By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
In Saturday’s game against Lavrio, AEK BC retired the jersey of one of the biggest Greek basketball legends, the first true big man of the country.
This man is Georgios Trontzos. At a height of 2.17 m (7 ft. 1.5 in.) and wearing number 6, Trontzos was one of the first international players in the NCAA signing up back in 1959 with the Gonzaga Bulldogs. He was the second 7-footer in the school’s history after Jean Claude Lefebvre, a 7’3″ French native, who arrived at Gonzaga in the fall of 1957.
Trontzos started playing basketball with YMCA Thessaloniki. After returning from the States he signed with AEK Athens. With AEK, he won 5 Greek League championships (1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1970). He also helped lead the team to the final four of the FIBA European Champions Cup of the 1965-66 season, which was the first time that the Euroleague ever used a final four format. He also won the European winner’s Cup of 1968 season, which was the first European cup won by any Greek team in front of 80.000 fans in the open air Panathinaiko Stadio.
He scored 24 points in the tournament’s final game against Czech legend Jiri Zídek. He was also a member of the FIBA European Selection team in the years 1965 and 1967 and of course a key member of the Greek national team.