“We had no fear….”

By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net

The 1st of September is a day to be remembered in a global scale of basketball. 10 years ago, in that date, Greece defeated USA 101-95 in the semifinal match of the World Championship that took place in Saitama, Japan.

This result remained the one and only defeat of team USA in coach Kryzewski’s era. The American national team hasn’t lost a game since, learning a valuable lesson that was translated to gold medals in every single international tournament that came after 2006.

For the Greeks, it was one truly glorious moment, despite the fact that they lost to Spain in the Final of the tournament.

In light of the game’s 10-year anniversary the protagonists of the Greek national team (12 players, the team’s head coach and assistant) shared their memories from this match via comments through their profile pages in Athlenda.com, the web project created by the starting center of that team, Lazaros Papadopoulos.

Here is what they said:

Lazaros Papadopoulos (www.athlenda.com/#/profile/97218/overview): “It feels like yesterday! I still remember our warm-up before the match and the exercises at the lockers room. I remember the doping control after the game and the celebration at the hotel the same night. This was the best game of all times for the Greek national team.”

Thodoris Papaloukas (www.athlenda.com/#/profile/108175/overview): “10 years passed by I still keep in my mind the tense before, during and after the game. I am a happy man to have been a member of this team. As time goes by I realize how lucky we were to have lived such moments.”

Dimitris Diamantidis (www.athlenda.com/#/profile/189453/overview): “I consider myself blessed and lucky to live this great moments as a member of the national team. We had in front of us the strongest team of the world, the USA national team, with players we looked up to and watched on TV. We had a plan and we executed it right causing trouble to our opponent. He played great offense and we managed to achieve this huge victory. Whatever the result though, that team always kept a strong team spirit and this was the main ingredient of its victory.”

Antonis Fotsis (www.athlenda.com/#/profile/108478/overview): ΅That team was great for many reasons. There was homogeneity, we all knew each other for a long time, we were all protagonists as individuals in our teams and we all played in top national and league level. This advantage was obvious at court while playing all together with the National Team and this is a big part of our success. When it comes to the US team, we knew that we were playing against the topest players of the world. However, we felt secure because we knew our teammates were also top and quality players. We were all looking at the team’s best interest, setting aside any personal goals. This was the only way to succeed.”

Vassilis Spanoulis: (https://www.athlenda.com/#/profile/351684/overview): “This was for sure a great historic victory that follow the history of this team, in the hearts of all the fans. After all, for the last 15 years, the teams that have managed to win USA are really few. We knew from the beginning that only by sacrificing any individual objectives and getting focused on the team’s best interest, only then we would be able to bring great results. We won because we believed in ourselves. When you enter the court, you always think you can win. The odds were not on our side, but we made it. We were all overwhelmed by feeling that day.”

Nikos Zisis (www.athlenda.com/#/profile/351113/overview): “There are times in a player’s career that he misses for several reasons some games. I didn’t get the chance to play at that game due to my injury, but it still feels like I did play! The team spirit before the game was really intense, and it felt the same during the game, even from the bench. It was a historic victory that will stay in the people’s memories. We are lucky and blessed to have lived those moments. It was after Diamantidis’s block on Chris Paul in the 1^st half, that I started thinking that we had chances. I will never forget this moment as I feel it played an important role in the team’s confidence, that started believing in each strength at rest of the game.”

Sofoklis Schortsianitis (www.athlenda.com/#/profile/158614/overview): “That’s a game no one will ever forget. All of would wish to live these moments once more. Sometimes I catch myself thinking of everything that took place 10 years ago in Japan. For sure this game will be a milestone not only in Greek basketball but in Greek sports history in general. What was crucial for the result is that we didn’t feel fear. They were all talented and skilled players but they were also humans, just like we are.We believed that we could win and our confidence grew stronger during the game. When we found ourselves leading the score we realized victory was closer than ever. We achieved it by playing an excellent game.”

Costas Tsartsaris (www.athlenda.com/#/profile/107412/overview): “It doesn’t matter how many years have passed since then, this game is still alive on people’s minds. It was an amazing output! A small country like Greece, downing USA. If you think about it, it is unbelievable! We did not feel fear although we were quit numb in the beginning. We wanted to enjoy the game, and as the score got better, to ‘hit’ them. Deep in our minds we believed that it was possible. If we achieved the 100% in our performance, and everyone did his best, we could do it. We tried to take advantage of some weaknesses of the opponent and we made it work. We did not let them to ‘mess our mind’ and we took control of the game. Of course we stood lucky at some points that they lost some shots. If those shots went in, the story would be different. We can say that some risks we took were worth it. I think that if we played against each other a thousand times, 999 we would lose and 1 we would win. This was the one chance.”

Dimos Ntikoudis (www.athlenda.com/#/profile/115743/overview): “It was a great moment in my career, as it was for all of the other team members. He had built an excellent team with players that, regardless the opponent, believed in themselves. We achieved and incredible thing, contributing in the Greek Basketball history. Ι love the fact that people still remember those moments and show their love to us. It’s an intense feeling and so are the memories of that day. I feel blessed to have been a member of this beautiful team that achieved something incredible for Greek basketball.”

Michael Kakiouzis (www.athlenda.com/#/profile/116885/overview): “That team had it all and that is why it got to make history. It had talent, players with personalities, winning players that played a leading role, then and now, at top level. The team had homogeneity because we played together for many years. It was covered in all positions and had its way to react at tough times and making a comeback even when playing against ‘huge’ teams, like the US team. The Americans had a great team, but this did not fear us at all. We were all top players. What we had seen from previous games is that they did not play as a team. They had the physical assets but they could not manage their individualism. This was their weakness, and this is what we took advantage of. While playing in the semifinal, we had nothing to loose and it this had a positive effect in our psychology. The circumstances were all in our side and this was more obvious as time passed.”

Nikos Chatzivrettas (www.athlenda.com/#/profile/187082/overview): “The American haven’t lost a single game since then. This says a lot about the quality of this team. That team consisted of low-profile players that their main objective was to speak through their actions. The relations between us were superb and the results were not based on luck. Team spirit was a priority and both the coach’s directions and the players’ characters made it possible. No one talked a lot, all we had in mind was hard work. This attitude I believe played a major role, not just for the result of this match, but for the next generations and the younger players. Many of that team’s players had not played in national teams in their youngest age, however they managed, and hard workers as they were, to achieve great things later on in the men category.”

Panagiotis Vasilopoulos (www.athlenda.com/#/profile/133858/overview): “What surprises me is the fact that it has been 10 years since then but it feels like yesterday. Not a single day passes without listening to someone speaking about this game and asking ‘how we did it’. And it’s really a shame that since then there has not been another national team with consistency and with great achievements, like the one we then had. The talent is there though. I believe that Americans learned some lessons from that game. They learned to play using their minds more. At that game we had two different teams, one relying on its physical skills and another on its brains. That was the reason we won.”