Dimitrios Tsaldaris (alternate spelling: Dimitris) (; born 7 March 1980) is a retired Greek professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player and coach. During his playing career, at a height of tall, he played at both the

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game ...

and

small forward The small forward (SF), also known as the three, is one of the five Basketball position, positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically shorter, quicker, and leaner than Power forward (basketball), power forwards and Cent ...

positions.

Professional playing career

Tsaldaris began his professional career in 2001, with Alimos, in the Greek 2nd Division. He then played with the Greek 1st Division club

Peristeri Peristeri (Greek language, Greek: Περιστέρι, meaning "pigeon/dove" in Greek) is a city and a suburban municipality in the western part of the Athens#Athens Urban Area, Athens agglomeration, Greece. With 133,630 inhabitants (2021 census), ...

, during the 2004–05 season, and then with Panellinios, during the 2005–06 season. He was voted the Greek League Best Young Player in 2006. He then transferred to

Aris Aris or ARIS may refer to: People * Aris (surname) Given name * Aris Alexandrou, Greek writer * Aris Brimanis, ice hockey player * Aris Christofellis, Greek male soprano * Aris Gavelas, Greek sprinter * Aris Konstantinidis, Greek architect * ...

, with which he played in the

EuroLeague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

. In 2009, he moved to the top-tier level Italian League club

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

. He then moved to the Italian clubs Sutor Montegranaro and Dinamo Sassari. He returned to

for the 2011–12 season. He moved to the Greek club Kolossos, in 2012. In 2013, he joined the Italian side

Biella Biella (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the northern Italy, Italian region of Piedmont, the capital of the Province of Biella, province of the same name, with a population of 44,324 as of 31 December 2017. It is located about northeast of ...

, and the next club he moved to was Greek side AENK. On 6 January 2015, he signed with Greek team KAOD. He then played with the Greek club Doxa Lefkadas, in both the first and second Greek divisions.

National team playing career

Tsaldaris also played with the senior men's Greek national basketball team.

Player profile

During his basketball playing career, Tsaldaris was a left-handed, crafty offensive player and pesky defender. He was a good ball handler and passer, and he could play at the

and

positions.

Coaching career

After he retired from playing professional basketball, Tsaldaris began his

basketball coach Basketball coaching is the act of directing and strategizing the behavior of a basketball team or individual basketball player. Basketball coaching typically encompasses the improvement of individual and team offensive and defensive skills, as wel ...

ing career in 2018, as he became a

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

of the youth academies of

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

. In 2019, he became the head coach of the Olympiacos

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

Olympiacos B Olympiacos Football Club B, or simply Olympiacos B (), is the reserve team of Greek club Olympiacos that will be competing in the Super League Greece 2. It was founded in 2021. Stadium The stadium that hosted Olympiacos B' is the Rentis Train ...

, of the Greek 2nd Division.

Personal life

Tsaldaris was born in

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. He is married to Polina, and has a daughter named Despina, and a son named Stelios. In his spare time, he enjoys reading and traveling. His sports idols are

Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player, who is currently a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Ass ...

and

Dražen Petrović Dražen Petrović (; 22 October 1964 – 7 June 1993) was a Yugoslav and Croatian professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he initially achieved success playing professional basketball in Europe in the 1980s with Cibona and Real Madri ...

. His favorite movie is

Apocalypse Now ''Apocalypse Now'' is a 1979 American psychological epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius, and Michael Herr, is loosely inspired by the 1899 novella '' Heart of Darkn ...

, and his favorite car is the

Nissan GT-R The Nissan GT-R (''Gran Turismo–Racing''; model code: R35; Japanese: 日産・GT-R; ''Nissan GT-R'') is a series of cars built by Japanese marque Nissan from 2007 to 2025. It has a 2+2 (car body style), 2+2 seating layout and is considered b ...

. He thinks of himself as a very quiet and reserved person, who likes to be in a group of friends. His jokes were famous among the players and coaches in the practice sessions of Sutor Montegranaro. With the usual victim of his pranks being his co-player Dejan Ivanov. He considers

Željko Obradović Željko Obradović ( sr-cyrl, Желимир "Жељко" Обрадовић, ; born 9 March 1960) is a Serbian professional basketball Coach (basketball), coach and former professional player who is the head coach for KK Partizan, Partizan of the ...

as the ideal

team

, while he considers Juan Carlos Navarro the most difficult opponent he ever faced as a player. He likes any kind of music, and his nickname is "Mitsos". He thinks of the

Greek islands Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227. The largest Greek island by ...

as the ideal destination for holidays, and he prefers brunettes to blondes.Italian League Profile DATI PERSONALI: .
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Awards and accomplishments

Playing career

* Greek League Best Young Player: (2006) *2× Greek League All-Star: (2008, 2009)

References and notes

External links

Euroleague.net ProfileEurobasket.com ProfileItalian League Profile

Greek Basket League Profile

Hellenic Basketball Federation Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsaldaris, Dimitrios 1980 births Living people Aris B.C. players Dinamo Sassari players Doxa Lefkadas B.C. players Greek Basket League players Greek basketball coaches Greek men's basketball players K.A.O.D. B.C. players Kolossos Rodou B.C. players Nea Kifissia B.C. players Nuova AMG Sebastiani Basket Rieti players Olympiacos B.C. B coaches Pallacanestro Biella players Panellinios B.C. players Peristeri B.C. players Reyer Venezia players Shooting guards Small forwards Sutor Basket Montegranaro players Basketball players from Piraeus 21st-century Greek sportsmen