By Nikos Varlas
He left Greece as Kostas Vasiliadis, full of basketball… rejections at home (the most tough of them from Olympiakos who paid to break his contract with Unicaja Malaga, signed him to a three year deal and after just one year cut him after the wish of coach Panagiotis Gianakis). But now he is a different player, a different person and has a different name!
He is calling himself… Vas-kos!!! It’s like Vas-iliadis Kos-tas, but it’s also his way to honor the Basque country (ed.note: in Greek Basque is called Vaskos), because he feels more than a part of Gescrap Bilbao, the basketball pride of the city.
The course of his career is now parallel with the emergence of coach Fotis Katsikaris’s team! A “miracle” by Bilbao, means also a great night for Vasiliadis, like being the Game 3 MVP after the 94-81 win against CSKA Moscow! He is living a dream, he talks about it in Eurohoops.net and he has a message for the fans of Bilbao. Allow him to keep it for the end!
“Our feeling can’t be described. The people all over the city are waiting for the game day, they put team banners in their houses, they feel proud and they want to be there for us in the gym. For decades the whole world knew about the legendary Athletic, the football team of the city. Now, they also now us”, says the versatile guard (not just a shooter any more) and explains the success of the team.
“In the football team, even in nowadays, all the players are Basques. There is not even one foreigner! This tradition is unbelievable. So how can you persuade the city to support and love a basketball team with a roster of Greeks, Croatians and Americans? It was a tough bet, but we won! We moved in a bigger gym this season and last year, when we beat Valencia in the Spanish league play offs, the people of Bilbao started to notice us and to follow us”.
After that, Bilbao won the play offs semifinals of ACB against Real Madrid, got the ticket for the Euroleague for the first time, qualified in the Top 16 and then to the Euroleague play offs. And last night Bilbao won the best team in Europe, the favorite for the Euroleague title! And the city? The city now seems to have the same feeling for the basketball team, as for the football club!
“They love us and they show it. I get out for a walk in the city and I feel like when I was playing in Salonika for PAOK! We are not Basques, but we fight as Basques and that seems to be enough”, says the Game 3 MVP.
But now the “Red bear” is hurt, angry and needs one more win to get to the Final Four. “The bear can be whatever it wants! CSKA is a great team and we now that. We will give them an other fight, like we did in Game 3 in every possession”, is the answer of Vasiliadis who seems to be more mature than ever.
“You ask if I am the same player? Are you kidding me? I am way better and I must thank for that the club, coach Katsikaris and the whole Bilbao organization that believed in me. Now I can do many things in the court, not just score, but make my team better”.
Bilbao and Vasiliadis already got the respect of everyone in the European basketball scene. But life goes on and dreams never stop. Vas-kos has a practice to attend, but before hanging up he has a message for his city! “Viernes un infierno”… one more night of hell this Friday!