Panagiotis Fasoulas
Panagiotis Fasoulas (Greek Παναγιώτης Φασούλας, born May 12, 1963 in Thessaloniki ) is a retired Greek professional basketball player and currently the Mayor of Piraeus.
Fasoulas was in the 80s and 90s as one of the best players in Europe. With its size of 2.13 meters, he played at the position of center. He is next to the Croats Stojan Vranković as the best shot blocker of all time outside of the NBA.
Career
He began his career at PAOK Thessaloniki. At the age of 18 he played his first international match ( on 27 October 1981) for the Greek national team. In 1986 he was drafted by the NBA team Portland Trail Blazers after he played for the North Carolina State University in the NCAA. However Fasoulas decided to lead his career in Europe with PAOK Thessaloniki on. With PAOK he won the 1984 Greek Cup, the Greek Championship and 1992. In 1991, he led PAOK with winning the European Cup Winners' Cup for the first international title. In 1993 he reached with PAOK Thessaloniki the Final Four tournament of the Europe League and ranked the 3rd place there. In the same year Fasoulas joined Olympiakos Piraeus. Between 1993 and 1997 Fasoulas Olympiakos won with five other Greek championships and won two Cup victories. In 1994 and 1995 he reached the final of the Europa League Olympiakos had to be there but against Badalona ( 1994) and Real Madrid ( 1995) admit defeat. In 1997 he finally succeeded in winning the Europa League. In the final Olympiakos defeated the team of FC Barcelona.
National
With the Greek national Fasoulas graduated 244 internationals. He has thus by Giannakis is the second most inserts for the Greek national team and is equipped with 2,373 point Ender 's third most successful basket shooter in the history of Greece. His last international game, he completed on August 9 at the 1998 World Cup, when he took 4th place with Greece. The same result was reached with the national team at the previous World Cup in Canada in 1994 Fasoulas. He was a member of the European champion team of 1987, the then reigning world and European champions Soviet Union defeated in a sensational 's top-class games of the EM story, in the final. He became vice European champion at the European Championships in Zagreb in 1989.
Political career
After his sports career was devoted Fasoulas politics. He became a deputy of PASOK in the Greek Parliament. Since 15 October 2006, he is the mayor of Piraeus.
Achievements
- Greek champion: 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
- Greek Cup winner: 1984, 1994, 1997
- Cup Winners' Cup: 1991
- European Champion Clubs' Cup: 1997
- European Championship: 1987
- European runners-up: 1989