{"id":153888,"date":"2025-09-19T07:44:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T07:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153888\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T07:44:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T07:44:34","slug":"greek-basketball-remains-at-a-high-level-sloukas-reflects-on-eurobasket-2025-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153888\/","title":{"rendered":"“Greek basketball remains at a high level” – Sloukas reflects on EuroBasket 2025 success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Panathinaikos BC captain Kostas Sloukas has expressed immense enthusiasm with the current standing of Greek basketball, believing their recent bronze medal finish at EuroBasket 2025 demonstrates the country\u2019s continued strength as one of the best basketball nations.<\/p>\n

Sloukas and the entire Panathinaikos team were present at a media call event held at Hickson Rd Reserve in Sydney on Friday (19 September) in anticipation of the Pavlos Giannakopoulos Tournament games on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Greek basketball star reflected on the national team\u2019s recent success as they secured their first medal since 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cEuroBasket was very difficult,\u201d Sloukas told Neos Kosmos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were generally optimistic from the very beginning. In the end we achieved our goal of winning a medal for the first time after so many years. I am very happy to have been part of that team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old superstar remarked that the sport has gone through immense change since he first started playing professionally.<\/p>\n

\"\"Panathinaikos coach Ergin Ataman. Photo: Dimitri Kallos<\/p>\n

\u201cBasketball is always evolving. It has changed completely. It is much faster. A lot of talents have emerged,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreek basketball remains at a high level, as we saw recently through our EuroBasket success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sloukas and fellow Panathinaikos star Panagiotis Kalaitzakis both noted the team\u2019s pleasure in coming to Australia for the tournament that honours the legendary figure of the club,<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, it is a big deal to bring the team from Greece to the other side of the world,\u201d Kalaitzakis told Neos Kosmos.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralian basketball is at a very good level,\u201d Sloukas added, expressing interest to see what the conditions are like and how they compare to Europe.<\/p>\n

Kalaitzakis admitted that the feedback they received from the players who arrived earlier in Australia has deeply encouraged them about the Greek diaspora.<\/p>\n

\"\"Panathinaikos BC and KK Partizan. Photo: Dimitri Kallos<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve heard from the players that came earlier how many Greeks there are, and also how many Panathinaikos supporters are here. It is something that shows just how big our team is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are happy that we are giving people joy, and we hope that our presence here gives them a push to continue following the team from afar.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will be little rest for Panathinaikos following their Australia trip as they prepare for the start of the 2025\/26 EuroLeague on 30 September, and they have imposed high expectations on themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, our biggest goal is to win the EuroLeague just as we did in the 2023\/24 season,\u201d Kalaitzakis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone will give their all and each play their part as we pursue our goal of winning the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Greece and Panathinaikos superstar Kostas Sloukas. Photo: Dimitri Kallos
\n\"\"Despina Giannakopoulou (the wife of the late Pavlos Giannakopoulos) with Panathinaikos BC President Vassilis Parthenopoulos. Photo: Dimitri Kallos
\n\"\"Kostas Sloukas talking to Neos Kosmos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Panathinaikos BC captain Kostas Sloukas has expressed immense enthusiasm with the current standing of Greek basketball, believing their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-153888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}