By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Dimitris Diamantidis is one of the modern Euroleague icons and during his tenth season in the league, one month before his 34rth birthday he continues to prove why he is among the top of the European basketball elite.
Despite his declining athleticism and speed, he has found the way to adapt and be once again more than precious to his team, a trait which characterizes big time players. You need proof? In the two recent crucial for qualification games against Fenerbahce/ Ulker and Unicaja Malaga he had a 31 ranking in both occasions, while his personal best is a 34 ranking against Maccabi Tel Aviv back in 2012.
In the regular season he had 20% in two pointers with only three made shots in 10 games, but in Top16 his numbers improved drastically to an incredible 70% efficiency on 22/31 shots!
One more record during the play offs
Diamantidis is already the all time Euroleague leader in steals with 381 in 2019 games, but there’s more to come. In a season during which he has 6.6 asp, he is on the pace to break Thodoris Papaloukas’ all time Euroleague record, as he is just 17 assists behind him!
Papaloukas has dished 977 assists during his career and Diamantidis has already reached number 960! What this means? According to his season average he is just three games away from being named the all time Euroleague leader, not only in steals, but also in assists.
Even a look in his advanced statistics and specially on Panathinaikos production with him on and off the court, it’s enough to understand that there’s not even one aspect of the Greens’ game which is not improving when Diamantidis is active on the court.
With ten season on his belt and still going, Diamantidis is the embodiment of a never give up mentality, a common trait between him and Panathinaikos’ European tradition.