Kostas Papanikolaou

Kostas Papanikolaou Κώστας Παπανικολάου
Player information
Full name	Konstantinos Papanikolaou
birthday	31st July 1990 (age 30)
place of birth	Trikala , Greece
size	204 cm
position	Small forward
NBA draft	2012 , 48th Pick, New York Knicks
Club information
society	Olympiacos Piraeus
league	EuroLeague
Jersey number	16
Clubs as active
2008–2009 Aris Saloniki 2009–2013 Olympiakos Piraeus 2013–2014 FC Barcelona 2014–2015 Houston Rockets 2015–2016 Denver Nuggets Since 2016 Olympiacos Piraeus 00
National team 1
Since 02011	Greece	77
1 As of September 4, 2015

Konstantinos "Kostas" Papanikolaou ( Greek Κωνσταντίνος "Κώστας" Παπανικολάου ; born July 31, 1990 in Trikala ) is a Greek basketball player who has been under contract with Olympiacos since 2016 .

Career

At club level

Europe

His debut in the top Greek league, the then A1 Ethniki , was Papanikolaou for the 2008/09 season for the Thessaloniki- based club, Aris . Already in his first season Papanikolaou was voted the best young player of the season and named most valuable player in the Greek Youth All-Star Game . League competitor Olympiakos became aware of him and signed him for the following season 2009/10. With his new team, he managed to secure the Greek Cup success in 2010 and thus celebrated his first professional title.

In 2011/12 he was again named the best young player in the league. With the club from Piraeus he was also Greek champion. Olympiakos also made it into the Final Four of the EuroLeague , the highest endowed competition for club teams in European basketball. Acted as an outsider, they met the two-time Euroleague winner FC Barcelona in the second semi-final, which they defeated with 68:64 points. A purely Greek final was prevented in advance by the CSKA Moscow . In the first semifinals, the Russian club ousted Panathinaikos , then reigning champion, with 66:64 points. In the final , in front of 15,500 spectators, Olympiakos was 14 points behind (20:34) at half time. With a courageous race to catch up in the second half of the game, the Greeks turned the result and defeated the Russian champions with 63:62 points. The best thrower of the game was Papanikolaou with 18 points. The club defended this title the following year when they defeated Real Madrid with 100-88 points in the final . Papanikolaou was awarded the Euroleague Rising Star.

In 2013/14 the two-time Euroleague winner moved to the Spanish ACB league for FC Barcelona , where he signed a four-year contract with a release clause for the NBA . The Greek had already been selected by the New York Knicks in the 2012 NBA draft . With FC Barcelona he became Spanish champions in his first year.

NBA

In the summer of 2013, the Houston Rockets secured the rights to Papanikolaou and signed him for the 2014/15 season for two years. The second year was a team option. The 24-year-old forward was planned alongside Trevor Ariza as a replacement for Chandler Parsons , who moved to Dallas as a restricted free agent for the Mavericks . Papanikolaou was integrated into Coach Kevin McHale's system from the start and received most of the working time from all newcomers. It was used in all eight preseason games and in the end came to an average of 8 points per game with an average time of almost 26 minutes.

The Greek played his first game in the Rockets' dress on October 7, 2014 at the American Airlines Center when the Rockets defeated the Mavericks with 111: 108 points. Papanikolaou came up with twelve points and also scored the decisive three final points of his team that secured the team victory. He made his home debut two days later on October 9, 2014 when the Rockets defeated the Memphis Grizzlies at the Toyota Center with 113: 93 points. The Greek played against his two national team colleagues Nick Calathes and Kosta Koufos . James Harden was the player of the game with 21 points , Papanikolaou got nine points. Overall, the Rockets won six of their eight games played in the preseason.

The Rockets kicked off the regular 2014/15 season at the Staples Center when they met the Los Angeles Lakers on October 28, 2014 . Papanikolaou came to 20 minutes of play and made four points, gave four assists, got two steals and secured six rebounds in his first competitive game of a regular NBA season, which the Rockets won with 108: 90 points. Just one day later, the Rockets went to Utah. In the game against Jazz , which they defeated with 104: 93 points, Papanikolaou got 12 points. The other games were also won by the Rockets and achieved a series of six wins from the first six games, each of which they won by at least 10 points. The last time the Denver Nuggets succeeded in doing this was in the 1985/86 season .

Papanikolaou became an important backup for his team, benefiting from the experience of the other players, especially that of Patrick Beverley , the point guard of the Rockets, whom Papanikolaou knew from common times from Greece and a friendly relationship with him also off the field used. In the service of the team, the Greek delivered a comparatively large number of assists, but took fewer and fewer direct throws because his throw rate dropped significantly. In November Papanikolaou was used in all 15 games and came up with 5.9 points per game, but his throw rate averaged only 33%. His coach asked him to take more throws again and so his throw rate stabilized again.

