Greece - Vassilis Spanoulis
Only one competition and only one country hold the same proverbial spot in people's minds the world over. Olympics were the 'War Without Weapons', when everything in Greece stopped -- even wars themselves -- sports competition continued
From: www.hoopsworld.com
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By Nikola Olic
Only one competition and only one country hold the same proverbial spot in people's minds the world over. Olympics were the 'War Without Weapons', when everything in Greece stopped -- even wars themselves -- sports competition continued. Almost three thousand years later, the mountain that gave that competition its name, Mount Olympus, has in its neighborhood a sports team that proudly continues in the Greek sports tradition. Maroussi is not at the top of Greek basketball, but they are a feared team for two reasons: they are an unpredictable team that every year manages to steal a win from every other team in the league, and they are a team that helped develop one of Greece's best players, Houston Rockets point guard Vassilis Spanoulis.
Before ultimately leaving for Greece's leading basketball team Panathinaikos, Spanoulis spent five years at the Maroussi Basketball Club between 2001 and 2005. Maroussi holds a special place in Greek basketball and in Greek sports in general as it is one of the oldest sports clubs in the country. No other basketball arena in their league comes close to the atmosphere provided to the fans, with just 2000 seats, which are always of course sold out. It was in the Agios Thomas Basketball Hall that NBA scouts started following Spanoulis' career.