DIMITRIS DIAMANTIDIS - 101 Greats of European Basketball

Dimitris
Diamantidis
103

A diamond
on the court
For many years, the great duo in the Greek national
team that won the 2005 EuroBasket
was formed by Vassilis Spanoulis and Dimitris
Diamantidis. They also played together
for Panathinaikos Athens before Spanoulis
would end up with arch-rival Olympiacos
Piraeus. Both are symbols for Greek basketball and
icons in the sports capital of Athens, but not everyone
knows that neither of them is from that city.
Spanoulis started playing in Larissa, a town between
Athens and Thessaloniki, while Diamantidis took
his first basketball steps at 14 years old in Kastoria, located
in the north of the Macedonian region of Greece,
prior to signing, five years later, for Iraklis Thessaloniki.
The key moment for Diamantidis was the EuroBasket
won by Greece in 1987. Funny enough, his idols were
not Nikos Galis nor Panagiotis Giannakis, the two big
aces of Greek basketball back then. He explained that
at the beginning he had no idols, but later he liked Fanis
Christodoulou a lot “because he could do many things.”
The home of his parents Maria and Tomas, in Kastoria,
was right next to a school that had a basketball
court where a young Diamantidis spent days and nights
practicing, even in the summer, when he needed to ask
for the keys so that he could open the locked doors to
get on the court. In 1999-2000 he signed for Iraklis at
age 19. His club of origin, Kastoria, would later put his
name on its arena. Diamantidis stayed in Iraklis, where
he started with humble numbers (1.8 points in only 9
games played), until 2004. Those numbers truly hid the
future star: 16 points in 9 games, only 29.4% accuracy
on two-point shots, 0-for-3 in triples, and just 6 assists.
More than one person said he would be a mediocre
player.
After five seasons in Iraklis, he moved left Thessaloniki
with vastly different numbers: 14.8 points, 51.9%
in two-point shots, 33.3% in threes, 6.3 rebounds and
1.4 assists. He also earned 2003-04 MVP honor in
Greece. In the 2004 Mediterranean Games, he made
his debut with the national team. Watching at a distance
was the Panathinaikos head coach at the time,
Zeljko Obradovic, who signed him for the next season.
In an interview with Frank Lawlor for EuroLeague.
net in 2011, Diamantidis explained the changes he went
through when he joined Panathinaikos:
“When I was young, I watched basketball because I
liked it. I didn’t follow any particular players. When you
are so young, you cannot understand some elements
of the game, how the game is really played. You watch
the game and you simply enjoy watching it. I believe
that I picked up more elements of my game from my
coaches and not from other players. When I first came
to Panathinaikos, my coaches showed me that basketball
can be played in a different way than the one I knew
until then. They showed me that there are other things
that can be done and showed me the way to do them. I
saw a different kind of basketball, which I liked.”
Obradovic took notice of his defensive skills more
than his talents on offense. In his first season with the
Greens, Diamantidis improved his percentages (59.3%
twos, 35.8% threes), doubled his average in assists,
and also performed great invisible jobs not always seen
in the statistics.
The best opposing scorers had real nightmares when
101 greats of european basketball
Dimitris Diamantidis
D

