GRE - Strong Greek flavor to Final Four in Germany

BERLIN (Euroleague) – Greece’s national team will be there for all to see this weekend in Berlin only they won’t be wearing national team jerseys.

Instead, the men Greece coach Jonas Kazlauskas will lead this summer at EuroBasket 2009 in Poland will play for Panathinaikos, Olympiacos or CSKA Moscow at the Euroleague Final Four.

CSKA Moscow have Greece international Nikos Zisis in their squad as they make a seventh straight appearance at the Final Four.

"The good thing for the national team is the great experience that our players continue to have," Zisis said.

"I think we have 10 or 12 Greek players from the Olympics in this Final Four."

CSKA will take on Barcelona in one Semi-Final, while Olympiacos and Panathinaikos will meet in the other.

Friday’s game between the Greens and Reds has most of the players that Kazlauskas will be keeping tabs on.

Olympiacos and Panathinaikos have already met once this season when the stakes were high and that was in the Greek Cup final.

In that clash on February 22, Greece star Dimitris Diamantidis nailed a trio of three-balls on his way to a game-high 16 points to lead Panathinaikos to an 80-70 triumph.

The Greens are stocked with Greece internationals - seven in all if you include former national team members Fragiskos Alvertis and Nikos Hatzivrettas.

Diamantidis, one might say, is the one who stands out the most.

A 1.96m guard who turns 29 next week, Diamantidis has been voted as the Euroleague's top defender for the past five years. In fact, he’s the only player to have ever won the award.

The Greek media has dubbed Diamantidis "Spider Man" because of his long arms and quickness but another nickname might be the "Prince of Humility" because at no time in his career club or country has Diamantidis ever gotten carried away with his success.

When asked about his latest award, he said: “It's something I don't seek out. I just want to play and enjoy basketball, to help my team ..."

Olympiacos, with former Greece coach Panagiotis Yannakis at the helm, have six national team players in their squad.

One of them is Ioannis Bourousis, the big center who has led the team in both scoring and rebounding in the Euroleague, while in the competition overall his shooting percentage inside the arc of 64.7% (88 for 136) is second to none.

Bourousis brushes aside the importance of statistics.

"This year I'm shooting more often because this is part of the team's strategy," Bourousis says.

"However, if I had to shoot less often and contribute to other aspects of our game, I would have done it.

"What our coach asks of us is to shoot under the best possible circumstances, and that is what I always try to do."

Greece will take on Croatia, Israel and F.Y.R. of Macedonia in the Preliminary Round of the EuroBasket.

FIBA