Steve Giatzoglou
Stylianos "Steve" Giatzoglou (alternate spellings: Yatzoglou, Yantzoglou; Greek: Στυλιανός "Στηβ" Γιατζόγλου; born 11 December 1949), is a Greek American professional basketball coach, and the president of the Union of Greek Basketball Athletes. He's also a former basketball player, having competed professionally in the Greek Basket League. During his playing career, his nickname was "The Lion".[1]
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 11, 1949 United States |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Listed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Listed weight | 205 lb (93 kg) |
| Career information | |
| College | Connecticut College |
| NBA draft | 1972 / Undrafted |
| Playing career | 1972–1985 |
| Position | Point guard / Shooting guard |
| Number | 5 |
| Coaching career | 1985–present |
| Career history | |
| As player: | |
| 1972–1984 | Olympiacos |
| 1984–1985 | PAOK |
| As coach: | |
| 1985–1986 | Aris (assistant) |
| 1987–1989 | Olympiacos |
| 1989–1990 | Sporting |
| 1990–1992 | Iraklis |
| 1992–1993 | Aris |
| 1993–1994 | AEK |
| 1994 | Pagrati |
| 1994 | Peristeri |
| 1996 | Iraklis |
| 1996–1998 | Gymnastikos S. Larissas |
| 2000–2001 | Aris |
| 2006–2007 | Aigaleo |
| 2014–2015 | Goyang Orions (assistant) |
| 2015–2016 | Kavala |
| Career highlights and awards | |
As a player:
| |
Playing career
College career
Giatzoglou played college basketball at Connecticut College, under the name Steve Young.
Professional career
Giatzoglou's pro career was noted for his successes with the Greek Basket League club Olympiacos. He's considered today as one of the greatest players in the club's history. With Olympiacos, he won 2 Greek League championships and 4 Greek Cups. He was the Greek Cup Finals Top Scorer in 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1980. He also played with the Greek club PAOK.
In the top-tier level Greek League, he scored a total of 6,044 points, which is the 10th most total points scored in the competition, since the 1963–64 season.[2]
National team career
Giatzoglou made his debut with Greece national basketball team on May 6, 1973. He played in 115 games, scoring a total of 1,468 points,[3] for a scoring average of 12.8 points per game.
Giatzoglou played in 3 EuroBasket tournaments with Greece's national team : in 1973, 1975, and 1979. His last game with the Greek national team was on 18 February 1981, in a friendly game against the Bulgarian national basketball team.
Coaching career
As a basketball head coach, Giatzoglou worked in several clubs in Greece, including: Olympiacos, Sporting, Iraklis, Aris, AEK, Pagrati, Peristeri, Gymnastikos S. Larissas, Aigaleo, and Kavala. In 2014, Giatzoglou was hired as assistant coach to work in South Korea, with the Goyang Orions of the Korean Basketball League.[4] In 2015, Giatzoglou returned to Greece to coach Kavala.[5]
In 2018, Panionios hired Giatzoglou to be the club's new head coach. However, the club released him from the position before he coached the team in any games, due to a backlash from the team's fans, that was a result of Giatzoglou's personal political views.[6]
Awards and accomplishments
Pro career
- 10th all-time leading scorer of the Greek Basketball Championship, with 6,044 total points scored in the Greek A National League (1963–64 season to present).
Olympiacos
- 2× Greek League Champion: (1976, 1978)
- 4× Greek Cup Winner: (1976, 1977, 1978, 1980)
- 4× Greek Cup Finals Top Scorer (1977–1980)
Greek national team
- 1972 Balkan Basketball Cup:
Silver - 1974 Balkan Basketball Cup:
Bronze - 1976 Balkan Basketball Cup: Bronze
- 1979 Mediterranean Games:
Gold - 1979 Balkan Basketball Cup: Gold
- 1980 Balkan Basketball Cup: Bronze
Personal life
In October 2016, Giatzoglou endorsed the Neo-Nazi [7] political party Golden Dawn, and attended the celebration of their newspaper's 1,000th issue.[8]
References
- Τα κανόνια του ελληνικού πρωταθλήματος: Στιβ Γιατζόγλου (in Greek).
- Τα “κανόνια” του ελληνικού Πρωταθλήματος: Στιβ Γιατζόγλου (in Greek).
-
- Steve Giatzoglou, Hellenic Basketball Federation website (in Greek)
- "Steve Giatzoglou joins Goyang Orions coaching staff in Korea", Basketball Buddha, 8 October 2014
- "Steve Giatzoglou is Kavala's new coach", 17 November 2015
- Γιατζόγλου στο SDNA: «Φυσικά και είμαι φασίστας!» (in Greek).
- Gemenis, Kostas; Nezi, Roula (January 2012), The 2011 Political Parties Expert Survey in Greece (PDF), University of Twente, p. 4,
Interestingly, the placement of the extreme right Chrysi Avyi does not seem to be influenced by this bias, although this has more do with the lack of variance in the data (32 out of 33 experts placed the party on 10)
Grumke, Thomas (2003), "The transatlantic dimension of right-wing extremism", Human Rights Review, 4 (4): 56–72, doi:10.1007/s12142-003-1021-x, S2CID 145203309,On October 24, 1998 the Greek right-wing extremist organization Chrisi Avgi ("Golden Dawn") was the host for the "5th European Youth Congress" in Thessaloniki.
- "Steve Giatzoglou at Golden Dawn event", Kourdisto Portokali, 4 October 2016 (in Greek)
Additional sources
- Legends of the Legend : Steve Giatzoglou at the Olympiacos website
- Steve Giatzoglou, FIBA website
- Steve Giatzoglou, FIBA Europe website
- Τα “κανόνια” του ελληνικού Πρωταθλήματος: Στιβ Γιατζόγλου (in Greek)