Dionysios "Sakis" Giannakopoulos (alternate spelling: Dionysis; ; born October 24, 1982) is a former 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 current

assistant coach An athletic coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction, and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''Coach'' is that of a Coach (carriage), horse-drawn carriage, deriving ul ...

for

Lavrio Lavrio, Lavrion or Laurium (; (later ); from Middle Ages until 1908: Εργαστήρια ''Ergastiria'') is a town in southeastern part of Attica, Greece. It is part of Athens metropolitan area and the seat of the municipality of Lavreotiki ...

of the Greek League, where he spent the majority of his playing career. He was a

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 ...

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 ...

Professional career

Giannakopoulos played club basketball in the Greek minors with Panelefsiniakos (2000–2001), Poseidonas Kalamatas (2001–2004), and

(2004–2010). He started his

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career with Lavrio, in the Greek 2nd Division, in the 2010–11 season. He was voted the Greek 2nd Division's

MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...

that same season. With Lavrio, he played in the top-tier level

Greek Basket League The Greek Basketball League (GBL), and also known as the Stoiximan Greek Basketball League (GBL) for sponsorship reasons, is the Greek basketball league system, first tier level professional basketball league in Greece. It is run by the ...

, for the first time, during the 2015–16 season. He was Lavrio's long-time

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

. Giannakopoulos played in over 150 games with Lavrio, and he is the record holder of the club in most games played. After playing 3 seasons with Lavrio in Greece's top-tier level league, he retired from playing professional basketball in 2018.

National team career

Giannakopoulos was a member of the junior national teams of Greece. With Greece's junior national team, he played at the

2000 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship The 2000 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship was an international basketball competition held in Croatia in 2000. Final ranking 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Awards All-Star Five * Tony Parker * Beno Udrih * ...

, where he won a bronze medal.Dionysios GIANNAKOPOULOS (GRE) participated in 1 FIBA / FIBA Zones events.
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Coaching career

On August 7, 2018, Lavrio announced that Giannakopoulos was retiring from playing professional basketball and joining the team's coaching staff as an assistant

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

References

External links

FIBA.com ProfileEurobasket.com Profile

Greek League Profile
1982 births Living people Greek basketball coaches Greek Basket League players Greek men's basketball players Lavrio B.C. players Lavrio B.C. coaches Shooting guards Small forwards Sportspeople from Kalamata 21st-century Greek sportsmen {{Greece-basketball-bio-stub