Vasileios Spanoulis
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Categories: 1982 births | Living people | Basketball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics | Greek basketball players | AEL 1964 BC players | Houston Rockets players | People from Thessaly | Maroussi BC basketball players | Olympic basketball players of Greece | Panathinaikos basketball players | Shooting guards | Point guards
Vasileios[1] Spanoulis (Greek: Βασίλης Σπανούλης) (born August 7 1982, in Larissa) is a Greek professional basketball player currently playing for Panathinaikos BC. Spanoulis was originally selected by the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA in the 2nd round (50th overall) of the 2004 NBA Draft. He was then traded to the Houston Rockets of the NBA and played one NBA season with them during the 2006-2007 NBA year.
European CareerThe Early Years Spanoulis began his basketball career with the AEL Larissa (Gymanstikos S. Larissa's) Youth Team of Larissa, Greece in 1994 at the age of 12. He played there until 1998, when at the age of 16 he transferred to the Keravnos Larissa Youth Team in Larissa, Greece in order to move himself up in the ranks of Greek League basketball. He played with the Keravnos Larissa Youth Team for one year and then signed with AEL 1964 Vyssini Larissa (A2 Ethniki) and became a professional basketball player in the Greek Men's Division at the age of just 17. Professional Career His professional debut was with AEL 1964 Vyssini Larissa in the A2 Ethniki Greek League during the 1999-00 season. Two years later he signed with Maroussi Athens of the A1 Ethniki Greek League, EuroCup League, and later ULEB Cup League and played there until 2005. He signed with the Panathinaikos Athens Greens of the Greek A1 Ethniki League and the Euroleague in 2005 and played there for one year. After one year playing in the NBA with the Houston Rockets during the 2006-2007 season, he returned to play with the Panathinaikos Athens Greens. 2001-2002 SeasonDuring the 2001-2002 season Spanoulis helped to lead Maroussi Athens to the finals game of the The Greek Basketball Cup. This was the first time that Maroussi had ever made it to the Greek Cup Championship game. Maroussi BC also competed in the Korać Cup that year. 2002-2003 SeasonDuring the 2002-2003 season Spanoulis led Maroussi BC to the Final Four of the European Champions League Cup (now known as the FIBA Europe EuroCup Challenge). Spanoulis averaged 10.8 points per game and 6.4 assists per game off the bench for Maroussi. He also shot 40% from 3 point range. He was named both the 6th Man of Year and Rookie of Year in the league. 2003-2004 SeasonIn the 2003-2004 season Vassilis led Maroussi Athens to the championship final of the Greek League A1 Ethniki playoffs and also to the FIBA Europe EuroCup League title championship game.[1]. He was named The Most Improved Player of the Year in the Greek A1 Ethniki League. Spanoulis was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2004 NBA Draft following this sudden emergence. He also made the Greek National Basketball Team at the Summer 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. His quick and sudden rise in the Greek League playoffs and FIBA Europe playoffs earned him the nickname "The Greek Sensation" across Europe. 2004-2005 SeasonIn the 2004-2005 season, his last with Maroussi Athens, Spanoulis averaged 15.9 points per game and shot 37.8% from 3 point range in 35 games of the Greek A League A1 Ethniki competition. He then averaged 15.2 points per game and shot 40.0% from 3 point range in 12 games of play in the ULEB Cup. For the year in total Spanoulis averaged 15.7 points per game and shot 38.3% from 3 point range in 47 games for Maroussi. He played in the 2005 Greek All-Star game and was named All-Greek League. This was a breakthrough year for Vasileios as he had averaged 11.1 points per game the previous year. He was considered to be one of the most improved players in Europe for the year. He led Maroussi to the 2nd place of the Greek Championship for the regular season. At the end of the year, Spanoulis was voted European 6th Man of the Year and Rookie of the Year for ULEB Cup. [2] He started to be called "The Greek Steve Nash" by some FIBA Europe fans [3] in Europe after this year. 2005-2006 SeasonImage:SpanDSC00102.jpg
Vasilis Spanoulis against Roanne.
