Unfinished business for fit-again Greece star Kaltsidou

KAYSERI (EuroBasket Women 2015) - There has been a big void in the Greece women's team in recent times, one that will be filled at EuroBasket Women 2015 when a fit-again Stella Kaltsidou returns to the line-up.

The veteran, who was sidelined by serious knee injuries in 2012 and 2013, has fully recovered and is playing again.

On the books of Turkish outfit Agu Spor Kayseri, the 31-year-old small forward is moving her feet on defense and making slick moves in attack. 

She looks like the Kaltsidou of old.

"She looks healthy and she wants very much to help us," Greece coach George Dikeoulakos said.

"With her, we add EuroLeague Women experience who with (Nadezhda's Zoe) Dimitrakou are the only players with experience of a big level and at the same time, we become not a tall but a semi-tall team which is difficult to defend."

Kaltsidou tore the ACL in her right knee in 2012 and exactly one year later suffered the same injury to her left ACL.

"It was a tough period, mentally mostly," she said to FIBA.com.

"However, all of this belongs to the past now. 

Injuries are a part of our job so there is no other choice than to move forward. - Kaltsidou 

"I have recovered completely and I'm back on the court feeling stronger mentally and physically, also. 

"The most important thing in our job is being healthy, so if everything is well, I'm looking forward to being with my national team in Romania."

That is the country where Greece will open their EuroBasket Women campaign, in Group B against Poland, Belarus, Italy and Turkey.

"All of the teams in our group are strong, with their advantages and disadvantages," Kaltsidou said.

"The most important thing is that everyone is healthy so we can be as strong as we can in the competition.

"I'm confident that we'll give 100% an do our best as a team in every game, and if we are also a little bit lucky, I think we have some chances to advance from the group."

Greece clinched their place at the EuroBasket Women by winning the 1st Qualification Round in 2013.

The players nevertheless gathered with Dikeoulakos last summer and competed in friendly games.

Kaltsidou was with the squad.

Because she has been in the game for so long, Kaltsidou has lived good times and bad times.

I have the blessing to do as a job my biggest passion. Not a lot of people in life have this choice and I'm grateful for that. - Kaltsidou

"In a basketball game that lasts 40 minutes, you have the chance to feel all the emotions that are changing so fast: stress, tranquility, disappointment, satisfaction, sadness, happiness. 

"This is so fascinating."

There other aspects to playing basketball that are appealing.

"You learn to become a member of a small society, to adjust yourself in a group of different people from different cultures and sometimes make friends for a life," she said.

"Being a basketball player gives me the opportunity to live unique experiences that I will never forget and in the end, this is what stays."

She made wonderful friends during a long spell with Bourges. Kaltsidou was always a part of the team, even while injured.

"I would say it's when you have to deal with injuries that keep you on the sidelines for a long time," she said. 

"Of course it's also hard to be away from your family and friends for eight to nine months but for me, this is a choice that you are free to make. 

"On the other hand, when there is an injury, there is no choice other than to be patient in order to come back."

Kaltsidou says she has unfinished business.

"Up to now in my career," she said, "I have played in EuroBaskets, a World Championship, the EuroCup and EuroLeague Women.

"The only league I have yet to participate in is the WNBA. It might be getting harder on the one hand to do so as I'm getting older, but I'm determined to chase my target as long as I'm playing at a high level because it’s an experience that I really want to live before the end of my career."

Kaltsidou travelled to Atlanta and saw her former Bourges teammate, Celine Dumerc, play for the Dream.

"The highest point (national team career) was the fifth place we took at the EuroBasket Women in 2009," she said. 

"Of course, because it sent us to the first and only World Championship in Greek women's basketball in history, but also because it was an amazing year from every point of view...

Greece finished 11th.

"It was a big disappointment because we knew we could have stayed longer, but we didn’t give our best to succeed.

"However we learned from this."

That experience and all of the others that Kaltsidou has lived in basketball will no doubt help the national team when it hits the court in June.

FIBA