Golden Greeks just win again with Olympiacos

REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) – Kostas Papanikolaou, Kostas Sloukas and Evangelos Mantzaris are the leaders of Greece’s next golden generation.

Despite combining to win loads of youth competition hardware, it was still a shock that the golden trio helped Olympiacos surge back from a 19-point deficit to upset mighty favorites CSKA Moscow for the 2012 Euroleague crown.

But maybe it shouldn’t have been.

Having looked up to and idolized the likes of Theo Papaloukas, Dimitrios Diamantidis, Nikos Zisis and Vassilis Spanoulis as teenagers, Papanikolaou, Sloukas and Mantzaris teamed up in 2008 to win the Albert Schweitzer Tournament and then give Greece their first-ever U18 European Championship crown. In 2007, Papanikolaou and Sloukas won U18 silver.

In 2009, the trio first won silver at the FIBA U19 World Championship and then claimed gold at the U20 European Championship. And in 2010, they added U20 silver to their collection.

The trio of youngsters was also making in-roads into the Greek senior national team – thanks to efforts to inject an aging Hellas side with young talent.

Papanikolaou nearly made the Greek team for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey, but joined Sloukas in the Greece side at EuroBasket 2011. And Mantzaris could likely make his senior team debut this summer at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT).

Papanikolaou, who doesn’t turn 22 until July 31, is certainly the bigger talent of the three. NBA scouts are drooling over the 2.04m (6’9”) forward’s defensive prowess, which is enough to look over his slight offensive shortcomings.

Papanikolaou is finishing off his second season as a starter for Euroleague powers Olympiacos. Throughout last weekend's Euroleague Final Four, he absolutely proved his winning mentality.

He played great defense against Barcelona in the semi-finals and then stymied Euroleague MVP Andrei Kirilenko in the final.

Oh, and Papanikolaou also made all five of his shots – including three three-pointers – and five of six free-throws, including a pair with 10.1 seconds left with all the cool of a 10-year veteran to cut the game to one point. Kirilenko, Milos Teodosic and Ramunas Siskauskas, meanwhile, all missed foul shots for CSKA in the final two minutes.

Sloukas and Mantzaris – who both joined or re-joined Olympiacos this season – did not have as much impact on the final, but both played a big part.

Mantzaris nailed a three-pointer – his only basket of the game – just before the third quarter buzzer to cut the deficit to 13 points. Sloukas opened the fourth period with a triple of his own – also his only basket in the final. Both played strong hard-nosed defense at the guard position.

The Euroleague final once again showed that this group of young Greeks has the will and skill to succeed – this time at the senior level.

Some nickname crazy observers may try to come up with something for this Greek trio. Something silly like “PapaSloukZaris” or “MantSloukaNikolaou”.

Here’s one, it’s not exactly creative or flashy, but it hits the point: “Winners!”

David Hein

FIBA

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