Olympiakos BC

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Olympiakos BC is the basketball club of Olympiakos Piraeus.

Olympiakos won their first of its nine Greek League titles in 1949. Their next championship wouldn't be until 1960 with the low point in their history coming five years later when they were relegated.

It was in the 1990s that the Reds made their biggest mark. The middle of that decade belonged to Olympiakos, not only in Greece, but all around the continent. Head coach Yiannis Ioannidis led the club to four consecutive Greek League titles between 1993 and 1996 and to the Euroleague final in 1994 and 1995. It is worth mentioning that in order to advance to the two finals Olympiakos played with archrivals Panathinaikos and won both games.

Dusan Ivkovic came to the bench in 1997, which was the most successful year in the history of Olympiakos Basketball Club as they won the Triple Crown, i.e. all competitions in which they participated; Greek League, Greek Cup and Euroleague (by beating FC Barcelona 73-58 in Rome. Olympiakos are the only Greek team to have achieved this and one of the very few in the history of European Basketball. At the Euroleague final, the most valuable player of the game was David Rivers (Olympiakos' playmaker). The same year they played against the Chicago Bulls - a game between the European Champions and the Champions of the NBA.

Although there was a return to the Final Four in 1999, a few years went by before the Reds won another trophy. The drought ended in 2001-2002 with a Greek Cup victory, while Olympiakos also reached the Greek League finals and came within a victory of the Euroleague Final Four. In 2005, an ever-changing roster made life tough for Olympiakos. The Reds couldn't reach the Euroleague Top 16 and, despite rallying to make the Greek League playoffs, bowed out in the quarterfinals series.

Returning to the elite of European basketball is the goal in 2006 for Olympiakos, a proud club coming off one of its most difficult seasons in recent years.

To conclude with we must say that Olympiakos BC has been voted as the Best Team of the 1990s in Europe by FIBA


A1 Championships

Greek Cup

Euroleague

Players

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