{"id":160113,"date":"2025-09-22T02:58:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T02:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/160113\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T02:58:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T02:58:25","slug":"panathinaikos-bc-signs-off-australia-tour-in-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/160113\/","title":{"rendered":"Panathinaikos BC signs off Australia tour in style"},"content":{"rendered":"

Panathinaikos Basketball Club\u2019s presence in Sydney promised to turn it into a \u201cGreen\u201d city and the people did not disappoint with droves of \u201cTrifylli\u201d faithful, young and old, all congregating to celebrate the team\u2019s historic presence Down Under.<\/p>\n

Thousands of supporters turned out for the Pavlos Giannakopoulos Tournament spectacular at Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday, with them able to bask in the team\u2019s glory as they won 106-89 against Adelaide 36ers.<\/p>\n

The event was enriched with a Hellenic flavour with pre-game festivities including a performance by the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW dance group, while the Greek national anthem was sung by Maria Maroulis.<\/p>\n

The hearty crowd, adorned in Green colours and carrying team flags, began packing in from before the earlier fixture between KK Partizan at 4.30pm all the way up to the match\u2019s start time in the evening.<\/p>\n

The Sydney supporters did not go unnoticed by the visiting club.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fans turned up adorned in Green colours and flags, both of Greece and of the \u201cTrifylli\u201d. Photo: Dimitri Kallos<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great atmosphere,\u201d said Panathinaikos coach Ergin Ataman, who added \u201d we had a very good experience playing here in Sydney\u201d.<\/p>\n

Recent signing Nikos Rogkavopoulos noted the trip served as a means of both professional and personal joy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, I think it is a very nice experience here. I am very thankful for the hospitality and also I have family here in Australia that I saw and it is double happiness for me. It was a very nice week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Answering in Greek, Rogkavopoulos added:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many Greeks in Sydney. I think we made them very happy. (Regarding seeing his relatives in Australia) I had the chance to see my family here for the first time ever. It is an experience that I hope to relive again.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the experience was enjoyed most by the Panathinaikos fans, it was not lost on Adelaide 36ers who had high praise for the Greek giants.<\/p>\n

\"\"One of many Panathinaikos fans who arrived hours early in anticipation of the event. Photo: Dimitri Kallos<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, for the NBL and for the Adelaide 36ers, it was a huge honour to be invited and just a really cool kind of event to play, to me, the best club outside of the NBA,\u201d said 36ers coach Mike Wells in response to a Neos Kosmos question at the press conference.<\/p>\n

36ers star Bryce Cotton admitted that it is tests like these that the players really live for and use as tools to measure themselves against great talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a great opportunity, I wasn\u2019t aware that it\u2019s the first time the tournament was held elsewhere, but from a pure athlete\u2019s standpoint it was a great measuring tool for us as a team,\u201d Cotton said in response to a Neos Kosmos question.<\/p>\n

Wells, who has a decorated career as an assistant coach in the NBA, noted that games like these are what coaches like him also look forward to,<\/p>\n

\u201cThat talent, that roster, what coach (Ataman) does, it is a pretty fun to watch those guys after being in the NBA for 26 years. I\u2019ve seen them. As well as Bryce playing in a game and measuring himself against great competition, you want to have a chance to coach in that game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo: Dimitri Kallos
\n\"\"Panathinaikos players getting warmed up. Photo: Dimitri Kallos
\n\"\"Nikos Rogkavopoulos and Ergin Ataman at the press conference. Photo: Dimitri Kallos
\n\"\"Players warming up ahead of the spectacle. Photo: Supplied
\n\"\"Photo: Supplied<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Panathinaikos Basketball Club\u2019s presence in Sydney promised to turn it into a \u201cGreen\u201d city and the people did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-160113","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\/160113","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=160113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}