Following his outstanding season in 2004-2005 with Maroussi, he signed a 3 year contract worth €3.6 million with Euroleague (highest basketball league in the world after the NBA) powerhouse Panathinaikos Athens. Spanoulis and his agent Miodrag Ražnatović [4] [5] set the contract terms so that Spanoulis would have a buyout clause after just one year and set the buyout amount at $400,000 US, which was the maximum amount allowed for NBA teams to pay towards a European player contract at the time. With Panathinaikos he won the Greek A1 Ethniki League Championship and the Greek Basketball Cup. His team went 24-2 during the regular season and 8-0 during the playoffs for an overall record of 32-2 in the league championship (see A1 Ethniki 2005-06 season results) and also went undefeated in the Cup at 5-0 for an overall record of 37-2 in the Greek League. He played in the 2006 Greek All Star Game, and was named to the All Greek League Team.[6] Spanoulis was also selected to the Euroleague 2005-06 All-Euroleague 2nd Team[2] He finished 10th in the MVP voting for the Euroleague, a good accomplishment for a rookie. He was also named the Euroleague Rookie of the Year and 6th Man of the year. In 28.8 minutes per game of play during the Euroleague competition, Spanoulis averaged 14.6 points, 3.1 assists [3], 2.0 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 23 games of Euroleague play with Panathinaikos Athens for the season. He also shot 61.8% from the 2-point field and 36.8% from 3-point range, 53.4% overall. His player rating was 15.5 in the Euroleague.[7] He was the team's leading scorer even though he often came off of the bench. He won the Euroleague MVP of the Week Award twice during the season. His team finished the Euroleague with a record of 16-7 (Euroleague 2005-06). Spanoulis was also voted as the 7th best European Player of the Year (FIBA Europe 2006 Player of the Year).[4] Many fans in Europe began calling him "Euro Kobe" after such a dominant rookie season of Euroleague. 2007-2008 SeasonImage:SPAN1010394.JPG
Vasilis Spanoulis is a strong defender.
On August 19th, 2007, Spanoulis was released from his NBA contract by the San Antonio Spurs basketball club of the NBA after deciding he wanted to play only in Greece during the 2007-2008 season. This was due to the fact that his mother was in poor health and Spanoulis wanted to be near her. Spanoulis signed a 3 year contract with his former team the Panathinaikos BC of the Greek Basketball League A1 Ethniki, the defending European Triple Crown in Basketball champions and considered to be the best basketball team in the world outside of the NBA. He was signed to play point guard and shooting guard for the Greens and to team up with fellow Greek National Basketball Team star Dimitris Diamantidis, and former NBA draft pick Sani Bečirovič to team up in the Green's back court. Former NBA player Šarūnas Jasikevičius would later join them in the team's guard rotation to form the best back-court in the world outside of the NBA.[8] The contract Vassilis signed was for 3 years €5,000,000 salary, plus a $1,166,400 contract buyout making him the Panathinaikos Green's 2nd highest paid player. Spanoulis' agent set up the contract so that Vassilis could opt out of it after one year. Spanoulis originally stated that after the first year of his contract he might opt out of it and return to San Antonio, Texas to play with the Spurs in the NBA again, as the Spurs still would have liked to have retained his services.[9] Spanoulis also initially said that he was interested in returning to play with them for the 2008-2009 season, but could not play with them during the 2007-2008 year because of his mother's poor health.[10] NBA CareerIn July 2006, Spanoulis opted out of the final two years of his contract with Panathinaikos Athens and signed a three-year deal (2 years guaranteed) with the Houston Rockets who paid for his contract buyout from Panathinaikos. The contract was worth $5,832,000[5], in addition to his $400,000 buyout. The contract amount was for an average of $1,944,000 per season, which was the same amount of money he had been making from his Panathinaikos contract. The Rockets had acquired the rights to Spanoulis on draft night 2004, when Houston swapped draft pick #55 Luis Flores and cash considerations of $300,000 with the Dallas Mavericks for #50 (Spanoulis).[6] “He’s a very versatile ball handler,” Rockets [then] general manager Carroll Dawson said. “He’s a good finisher and a very good prospect. He wants to be a great player. Everybody is going to like this young man because he is a very hard-nosed player. We have watched his progress very closely,” Dawson said. “It’s a big adjustment to come to the NBA from Europe, but he is a hard worker.”[7] Rockets [then] Director of Player Personnel Dennis Lindsey stated the following about Spanoulis prior to the team signing him. "We're very, very happy with his progress," said Lindsey. "He changed clubs this year from Maroussi to the bigger club this year, Panathinaikos. For those not familiar with European basketball, they are like the New York Yankees of Greece and one of the two or three better organizations in Europe. They are an NBA level club. From our standpoint, we really like what Vassilis has done. He is their leading scorer. They are 9-1 in the Euroleague and they have already qualified for the top sixteen." Lindsey praised Spanoulis' ability to attack the basket. "He's got a couple of characteristics that we like," added Lindsey. "He can really drive and get the ball in the paint, and he's relentless with it. He kind of plays basketball like a fullback a little bit, where he just kind of breaks through the line and there's contact on a lot of plays." Whether Spanoulis is ready to join the team remains to be seen, but Lindsey made it sound like the Rockets would like him on the squad sooner rather than later. "The owner and Jeff and Carroll really like what they've seen so far and we've made a couple of trips over and hopefully in the near future we can have him as a Rocket because we think he can help us."[11] 2006-2007 NBA SeasonImage:SPAN1010453.JPG
Vasilis Spanoulis is ready for an assist.
