ATHENS (Greece) - It was a formative moment, that one evening in the late 1960s in Nikaia, a district of Piraeus, Greece, for a boy named Panagiotis Giannakis.

He left home to play some football about a kilometer from his home with other kids in the neighborhood and not long after the game,  the lights, both literally and figuratively, came on for a child that would become a legend of international basketball.

Giannakis the boy was supposed to head home but instead stayed out, wandered and was eventually drawn to a lighted outdoor court, where the YMCA Nikaia had a basketball game. He'd never seen the sport. Giannakis watched in wonder and decided right then and there that basketball was going to be the sport he'd play.

After having to borrow a ball from the local gym to play on his own, sometimes leaving his watch as collateral, Giannakis was eventually invited to an Ionikos Nikaias youth team practice. The rest is history.

"I was very happy because they gave me 20 drachmas to make a photo for the (basketball federation) license," Giannakis said. "I was 12 years old. I was thrilled about that, making the picture, and after that, I started playing basketball all the time."

Giannakis, a guard, was a quick study because one year later, he practiced with the men's team of Ionikos. At 14, he competed in games with them and at 15, he played a lot of minutes. By 16, Giannakis was in the starting five and at 17, he suited up for the Greek national team. 

Giannakis (far right), who discovered the game at 12, helped Greece win FIBA EuroBasket 1987

While he was moving up the ranks at Ionikos,  though, he also played for Greece's youth national teams. He had a leading role for his country at the 1975 European Championship for Cadets that was staged in Athens and Thessaloniki.

The second-leading scorer of that team, Giannakis had 15 points in a Semi-Final triumph over Yugoslavia and 13 in a narrow defeat to the Soviet Union in the Final.

"It was the first time in Greek basketball that it had such a high position," he said. "So in September 1976, I was one of the youngest players ever when I played for the Greek men's national team for the first time."

"TEAMMATES HELPED YOU A LOT, TO BECOME A BETTER PLAYER, BUT ALSO THE OPPONENTS BECAUSE THEY GIVE YOU THE LESSONS THAT YOU NEED TO GO WITH THE SKILLS, AND WITH THE CHARACTER"- Giannakis

If the greatest moment with the national team for Giannakis came in 1987, when Greece hosted the FIBA EuroBasket and went on a stunning run to the title after defeating the Soviets in the Final, there were many other moments before that Giannakis remembers fondly, like the 1979 Mediterranean Games in Split, Croatia, which at the time was a part of Yugoslavia.

"We won the Mediterranean Games, beat Yugoslavia," he said. "That was a huge win at that time, a big surprise because it was at their home."

Giannakis can't reflect on this particular tournament without laughing.

"Two months before, we beat them in an outdoor gym, the Panathenaic Stadium," he said. "We played the Final for the Balkan Games and beat them and they started making excuses, saying it was an outdoor game, etc. So we went to Split to play the Mediterranean Games and they waited for us to destroy us but we beat them by 13 or 15.

"The joke was that after the Final, they gave us the gold medals yet they didn't have the diplomas (to accompany them). The reason was that the diplomas didn't have our names on them because they had put the Yugoslavian names instead. They were so sure they were going to win. They sent us the diplomas after two weeks."

Giannakis and Greece won the Mediterranean Games in 1979

What was not a joke was Greece's improving national team. The foundation was being laid for a run that would culminate with the 1987 victory over the Soviets.

"Even in 1986 (FIBA Basketball World Cup) in Spain, we showed to our opponents we were a team that was really playing better and better every year," he said.

Once the FIBA EuroBasket started, the starting five for their first game was Nikolaos Filipou, Panagiotis Fassoulas, Fanis Christodoulou, Nikos Galis and Giannakis. Alarm bells rang when Filipou sprained his ankle, but Giannakis remembers sitting next to him.

"I told him, 'Nikos, don't worry - you're going to play in the Final.' We had a difficult group but we played excellent, except against Spain. For me, this whole tournament was a huge opportunity to give our best, to remember all those years when we tried but we didn't have the team spirit.

"For me, it was an achievement that started in 1986 because in the previous year, in 1985, we didn't even participate in the European Championship.

"So we had the opportunity to show to all the Greeks that we could do something together. If we put our egos under the team, we could do something special. So this tournament was an explosion for Greece. It was also a motivation for the rest of the world because if you look at basketball history, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were untouchable teams. USA? Untouchable team.

"In 1986, we lost to the Soviet Union by not many points but in '84 we had lost by 40, so that had represented a lot of progress. But this progress happened because of team spirit and our coaches gave us the mentality."

Giannakis joins Greece teammate Nikos Galis in the FIBA Hall of Fame

When he talks about the national team, it's clear that it meant everything to Giannakis.

"We tried to become a team in basketball, to help our society, and people outside the country since so many Greeks had left the country," he said.

"To beat the Soviet Union was an incredible thing for a small country. The feeling was unbelievable.

"This atmosphere gave us a lot of strength. Nik and me and the other guys, we played a lot of minutes and also we played late and we didn't sleep well but we were so excited every day and night and those days, we played so strong mentally and tactically; everyone felt this.

"And after those two years, we showed we weren't just a surprise. After 10 years, we were among the top teams in the world. We got a lot of nice words from around the world. We showed the example and this was what was so important for FIBA and basketball."

Giannakis had many more big moments in his career, be it with Greece, or club sides Ionikos Nikaias, Aris, Panionios and Panathinaikos.

One of his greatest talents was the ability to communicate and lead. This was evident after he helped Greece to fifth place at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. At the end of the last game, a 91-72 triumph over Brazil, Giannakis entered the locker room and closed the door.

"It was a little emotional," he said. "I wanted to tell my teammates it was my last game, professionally and for the national team. But I ended up saying that everyone in sport has to help the national team when they ask you.

"I said to my teammates, 'You have to keep this team in your heart and your minds always, and you have to give to this team everything because we have a lot of responsibilities in front of our country, in front of our parents and kids and they expect us to represent the national team.'

"And I said some other things, but the idea was like this, to push them to understand how important, how emotional, how proud it is to give something to your country."

Since retiring as a player, Giannakis has also made his mark as a great coach, with Greece's national team. He steered the team to a remarkable, come-from-behind victory over France in the FIBA EuroBasket 2005 Semi-Finals in Belgrade and then past Germany for the title.

Greece players always looked up to Giannakis

Perhaps more impressive was Greece's phenomenal performance at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2006 in Japan. At that event, Greece made it to the championship game after upsetting the United States in their Semi-Final, 101-95. Fans poured into the streets of Athens to celebrate. Greece lost to Spain in the Final, however.

"With the national team, you can show to the rest of the world in this area of the planet there are some people that have respect for sports, that they love the life and they want to make something more every day to make everyone here understand we can follow our dreams and catch them if we have patience, passion and knowledge, if we respect our teammates and our opponents," he said.

"I always believed that teammates helped you a lot, to become a better player, but also the opponents because they give you the lessons that you need to go with the skills, and with the character. So it is a big family for me, basketball. It is a great family, my country, and it's nice to represent them as one of the best to do it."

FIBA