Olympia Larissa B.C. (alternate spellings: Olimpia, Larissas, Larisa, Larisas) (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Ολύμπια Λάρισας) was a 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 ...

club, based in

Larissa Larissa (; , , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 148,562 in the city proper, according to the 2021 census. It is also the capital of the Larissa ...

, Greece. The club's full name was Olympia Larissa Basketball Club. It was founded in 1979, making it one of the youngest sports clubs in Greece. Its colors were orange and blue. Olympia Larissa's home arena was the

Larissa Neapolis Arena Larissa Neapolis Indoor Arena is an indoor arena, indoor sporting arena located in the city of Larissa, Greece, in the district of Larissa#Districts, Neapolis. The arena is used to host basketball and volleyball games. The arena is a part of the ...

. The most notable Greek players that played for the club include:

Georgios Printezis Georgios Printezis (alternate spelling: Giorgos) ; born 22 February 1985, (a.k.a. the Saint), is a Greek former professional basketball player, who spent the majority of his pro club career with Olympiacos Piraeus of the Greek Basket League and ...

, Dimos Dikoudis, and

Nikos Oikonomou Nikolaos "Nikos" Oikonomou (alternate spellings: Ikonomou, Ekonomou) (Greek: Νικόλαος "Νίκος" Οικονόμου; born February 19, 1973) is a former Greek professional basketball player, and a current professional basketball coach. ...

History

Olympia Larissa B.C. is a team that ascended in the mid to late 2000s, as a team primarily composed of young players on the rise, with a promising future. During the 2006–07 season, Olympia Larissa placed 7th in the Greek League regular season, and qualified to the Greek League playoffs for the first time, with core leaders such as former

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

standout Matt Walsh,

2007 NBA draft The 2007 NBA draft was held on June 28, 2007, at the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was broadcast on television in 115 countries. In this draft, National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amate ...

second round draft pick

Georgios Tsiaras Georgios Tsiaras (alternate spelling: Giorgos Tsiaras; born May 4, 1982) is a Greek former professional basketball player. During his club playing career, he mainly covered the power forward position, but he could also assist at the center posit ...

, and

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 ...

Georgios Bartzokas Georgios Bartzokas (alternate spellings: Giorgos, George, Mpartzokas) ( born June 11, 1965) is a Greek former professional basketball player, and the current head basketball coach for Olympiacos B.C., Olympiacos of the Greek Basketball League (G ...

. In the 2007–08 season of the Greek League, Olympia qualified for the playoffs for the second consecutive year, after placing 8th in the regular season standings. In the 2007–08 season of the

EuroChallenge FIBA EuroChallenge (called the FIBA Europe League in 2003–05, and FIBA EuroCup in 2005–08) was the 3rd-tier continental club basketball competition in Europe, from 2003 to 2015. It was organized and run by FIBA Europe. It is not to be confus ...

, the team reached the Top 16 stage of the competition, and that same season in the

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

, the club reached the quarterfinals. In 2009, Olympia Larissa merged with

AEL 1964 Athlitiki Enosi Larissas (, ''Athletic Union of Larissa''), founded in 1964, is a major Greek multi-sports club based in the city of Larissa, capital of Greece's Thessaly region. The club is also known as AEL, or simply Larissa, and its colors ...

, under the name G.S. Olympia Larissas. After a year, the club was

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

Honours

* Mavroskoufia Basketball Tournament: 2002

Notable players

Marios Batis Marios Batis (alternate spelling: Mpatis) (; born 20 June 1980) is a Greek former professional basketball player and current basketball coach. During his club playing career, at a height of is a tall, he played at the point guard and shooting g ...

Kostas Charalampidis Konstantinos "Kostas" Charalampidis (alternate spellings: Constantinos, Costas, Haralampidis, Haralambidis, Haralabidis, Charalambides) (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος "Κώστας" Χαραλαμπίδης; born April 4, 1976) is a retired Gree ...

