Nikolaos "Nikos" Milas (; 9 July 1928 – 22 July 2019) was a Greek

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. He was born in

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 ...

Playing career

Club career

Milas was a skilled technical player, with good dribbling and shooting ability. He played with Panathinaikos in his club career. He won three Greek League championships (1949–50, 1950–51, 1953–54).

Greece national team

Milas played on the Greece men's national basketball team in 8

games A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...

at the EuroBasket 1949 in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

(where they won a bronze medal), and at the EuroBasket 1951. Milas also played at the

1951 Mediterranean Games The 1951 Mediterranean Games, officially known as the I Mediterranean Games, and commonly known as Alexandria 1951, were the 1st Mediterranean Games. The Games were held for 15 days from 5 to 20 October 1951 in Alexandria, Egypt, where 734 athlet ...

, and the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. After Japan declared in ...

basketball tournament of

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, (two loses against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

Coaching career

In 1961, Milas won the Greek League championship from the post of

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 Panathinaikos. He was the head coach of AEK, in 1968, when they won the

FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup The FIBA Saporta Cup, founded as ''FIBA European Cup Winners Cup'', was the name of the European professional club basketball system, second-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, where the domestic National Cup winn ...

's 1967–68 season championship, in Kallimármaro,

, against the Czechoslovak League powerhouse of the sixties, Slavia VŠ Praha. On the bench of AEK, he also won two Greek League national domestic championships in the 1967–68 and 1969–70 seasons (the 1969–70 title was the last for the club until the 2001–02 season). In the 1969–70 season, Milas also led AEK to the semifinals of the 1969–70 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup, where his team was defeated by the French League club, Vichy, in a two legged

aggregate score There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...

series (consisting of a 60–78 loss in France, and a 74–65 win in Athens).

Personal life

Milas died on 22 July 2019, in

Nea Smyrni Nea Smyrni (, ''Néa Smýrni'', "New Smyrna") is a municipality and a town in South Athens, Greece. At the 2021 Greek census, 2021 census, it had 72,853 inhabitants. It was named after the former Greek city Smyrna (today's İzmir in Turkey), whe ...

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 was 91 years old.

References

External links

FIBA.com Profile
(archive) {{DEFAULTSORT:Milas, Nikos 1928 births 2019 deaths AEK B.C. coaches Basketball players at the 1952 Summer Olympics Greek men's basketball players Olympic basketball players for Greece Panathinaikos B.C. coaches Panathinaikos B.C. players Basketball players from Athens 20th-century Greek sportsmen