Spanoulis saw limited playing time with the Houston Rockets during his rookie season, averaging 2.7 points and 0.9 assists in 8.8 minutes per game on 31.9% field goal shooting (17.2% from behind the 3-point line) in 31 games played off the bench.[8] During Spanoulis' first NBA season there was a dispute between him and the team's head coach Jeff Van Gundy over playing time. There was an issue between the team's management, Spanoulis, and the coach as well over the contract that Spanoulis had signed. In order to sign with the Rockets and fulfill his dreams of playing in the NBA, Spanoulis took a considerably smaller contract than the one that was being offered to him by his Greek team Panathinaikos Athens. He still had two years under his contract with Panathinaikos, but his buyout was small and could be paid by the Rockets. Spanoulis agreed to play for Houston at a price of $1,944,000 per season for 3 years, passing up on Panathinaikos Athens' offer of $2,430,000 per season over 3 years, just for a chance of playing in the NBA. Eventually, there was a falling out between Spanoulis and the team's coach Van Gundy, after Van Gundy benched Spanoulis after he played poorly, citing that rookie players are dangerous for coaches that are in contract years and that Spanoulis was too turnover prone and lacking in outside shooting touch to be a good fit in Van Gundy's offensive system design. Allegedly due to "family reasons," Spanoulis decided that he would not remain in the NBA, with his agent going as far as comparing the Rockets reluctance to break his contract to slavery.[9] Spanoulis instead opted to go back to his home country of Greece to play for his former team Panathinaikos in the Greek Basketball League A1 Ethniki.[10] Vassilis Spanoulis was traded by the Rockets to the San Antonio Spurs on July 12, 2007 along with a 2009 second-round draft pick in exchange for center Jackie Butler and the rights to Argentinian power forward Luis Scola.[11] On August 19, 2007 the San Antonio Spurs released Spanoulis, giving him the chance to return back to Greece to play for the Panathinaikos Athens Greens as he had requested. This was officially announced on August 23, 2007.[12] International CareerSpanoulis was a member of the Greek bronze medal team at the 2000 European Junior Championship and also won a silver medal with the Greek junior national team at the 2001 Junior Mediterranean Games, and he won a gold medal at the 2002 Under-20 World Championship with the Greek team. He was the MVP of both the 2001 Junior Mediterranean Games and the 2002 Under-20 World Championship. During the Under-20 World Championship gold medal game he sank two clutch free throws with just 13 seconds remaining in the game to clinch a win over the Spanish national basketball team. [12] Spanoulis was a member of the Greek national basketball team during the Summer 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, which finished in 5th place in the senior men's basketball competition. He was a part of the silver medal winning Greek team at the 2005 Mediterranean Games and also the Eurobasket 2005 championship team with Greece's national team. He was a part of Greece's team that won the 2006 Stanković Continental Champions’ Cup. Spanoulis helped to lead Greece to the silver medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championships. He scored 22 points against the United States national basketball team in the semi-final game and led the Greek national team in scoring at 11.7 points per game and free throw shooting at 87.8% during the World Championships. [13] Vassilis was named the MVP of the 2007 Acropolis Tournament in Athens and has also won the same tournament 3 times with Greece.[14] At the Eurobasket 2007 he led Greece in scoring at 11.7 points per game.[15] TriviaImage:SPAN1010463.JPG
Vasilis Spanoulis in the playmaker position.
Teams
AchievementsImage:SPAN1010468.JPG
Vasilis Spanoulis taking a free throw.
Notes
External links
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