ATHENS (Greece) - Vassilis Spanoulis has pulled the right strings for Greece, helping the team return to the upper echelon of international basketball.
He coached it to 2024 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament glory in Piraeus and then to third place at the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 in Riga.
Now Greece take at aim at FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 qualification with Spanoulis still at the helm.
"The Hellenic Basketball Federation is pleased to announce that Vassilis Spanoulis will continue to offer his services as head coach of the men's national team," the federation announced.
"Coach Spanoulis will be present and will lead the team's efforts in the upcoming windows of the 2027 World Cup Qualifiers, in Thessaloniki and Portugal."
In the first window, Greece host Romania on November 27 and play at Portugal on November 30.
Spanoulis, in his first full season as the head coach of French giants Monaco, will therefore take a small break from that role so he can lead his national team.
Greece had their finest moment in nearly two decades with Spanoulis in charge, when they won the FIBA OQT in Piraeus to clinch a spot in the Olympics for the first time since 2008.
This summer, Spanoulis coached Greece at FIBA EuroBasket 2025, guiding the national team to the their first podium in two decades, when he was still a player.
Now he is aiming to coach in the event where he played a major role in one of the country's biggest wins, a 101-95 upset of the USA in the Semi-Finals of the 2006 World Cup.
Greece must first qualify, with only 12 spots for European teams at the World Cup.
In the European Qualifiers, they will need a top three finish in the four-team Group B to advance to the Second Round, and will then have to register another top three finish in the six-team group to qualify for Doha.
FIBA