Vladimir Stankovic
dealing with Diamantidis, but when the team needed
points, his left hand was also a reliable source. His height
(1.96 meters) allowed him to play at point or shooting
guard, even small forward if the situation required. At
100 kilos, he had a strong body that could take contact.
However, his best weapons were his fast hands and
his court vision. He collected many steals and he was
a sure thing when dribbling the ball. Two seasons after
his retirement, he is still the EuroLeague’s historic steals
leader with 434 (1.56 per game). His total performance
index rating (PIR) of 3,806 stands behind only Juan Carlos
Navarro, who had 3,890, although played a lot fewer
games. His total assists, 1,255, follows only Spanoulis,
who has 1,275 – and counting. Diamantidis was the first
player to reach 1,000 assists in the EuroLeague, which
happened against Fenerbahce – with Obradovic now on
the opposing bench – on October 14, 2014, in front of his
home fans in Athens.
However, Diamantidis always had a talent that was
invisible to the stats sheets but crucial for Panathinaikos:
his leadership. During his 12 years at Panathinaikos, 11
of them with Obradovic on the bench, Diamantidis was
always the extension of the coach’s hand on the court,
the player who would always have the ball in money
time. He had the freedom to choose whether to pass,
shoot or penetrate. It’s not easy to count all his titles and
accolades with the Greens and the national team, but I
will try listing, let’s say, the most important ones:
With Panathinaikos:
• 3 EuroLeague titles: 2007, 2009 and 2011
• 9 Greek League titles
• 10 Greek Cup titles
• Six-time best EuroLeague defender
• EuroLeague MVP in 2011
• EuroLeague Final Four MVP in 2007 and 2011
• All-EuroLeague First Team: 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013
• EuroLeague assists leader: 2011 and 2014
• Six-time Greek League MVP
• Two-time Greek Cup final MVP
With the Greek national team:
• EuroBasket champion in 2005 in Belgrade
• Member of the all-tournament team in 2005
• 2005 EuroBasket assists lead (5.0 per game)
• Silver medal, 2006 World Cup in Japan
I remember each of his EuroLeague titles for
something. In Athens in 2007, the final between Panathinaikos
and CSKA Moscow (93-91) was one of the
best games I can remember. Diamantidis, after being
discreet in the semis against Baskonia (67-53), shined
in the title game with 15 points. In Berlin 2009, his mate
Spanoulis was the MVP, but Diamantidis played more
minutes and only needed 5 shots for his 10 points (1
of 2 twos, 2 of 3 threes and 2 of 2 free throws), plus he
had the highest PIR in his team. In 2011 in Barcelona, he
dished 9 assists each in the semis against Montepaschi
Siena (79-77) and in the final against Maccabi (78-70).
He also added 16 points in the final. He had the huge
quality of playing for the team at all times, but also taking
over and scoring if that what was needed most.
His personal records in the EuroLeague are 43
minutes against CSKA in 2005, a PIR of 34 against
Maccabi in 2012 (in a one-point victory in Game 5 of the
playoffs), 26 points against FC Barcelona in 2011 (also
in the playoffs), and 11 assists against Milan in 2014.
His points average in 278 EuroLeague games is 9.0, but
even if numbers can tell a great deal about basketball,
with Diamantidis I think that personal opinions are way
better. The eyes could see what the stats missed because
his real influence was many times not reflected
on a scoresheet. One could even say that stats were
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against him many times, but luckily for us, there are videos
of his feats that can show us his class. Of course,
after retiring in 2016, he was named a Euroleague Basketball
Legend.
I followed Diamantidis all his years in Panathinaikos,
but in my memory, there’s a special place for a game
he played with Greece. In semifinals against France at
that 2005 EuroBasket, his team was losing 64-66 with a
few seconds to go, but Greece had the last possession.
Everyone among the 19,000 fans at the Stark Arena,
home of the Final Four in 2018, knew that the last shot
would be for Dimitris Diamantidis. And it was. And he
nailed the three for a 67-66 win that would put Greece
in the final that it won, 78-62, against Dirk Nowitzki’s
Germany.
The next summer, when Greece defeated the United
States team with LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris
Paul and Dwight Howard in the semifinals of the 2006
World Cup in Japan, Diamantidis had 12 points, 5 assists,
3 rebounds and 2 steals. Many thought that was proof
that he could play in the NBA. I honestly think that he
would have played well there, but he chose to stay in his
country and play a leading role always. He wore the national
jersey 124 times and scored 760 points. He played
in three EuroBaskets (2003, 2005 and 2007), two world
championships (2006 and 2010) and two Olympics
(2004 and 2008). He was the idol of the Panathinaikos
fans, who gave him an original nickname: 3D. They were
not wrong, either, as he was a multi-dimensional player.
He was also called The Octopus and Spiderman, because
of his long arms and sticky hands for steals.
In 2016 he was voted the most popular player in the
Greek League. That same year, Panathinaikos retired his
jersey number 13 in a spectacular tribute. The tourney
named Diamonds are Forever, in his honor, has seen
teams like CSKA, Maccabi and Barcelona participate.
In the Panathinaikos vs. CSKA game on September 16,
2016, the action stopped 13 seconds before the break
to honor Diamantidis.
For many people, number 13 means bad luck, but
Diamantidis showed that many times luck depends
on your hard work, your talent, sacrifice, ambition...
He admitted that it was the only free number when he
joined Iraklis, but he also said he’s not superstitious. In
Kastoria, he had worn number 5.
Diamantidis was a real diamond on the court. In
real life, he was almost an anti-star. He was always shy
and humble and stayed away from the spotlight. He
didn’t like the attention of the media, he hated official
appearances because he had to wear a suit and tie, and
he didn’t like to deliver speeches. He was, one could
say, a very disciplined ascetic who always took care of
himself. He hardly drank alcohol, for instance. He was a
true example for young people.
When EuroLeague chose the All-Decade Team between
2001 and 2010, it was clear that Diamantidis
had to be there. He was joined by Dejan Bodiroga, J.R.
Holden, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Trajan Langdon, Juan
Carlos Navarro, Theo Papaloukas, Anthony Parker, Ramunas
Siskauskas and Nikola Vujcic. All of them are in
this book except for Navarro, because he is still playing
at this very moment, and the profiles are for retired
players only.
Diamantidis was the last of the other nine to retire.
He was almost singular as a player who could dominate
basketball games literally from any place on the floor
and come up with every kind of big play, offensive or
defensive, to win them.
Dimitris Diamantidis was truly a diamond, rare and
unique.
101 greats of european basketball
Dimitris Diamantidis
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