the 2005 European champions . While Kakiouzis then continued his career mainly abroad, Diamantidis played for the Panathinaikos for over a decade. For the Athens club in particular, this marked the beginning of a new era. This began with the renaming of the club, which was renamed Panathinaikos SUPERFOODS after the board of the basketball club announced in early August 2016 that it was working with the new main sponsor, the Greek company Superfoods. Another renaming announced the GS Lavrio, which should henceforth play under the name Lavrio - DHI.
management
Changes worth mentioning during the summer break:
Kostas Flevarakis resigned from his coaching position at the Trikala basketball club this summer to replace Thanasis Skourtopoulos with the Rethymno Cretan Kings. Just a few weeks after taking office, the Cretan Kings announced that they had separated from their new coach by mutual agreement. The reason for this should have been inconsistencies in the squad planning. A few days later, the new trainer could be presented with Antonis Constantinides. The Cypriot had only taken over as coach of the Albanian national team a few weeks earlier and had already coached clubs in Cyprus, Romania and Kosovo in the past. Giannis Kastritis became the new trainer in Trikala. On January 30, 2017, Constantinides of Rethymno was released again.
Ilias Papatheodorou had coached the Kifisia basketball club for the past nine years. He was able to lead this from the regional leagues to the first division. In three years of membership in the first division, the club coached the club twice up to the playoffs for the Greek championship. From 2013 he also coached the junior selection of the Greek national team , with which he became European U-18 champion in 2015. For this season, the successful coach had announced his move abroad and hired at BK Astana , which he had to represent in the competition for the Kazakh championship and in the VTB United League . In the supraregional VTB League , Papatheodorou met PBK ZSKA Moscow , trained by Dimitris Itoudis , and Lokomotive Kuban , which was led by Fotis Katsikaris . Katsikaris, the Greek national coach of the senior squad, had also made a move this season. He took over his new position from Giorgos Bartzokas who had previously moved to FC Barcelona . In mid-November, however, Katsikaris was released from Kuban and so he took over the UCAM Murcia club in January 2017 .
Player personal details
Changes worth mentioning during the summer break:
Vasilis Spanoulis contract negotiations were high on Olympiacos' agenda. The captain of the "Rot Weissen" had previously expressed his wish not to enter into contract negotiations until after the end of the previous season, which could then be concluded quickly. The Guard had signed a new two-year contract. Essentially, Olympiakos had kept the core of its championship team together and strengthened it again with Erick Green , Paris Maragkos and Khem Birch . The club had left for this purpose, among others, Othello Hunter , who had switched to Real Madrid after the termination of his contract in Piraeus, and Vasilis Kavvadas, who had agreed with the club's board on a contract termination in order to be able to switch to league competitor Aris.
Viktor Sanikidze , next to Kavvadas, was another of the new signings of the Aris. The Georgian international had to replace Okaro White , who was willing to emigrate and who had finally left the Champions League participant to seek his luck in the NBA. In friendly matches, Sanikidze was able to set enough positive accents to take on one of the leading roles at the Greek first division club. However, the Georgian injured himself so badly on matchday one in his league debut against Trikala that he threatened to be out for the whole season. In the urgent procedure, Aris had signed up Tadija Dragićević , who had to replace the injured forward from the second match day. The Serb had signed a contract until the end of the season.
This summer, Ioannis Bourousis agent had to consider several contract offers for his client. The MVP of the 2015/16 season of the ACB League had decided against staying in Spain and returned to the Basket League, which he had left in 2011. He had turned down offers from the NBA again and signed a two-year contract with Panathinaikos. In addition, the Greek runner-up signed Bourousi's team-mate Mike James from Laboral Kutxa , who had started his 2014/15 season at Kolossos in Rhodes before he left for the ACB league a few months later and has now also returned to the Basket League. Other commitments of the Panathinaikos included Demetris Nichols and KC Rivers . For this, Georgios Papagiannis , Elliot Williams and Vince Hunter moved to the NBA.
