By Dion Stergiopoulos
On Tuesday night, St George Basketball Association was greeted by one of the giants of European basketball, the President of Panathinaikos Basketball Club Vassilis Parthenopoulos.
Panathinaikos Basketball Club was founded in 1919 and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Greece.
Over the years Panathinaikos has developed into one of the most successful basketball clubs in Greek basketball history, and one of the most successful in European basketball history.
Since its inaugural season, Panathinaikos has gone on to win seven EuroLeague Championships, 40 Greek Basket League Championships, 21 Greek Cups, one Intercontinental Cup, one Greek Super Cup and two Triple Crowns.
Panathinaikos, along with Aris, are the only teams never to be relegated from the Greek First Division Basketball Championship and both have participated in every season of the Greek premier basketball competition.
Mr Parthenopoulos had the opportunity to watch a training session and scrimmage from U14 and U16 junior representative teams at St George Basketball and was very impressed with the young talent on show.
Several St George Basketball board members were also in attendance for this historic event.
Treasurer George Aliferis said: “it was an honour and a privilege to have Mr Parthenopoulos visit St George Basketball last night.”
“Panathinaikos is a powerhouse of European Basketball and I’m sure it now has some new young supporters,” Mr Alfieris added.
Head of Coaching Luther Shannon, Club President Ray Barbi, Youth League Mens Red Team Assistant Coach Angelo Tsitsos and Mens Senior Player Yianni Trikillis were also in attendance to welcome Mr Parthenopoulos.
General Manager Valerie Stoddart said, “with a very busy schedule, we can’t thank Mr Parthenopoulos enough for his time and we wish Panathinaikos the best for the upcoming EuroLeague finals.”
St George Basketball is an Association with a very large amount of Greek heritage players, coaches and staff population, as well players from many different countries. It takes pride in the vast range of nationalities represented throughout its many junior and senior representative teams.
Mr Parthenopoulos is in Australia ahead of the historic 7th Annual Pavios Giannakopoulos Tournament where Panathinaikos and Partizan KK will take on NBL Giants Sydney Kings and Adelaide 36ers from 18-22 September 2025.
Pre-registration for tickets is now open here, with those who sign up early given priority access on Monday, 19 May. General public tickets will go on-sale on Thursday 22 May.