In the Rockets game against Milwaukee Bucks , when Papanikolaou also played against his national team colleague Giannis Antetokounmpo , the forward came in 29 minutes to 12 points and had a throw rate of 83%. He also scored 12 points in the game against the Grizzlies on December 3, 2014, which the Rockets won with 105: 96 points. The following was on December 5, 2014 against the Minnesota Timberwolves , in this game Papanikolaou hit five of his six throws and got 10 points. In the final quarter, however, he had to be substituted after he was injured in the fight for the ball by his opponent Thaddeus Young .

Since it was initially unclear how long Papanikolaou would be out and Trevor Ariza was only a small forward, those responsible for the Rockets reacted and brought Corey Brewer into the team in mid-December . A few days later , after being kicked out of the Detroit Pistons , Josh Smith also expressed his desire to play for the Rockets. Papanikolaou, who has since returned, had to deal with two other competitors in his position.

After another injury and a rather mixed end of the season for Papanikolaou, it was initially unclear whether Houston would take the option for the Greek to stay, especially since he no longer played an essential role in the rotation of the Rockets. The club management nevertheless drew the option and then transferred Papanikolaou to the Denver Nuggets for the 2015/16 season . They released the forward two months later, a few weeks before the start of the new season. Papanikolaou initially remained without a team, as most of the teams had largely completed their squad planning for the following season. The Greek initially turned down offers from Europe.

In early November 2015 he was signed again by the Nuggets and made his debut for them on November 5, 2015 in the game against Utah Jazz . On January 6, 2016, he was released by the Nuggets after 26 games.

Return to Europe

Papanikolaou decided to return to Europe. Again he had offers from the clubs Aris, Panathinaikos and Olympiakos. Teams like Lokomotive Kuban were also interested in the Forward. Papanikolaou agreed on a two-and-a-half-year contract with Olympiakos, but FC Barcelona had to get approval before signing the contract, as they secured a contractual privilege at the time should Papanikolaou return to Europe. Barcelona considered calling Olympiakos' offer and keeping Papanikolaou in their own ranks. However, they released him after a few days, as Papanikolaou expressed his wish to return to Piraeus. Olympiakos was able to officially present Papanikolaou as a new player on January 20, 2016.

National team

U-18 selection at the European Championship 2008
Link to the picture
(Please note copyrights )

Papanikolaou went through all of Greece's youth national teams. For example, he won silver with the Greek U-18 selection at the 2007 European Championships in Spain, and a year later he was the European champion with the same selection in front of a home crowd. In the final, the Greek team around Papanikolaou met the Lithuanian selection and their captain Donatas Motiejūnas . The Greeks defeated the Lithuanians with 57:50 points.

At the U-19 World Basketball Championship held in New Zealand in 2009 , the Greek selection around Papanikolaou reached the final, but lost to the Americans in Auckland with 80:88.

The Greek also took part in the U-20 European Championship in 2009. In the final, the team defeated the French selection with 90:85 points. Papanikolaou was the team's best thrower with 15 points and was named player of the game. With the Greeks a total of seven players came to a double-digit point yield.

U-20 selection at the European Championship 2009
Link to the picture
(Please note copyrights )

Last year's final was repeated in the 2010 European Championship finals. The U-20 selections of Greece and France met again. The French prevail with 73:62 points. Papanikolaou averaged 13.9 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists per game at this tournament.

For the A-team , the Greek took part in the European Championships in 2011 , 2013 and 2015 , as well as in the 2014 World Cup.

successes

ULEB Euroleague : 2012, 2013 Greek champion : 2012, 2016 Greek Cup Winner : 2010, 2011 Spanish champion : 2014

First place at the Albert Schweitzer Tournament 2008 Vice European Champion: (U-18) 2007, (U-20) 2010 European Champion: (U-18) 2008, (U-20) 2009 Vice World Champion: (U-19) 2009

Individual evidence

1. ↑ PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS - Welcome to EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL. In: euroleague.net. Retrieved May 11, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Olympiacos Piraeus wins Euroleague on Focus.de accessed on October 27, 2014
3. ↑ The Return of Papanikolaou (Greek)
4. ↑ "Pap is Back" Olympiakos announces Papanikolaou (Greek)

Web links

• Kostas Papanikolaou - player profile on Euroleague.net
• Kostas Papanikolaou - player profile on FIBA.com
• Kostas Papanikolaou - player profile on NBA.com
• Kostas Papanikolaou - player profile on basketball-reference.com