By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Michalis Kakiouzis announced today his decision to retire at the end of the season. Born in 1976, Kakiouzis played all around Europe and he was the captain of the gold winning Greek national team in 1995.
At the age of 15, Kakiouzis became a player of the National Junior Team of Greece. With the Greek junior national team, he won the gold medal at the 1993 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship. He was also on the Greek national junior squad that brought Greece the gold medal in 1995, at the FIBA Under-19 World Championship for junior men.
Kakiouzis was the captain of the senior men’s Greek national basketball team. He was a member of the Greek team that won the gold medal at the FIBA EuroBasket 2005 and also a member of Greece’s silver medal winning team at the 2006 FIBA World Championship which beat Team USA in the semifinal. Kakiouzis was on Greece’s team that competed at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, which was held in Athens. He also competed with Greece’s senior team at the FIBA EuroBasket 1999, FIBA EuroBasket 2001, FIBA EuroBasket 2003, and FIBA EuroBasket 2007.
In the club level Kakioyzis became a professional with Ionikos Nikaias and in 1995 he signed with AEK Athens. While with the club, he won a Greek League championship in the 2001-02 season, and he also won two Greek Cups, in the years 2000 and 2001. He also won the Saporta Cup with AEK, in the year 2000.
After leaving AEK Athens in the year 2002, Kakiouzis went on to play for Montepaschi Siena in Italy. With Siena, he won both the Italian League championship and the Italian Supercup in the 2003-04 season. He was also named to the All-Italian League Team for the season by the Eurobasket.com website.
In 2005, Kakiouzis left Siena and joined Barcelona. He stayed with Barcelona until his contract expired in 2007. He then joined the Sevilla, Anadolu Efes, Aris Thessaloniki, Vanoli Basket, Vitrus Roma, SAV Vaccalo, AEK Larnaka, AENK, APOEL and he is currently playing for Faros Keratsiniou.