Last year, he led the team to the first final of the Greek Cup, where they lost to Olympiakos, while in the domestic championship, they finished in third place, right behind the two Athenian giants (they are also positioned there this season). In the FIBA Champions League, however, the competition ended before the Top 16 stage.
Over the summer, he further upgraded the team by bringing, above all, an experienced game organizer and former Zvezda ace, Joe Ragland, who is the first assistant of the competition. Then he hired a wiry center Trevor Thompson who for a time wore the jersey of Zadar, and from Promiteas he also brought Nemanja Dangubić who represents an important screw in defensive tasks and is the team’s second best jumper. There are more of the American players Jermaine Love, Nate Renfro, Kenny Williams and Elijah Mitru-Long, the much more famous younger brother Nazra who is a member of Olympiakos. The rest of the team is made up of domestic players, of which the most talented stand out Nikos Chugaz which is on loan from Panathinaikos.
“You have to work from the first day on this mentality. You need to have players with the right character to follow your ideas. That’s why we’ve been thinking a lot since the summer, in order to put together a team with the right mindset. We worked hard to reach the Final Four. It wasn’t easy, but now we have a chance to do something even bigger.” concluded almost the best scorer of the Euroleague, and today a promising 41-year-old coach.
What is most important for this year’s success is the fact that Spanulis got a free hand when it comes to selecting the team, and the results so far have shown that it makes sense to put together a valid team with limited financial resources.
As in his playing days, so now, he wants complete autonomy in his choice. Whether it is, as in the past, about taking the decisive shot or now, drawing the last action for the same. As authoritative as he was on the field, he is just as authoritative on the touchline. And an uncompromising fighter, with visible emotion that he shows on the bench, but also at media conferences. Someone who knows very well how to reach the victory podium in the final tournaments, when one game decides everything.
And as such, he and his work could not go unnoticed by the people from the Greek Basketball Association who appointed him as the coach of the senior team last October. Few have received such an honor and responsibility in such a short time as wearing the coach’s suit, which once again points to his uniqueness. On his debut, he recorded a triumph over the Czech Republic in the qualifiers for EuroBasket 2025, and it will be especially interesting to see if he will be able to take his national team to the Olympic Games in Paris through the qualifying tournament that will be played in early July in Piraeus. In the place and in the hall that he celebrated during his playing days and where he won three Euroleague titles, seven domestic championships, four Cups and countless individual awards.
Maybe his performance in Belgrade will be the basis for his later success in the national team. Among other things, the Arena is the very place where he won his first medal in a shirt with the national emblem, but also the first title in his senior career in general. The most brilliant one, at the European Championship in 2005. Let it be the place where he will win the first trophy in his coaching career and thus begin another successful chapter in his life. So that the Serbian capital is really stuck in a special place in the heart. If not already.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – FINAL FOUR
Friday:
18.00: (1.55) Tenerife (14.5) Peristeri (2.70)
21.00: (2.70) Murcia (14.5) Unicaja (1.55)
*** Quotas are subject to change
