"Bed time, bed time," my mother was shouting every Thursday night just before the basketball team of Aris Thessaloniki was ready to play for the European Championship. I had to watch the God Nikos Galis and the other legends of the yellow team of Northern Greece every Friday afternoon after school on VHS. I used to watch the game all week, everyday actually, after school with my lunch. Then I would play on my balcony, making up basketball matches, shooting on the basket that my father bought me, while the neighbours downstairs could not stop complaining.
Nikos Galis for me (as well as Panagiotis Giannakis and the other basketball heroes that played for the "God of War") was very important to understand that if someone really wants something and is dedicated to it, can achieve it. The very short Galis, for a basketball player (6.1 feet - 1.83 metres) managed to concer Europe with his hard work, his talent and his incredible scoring and leading abilities.
Since he moved to Greece in 1979, Galis won about 20 Greek titles, mainly with Aris - amongst them 7 championships in a row from 1985 to 1991. But the most important achievement was the Gold medal with the Greek National Team, in the European Championship of 1987 in Athens, where he made Drazen Petrovic look like a nobody in the semi-final, and scored 40 points in the final against the mighthy USSR.
In my opinion the silver medal two years later in 1989 in Yugoslavia was almost of equivalent value, as it established the position that Greece has in basketball world-wide, till today. Beating the Soviet Union of Arvydas Sabonis in the semi-final with the 3-point shot of Fanis Christodoulou at the end - where Galis was celebrating before the ball went in - was the proof that Greece was here to stay.
Galis made a whole generation to love basketball, learn it, play it, understand it. Never before an athlete had such a cultural effect on Greece. The whole country was filled with baskets and/or basketball courts. Galis inspired the Greek players that are now some of the top stars of the Euroleague - Dimitris Diamantidis, Thodoris Papaloukas, Vasilis Spanoulis, Sofoklis Schortsianitis etc.
Unfortunately, being so young, and growing up in Athens did not give me the opportunity to see him very often in the court. The last time I did was on a friendly match of the Natioanl team against Italy of Antonello Riva at the "Piece and Friendship" stadium in Athens. Greece won and at the end hundreds of people rushed in to come close to their stars, Galis, Giannakis, Fasoulas and Chrystodoulou. I still hate my father for not letting me run inside as well, because I lost the chance to be close to my legends, and mainly close to Nikos Galis, the Greek God of basketball.
PS: I wish I was in Thessaloniki tonight to honour him as well with a long applause and a bit of crying
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