Christophoros Razis , one of the new signings of the Rethymno CRETAN KINGS, had played for the Oettinger Rockets in the ProA , the second highest division in the German basketball competition, for the past two seasons and has now signed a one-year contract with the CRETAN KINGS. For the Cypriot born in Switzerland , it was not the first time in Crete . In the 2013/14 season Razis had already played for OFI Crete in the A2 Ethniki , the second Greek league. In addition, Razis was the first Cypriot to play in the basketball league when he played in the EWE Baskets Oldenburg dress for the 2011/12 season. The CRETAN KINGS also managed to sign Thomas Kottas . The former player of the PAOK Saloniki had his contract with the Champions League participant terminated and was looking for a club that would allow him more time. He found this in the CRETAN KINGS, with which he had signed for the next two years.
Main round
management
Changes in management for the current season:
Argiris Pedoulakis had taken over his coaching position at Panathinaikos in the final phase of last season and led the club to the finals of the playoffs for the national championship. Although the Greek record champions lost 1: 3 games to their arch-rivals Olympiakos, the club's management had decided to start the new season with the experienced coach in order to get the job done with him, who was initially only signed until the end of last season - ushering in the Diamondidis era. The primary goal of the Athenians was still to qualify for the Final Four of the Euroleague, which they could not achieve since the departure of Željko Obradović . Panathinaikos then had to contest the first derby of the season on matchday two in the domestic league against fellow Euroleague competitors Olympiakos. The Athenians lost this with 63:88 points. Although Pedoulakis initially signaled that he wanted to continue despite a clear defeat, the club announced his resignation the following day. According to consistent press reports, the board had wanted to install another assistant coach, against Pedoulakis' express request. This then offered his resignation, which was accepted by the club's management. That same week, Xavi Pascual was presented as Pedoulaki's successor. The former coach of FC Barcelona had signed a contract for three seasons and made his debut in the Athens coaching bench on October 26, 2016 in the Euroleague in the game against Brose Bamberg , which the Greeks won with 84:83 points had.
Nikos Vetoulas had led Apollon Patras back into the Basket League for the 2012/13 season. With this, in that as well as in the following season, you can earn a playoff placement at the end of the main round. In the summer of 2015, the ways of the coach and the club had parted ways. This season Vetoulas returned to Patras to take over as the main person in charge of the promoted Promitheas. After the eleventh game day, on December 18, 2016, the club's board of directors announced the amicable separation from Vetoulas. At this point, Promitheas had a record of four wins from eleven games. That same evening, Vangelis Angelou was presented as Vetoula's successor. Thanasis Giaples could be engaged as assistant coach.
Kostas Mexas and the ways of Apollon Patras had parted ways at the end of the first half of the season after the club had found themselves on the thirteenth and thus on a relegation place. At the start of the second half of the season, Apollon's coaching bench was occupied by Thanasis Skourtopoulos.
Player personal details
Notable changes during the main round:
After completing his contract with Panathinaikos, Vladimiros Giankovits had confirmed his move to the Valencia basketball club in the ACB league , where he signed a one-year contract with a club option for another. He had rejected an offer from Aris, who were also interested in the forward. Despite a good preparation phase, Giankovits initially got little playing time and with the later commitment of the center Viacheslav Kravtsov , who joined the team after the season had already started, the forward threatened to lose his regular place in the fixed rotation of the squad. Meanwhile, Aris was planning to rearrange his squad after losing to PAOK on Matchday 3 and agreed with Valencia to loan Giankovits for the remainder of the season. The forward made his debut for Aris in the Basket League on the fifth day of the season against Olympiakos. Internationally, Giankovits had already played with Valencia in the Eurocup against ratiopharm Ulm and Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem . From then on, he also competed in the Champions League with Aris.
