The “fox” of the benches, the great Kostas Mourouzis, was the man that led the Olympiacos team to its first big European success. The great coach took over the “red and whites” in the middle of the 1976-77 season and during his first season he led Olympiacos to win the Greek cup.
Argyris Kampouris was born in 1962 in Astypalea but grew up in Piraeus where he became a basketball player through the Olympiacos junior teams.
The “lion” of Greek Basketball was born in the U.S. on December 11, 1949 and came to Greece to live permanently in the beginning of the ‘70ies. It was the time that Olympiacos, with Gouladris as the President and Faidon Matthaiou as the head coach, had returned from A2 and was trying to build a great team that would make it to the top. Greek player transfers were not allowed at the time so the “red and whites” brought four Greek-Americans to Piraeus.
He played only one year for Olympiacos, during the 1994-95 season, but it was enough for the fans to really love him. The word is on Eddie Johnson, or better “Fast Eddie” or “Lucky Luck”, as one of the best shooters of all times was called in Greece.
The “Patriarch” of Greek basketball is the creator of the great Olympiacos team in the ‘70s. Faidon Matthaiou was born on July 12, 1924 in Thessaloniki and is considered to be the most multifunctional, Greek Champion, of all times. He was a protagonist in volleyball, water polo, track and field with the Aric athletics team in Thessaloniki, rowing with the Naval Group of Thessaloniki, ping pong, tennis, sword and of course, basketball.
The “spider” of Greek basketball was born on May 12, 1963 in Thessaloniki and debuted with the PAOK shirt. He studied in the States, at the North Carolina State and at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, while he anchored in Piraeus in the summer of 1993...
Many consider him to be the greatest basketball player to ever play on the European courts and as one of the biggest talents that lost the way to the top in the course of his career. Roy Tarpley’s talent had been abundant. He did incredible things with the ball, when he wanted to, and no one would be able to stop him.