* Dimos Dikoudis *

Sotiris Gioulekas Sotirios "Sotiris" Gioulekas (, , born November 28, 1979) is a Greek professional basketball player. He is a 6 ft 7.5 in (2.02 m) tall small forward. Professional career In his pro career, Gioulekas has played with the following clubs: GS ...

Nikos Kaklamanos Nikos Kaklamanos (, born 12 July 1981 in Greece) is a Greek professional basketball player. He is 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) in height. He can play at both the point guard and shooting guard positions. Professional career In his pro career, Kaklam ...

Fanis Koumpouras Theophanis "Fanis" Koumpouras (; born December 8, 1983) is a Greek former professional basketball player. He is 6 ft 1 in (1.87 m) in height, and played at the point guard position. Professional career Koumpouras began his career playing w ...

Pantelis Papaioakeim Panteleimon "Pantelis" Papaioakeim (alternate spelling: Papaeoakeim) () (born 9 September 1975) is a retired Greek professional basketball player. At a height of tall, he played at both the power forward and center positions. Professional care ...

Spiros Papavasileiou Spiro(s) may refer to: * Spiro, Oklahoma, a town in the U.S. ** Spiro Mounds, an archaeological site * Spiro (band), a British music group * Spiro (name), including a list of people with the name * Špiro, South Slavic masculine given name * ARA ...

Kostas Totsios Konstantinos "Kostas" Totsios (; born August 7, 1978) is a Greek professional basketball player who last played for Iraklis of the Greek A2 Basket League. Totsios has spent all of his career, except for two seasons, in the Greek A2, becoming th ...

Europe: *

Stephen Arigbabu Stephen Olumide Arigbabu (born 15 February 1972) is a German professional basketball coach and former player. He is 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) tall. Arigbabu played at the center position. Professional career During his professional career, Arigb ...

* Steve Hansell * Vladimir Krstić *

Māris Ļaksa Māris Ļaksa (born 8 September 1981 in Ventspils) is a retired Latvian professional basketball forward. In 2012, he was a member of BC Rakvere Tarvas. He also played for the Latvia national basketball team The Latvia men's national basketball ...

* -

Franko Nakić Franko Nakić (; born June 9, 1972) is a Croatian-Greek retired professional basketball player. Under his Greek nationality, he is known by the name of Franko Nakits. Early life Nakić was born in Šibenik, to his father, Mile Nakić, who is a C ...

Aleksandar Radojević Aleksandar Radojević ( sr-cyr, Александар Радојевић, ; born August 8, 1976) is a Bosnian former professional basketball player. Standing at , he played the center position. Radojević represented the Bosnia and Herzegovina n ...

Sven Schultze Sven Schultze (born July 11, 1978) is a retired German professional basketball player. Schultze played as both a power forward and as center. He is in height and he weighs . His last team was Eisbären Bremerhaven of the German League, in the 2 ...

USA: *

Erick Barkley Erick Barkley (born February 21, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player. Born in New York City, raised in the Farragut housing project in Brooklyn, he played high school basketball at Christ the King Regional High School and ...

* Doremus Bennerman * Corey Belser * James Forrest *

Tyrone Grant Tyrone Jeremy Grant (born January 24, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player and now CEO of Team First Inc as well as Wave Holistic Health. At a height of 2.02 m (6'7 ") tall, he played at the small forward and Power forward (b ...

* Michael Antonio "Mike" King * Chris Massie *

Tyrone Nesby Tyrone Lamont Nesby (born January 31, 1976) is an American retired professional basketball player and coach. During his pro club career, he spent four seasons playing in the NBA. He also played professionally in Europe. High school career Nesby ...

* Matt Walsh

Head coaches

Women's team

The club's women's basketball section, compete in the 2015-16 season of the Greek Women's basketball second national tier, the A2 women's league.

References

External links

Eurobasket.com Team ProfileOlympia B.C. Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:G.S. Olympia Larissa B.C. Basketball teams established in 1979 Basketball teams in Greece Sport in Larissa