A great man with a great heart, a real gentleman and human being, a man that I knew for approximately 50 years when together we started to be a part of the European basketball at the competition of European cup for champion teams.
As a symbol of loyalty I can mention the chaos of the year 2000 when in a crucial meeting that was held in Fiba offices in Munich, and most of the teams decided to leave Fiba and to go and establish a new league the – EuroLeague.
There were 2 teams only – Panathinaikos and Maccabi that stayed loyal to Fiba and decided to be members of the Suproleague. That was for 1 year only and then we both joined the Euroleague.
It was a great honor for us to be invited last year to the tournament in memory of for Mr. Pavlos Giannakopoulos. It was comforting to meet his widow, Mrs. Giannakopoulos and his lovely son Dimitris at the dinner, As well as the late brother Thansis. It was a real tragedy to hear that the 2 brothers and their sister passed away in such short time.
Maccabi Tel Aviv and me personally salute to the Giannakopoulos family that will be always in our hearts.
