The Pavlos Giannakopoulos Tournament is coming to Australia’s shores and the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW (GOCNSW) is playing an active role in highlighting the historic event that will pit some of Europe’s best basketball clubs (including Panathinaikos) against Australia’s.
The tournament, created by Panathinaikos Basketball Club, is being held outside of Greece for the first time ever on 21 and 22 September in Sydney and will see the Greens and KK Partizan battle it out against Sydney Kings and Adelaide 36ers.
The organisers of the event, including the Greek basketball giants and Australia’s National Basketball League, met with the Community, recognising its ability to reach the wider Hellenic public of Sydney.
Apart from the leadership of the Community meeting with Panathinaikos BC president Vasilis Parthenopoulos and NBL officials, the Community is undertaking a series of initiatives related to the tournament.
Among them includes a poster competition for Sydney’s students aged 7 to 14, with the youngsters encouraged to put their art skills to use and submit a decorative piece related to the tournament to the Community.
In addition, the Community will also combine with the Greek student associations of Sydney’s universities (USYD, UNSW, UTS, Macquarie) in a social media competition to be run through the student groups’ pages.
Both initiatives will run until 5 September with a select few from each to receive tickets to the matches.
“The GOCNSW is proud to be involved in this project, and we are hopeful that the community will respond in large numbers to support the initiative which runs well beyond the sporting boundaries and strengthens further our Hellenic attachments,” Secretary of the Community and Chair of the Greek Festival of Sydney, Nia Karteris, said.
The Community continues to work on ways to engage the wider public further with the tournament, which also represents a historic first-ever visit to Australia by Panathinaikos’ basketball team.
Pavlos Giannakopoulos Tournament Match Details:
Venue: Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park
- Sunday, 21 September 2025
- KK Partizan vs Sydney Kings – 4:30 PM
- Panathinaikos B.C. vs Adelaide 36ers – 7:00 PM
- Monday, 22 September 2025
- KK Partizan vs Adelaide 36ers – 5:00 PM
- Panathinaikos B.C. vs Sydney Kings – 7:30 PM
Tickets are now on-sale for each game day via Ticketek, with family ticket packages available for $123 in Melbourne including two adults and two kids, and $120.95 in Sydney. Club merchandise available to purchase via the NBL site.