Edin Atić , one of the AEK's young talents, was loaned to the Trikala basketball club after the third match day. Since in the Basket League, unlike in other leagues, a maximum of six foreign players can be requested per squad and these have already been requested by the Athens club, the Bosnian Swingman could not be granted authorization to play in the AEK in the first Greek league for the time being become. However, Atić would have been eligible to play for the EuroCup , for which the AEK had actually registered. The Athenian Match Association had decided in the summer that Atić would remain in the AEK squad for the upcoming season and, unlike Nicholas Paulos and Philip Scrubb , other talents of the club, should not be awarded again. Since the Athenians had now competed in the Champions League and the FIBA, unlike the ULEB, did not issue players with a right to play if they were not also allowed to play in the domestic league, Atić's loan was initiated. In addition, Trikala was able to announce the signing of Stelios Poulianitis . This was committed after the young international had been released from Aris. Both players were in Trikala's squad from matchday five. After the eleventh game day Trikala found themselves on the fourteenth, the last place in the table again and responded by signing Callistus Eziukwu. Another player had to give up his permanent place in the rotation for the Nigerian center. Coach Giannis Kastritis had chosen Edin Atić, who scored a total of 13 points in seven games for Trikala with an average of 6.42 minutes of playing time.
Alessandro Gentile , one of the stars of the Serie A at the time , had extended his contract with EA7 Emporio Armani Milan for another year in the summer of 2015 until the end of the 2017/18 season and with this he had his second Italian championship after 2013/14 can celebrate. However, rumors increased that Gentile would now switch to the NBA . The Italian international was picked 53rd in the second round of the NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the summer of 2014 and his rights were passed on to the Houston Rockets that same evening . The winger stayed in Milan for the time being , but his captain's armband was withdrawn there. Italian media reported several times of an increasingly tense relationship with his coach Jasmin Repeša and the club president Livio Proli. On December 5, 2016 it was announced that Gentile would not end his season at Armani Milan. At first it was unclear whether Gentile would switch directly to the NBA or would initially find a place at another top European club. However, it quickly became clear that Gentile would sign with Panathinaikos, where his father Nando Gentile had already played and he had therefore spent part of his childhood in Athens. Gentile then asked for his release. However, the Milanese refused this and agreed with the players and the Athenians to loan the national player to Panathinaikos and so they announced his official loan until the end of the current season in the midday of December 19, 2016. Since Gentile had already played for Milan in the Euroleague, he was only eligible to play for them from the second half of the season. On December 20, Gentile was finally able to sign with the Greek runners-up in 2015 and 2016. He made his debut in the Basket League on December 26, 2016, the twelfth matchday, in the game against the Rethymno CRETAN KINGS. Nevertheless, he could not call up the performances in Athens that had made him a superstar in Milan. Moreover, he hardly managed to integrate himself into the Athens game system. In early March 2017 it was announced that Gentile's loan had been prematurely terminated. In eight games for Panathinaikos in the Basket League, the Italian scored 5.75 points and 1.63 assists per game.
Pat Calathes played once before with his brother Nick at Panathinaikos and this season the two of them had been reunited at the capital club. However, Pat had not been able to earn a permanent place in the rotation of the Athenians and after the obligations of Kenny Gabriel and Alessandro Gentile for the current season, Pat had asked at the beginning of January 2017 to terminate his contract with the Italian first division club Pallacanestro Cantù until the end of current season to be signed.
Loukas Mavrokefalidis had his current contract with AEK terminated in the summer of 2016, but had to suspend it at the beginning of this season due to an injury. In December 2016, he joined the ongoing game operations in the Chinese league and played 20 games at Qingdao DoubleStar . For this he counted 20.0 points and 9.1 rebounds per game at the end of the main round. Since the DoubleStars had missed the jump into the playoffs, Mavrokefalidis returned to the AEK at the end of February 2017.
In brackets the stakes for the season in the Basket League. In the main round, 26 games were played. In the playoffs followed another nine for Panathinaikos.
