Athanasios "Thanasis" Skourtopoulos (alternate spelling: Thanassis) (

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 ...

: Αθανάσιος "Θανάσης" Σκουρτόπουλος; born May 23, 1965) is a

professional

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 ...

and a former 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. He is the current

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 ...

for

Astoria Bydgoszcz Astoria Bydgoszcz, also known as simply Astoria, is a Polish multi-sports club most known for the professional men's basketball team, based in Bydgoszcz. Currently playing in the I Liga and in the past in the FIBA Korać Cup. History In the 2018� ...

of the

Polish Basketball League Polska Liga Koszykówki (PLK) (English language, English: Polish Basketball League), officially known as the Orlen Basket Liga due to its sponsorship by Orlen, is a professional men's club basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Poland. I ...

(PLK) and Qatar national team.

Club playing career

Skourtopoulos played professional basketball with the Greek clubs ,

Pagrati Pagrati () is a neighborhood in Athens, Greece, having an estimated population of 35,173 residents. Named after the ancient sanctuary of Hercules Pancrates ("All Powerful"), its frontage runs from Vasilissis Sofias Avenue along to Vasileos Kon ...

, and

AEK Athens A.E.K. (; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica. The club is more commonly known in European competitions as A.E.K. Athens. Establishe ...

. He was a member of the AEK Athens team that made it to 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 ...

Finals, in 1988.

Club coaching career

Some of the clubs Skourtopoulos has been the

of include:

Aigaleo Aigaleo or Egaleo ( ) is a town and a suburban municipality in the western part of the Athens urban area, belonging to the West Athens regional administrative unit. It takes its name from Mount Aigaleo, whose name comes from the words αίγα/a ...

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), ...

Panellinios Panellinios G.S. (Greek: Πανελλήνιος Γ.Σ.), full name, Panellinios Gymnastikos Syllogos (Greek: Πανελλήνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος), is a Greek multi-sport club that is located in Athens and was founded i ...

, Ikaros Kallitheas,

Panionios Panionios G.S.S. Football Club (Greek: ΠΑΕ Πανιώνιος Γ.Σ.Σ.), the ''Pan-Ionian Gymnastics Club of Smyrna'' (Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, ''Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis''), ...

, and Keravnos. In 2014, he became the head coach of

Rethymno Rethymno (also Rethymnon; ) is a city in Greece on the island of Crete. It is the capital of Rethymno regional unit, and has a population of more than 35,000 inhabitants (nearly 40,000 for the municipal unit). It is believed to have been built ...

. In 2016, he became the head coach of

Apollon Patras :''The first version of this article has been based in the text of :el:Α.Σ. Απόλλων of the :el:Κύρια Σελίδα, Greek Wikipedia published under the GFDL.'' A.S. Apollon Patras (Greek language, Greek:''A.Σ. Απόλλων Πατ ...

. In 2017, he became the head coach of GSL Faros. On July 1, 2018, Skourtopoulits returned to Panionios. He later quit without coaching the team in any games. On February 4, 2023, he signed with

of the

(PLK).

National team coaching career

Skourtopoulos worked as an

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 ...

of the senior men's

Greek national basketball team The Greece men's national basketball team () represents Greece in international basketball. They are controlled by the Hellenic Basketball Federation, the governing body for basketball in Greece. Greece is currently ranked 13th in the FIBA Wo ...

at the following tournaments: the

2014 FIBA World Cup The 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the tournament previously known as the FIBA World Championship. The tournament was held from 30 August to 14 September 2014. Hosted by Spain, it was the la ...

, the

EuroBasket 2015 EuroBasket 2015 was the 39th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe. It was co-hosted by Croatia, France, Germany, and Latvia, making it the first EuroBasket held in more than one country. It started on 5 Sept ...

, the 2016 Turin FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, and the

EuroBasket 2017 EuroBasket 2017 was the 40th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe and held between 31 August and 17 September 2017. Beginning from 2017, the continental championships take place every four years with a similar ...

. He became the

of Greece's senior men's national team in October 2017. He first coached Greece at the 2019 FIBA World Cup qualifiers. He also coached Greece at the actual

2019 FIBA World Cup The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 18th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for men's national basketball teams, held from 31 August to 15 September 2019. The tournament was hosted in China and was rescheduled from 2018 to 2019, b ...

. After the 2019 FIBA World Cup, the

Hellenic Basketball Federation The Hellenic Basketball Federation (abbreviated HBF; , abbreviated as Ε.Ο.Κ.,) is the main basketball governing body for the sport in Greece. It directs and oversees all of the national basketball teams of Greece, including both the junior a ...

announced that

Rick Pitino Richard Andrew Pitino (; born September 18, 1952) is an American basketball coach who is the head men's basketball coach at St. John's University (New York City), St. John's University. He was also the head coach of Greece national basketball t ...

would be Greece's head coach at the 2020 FIBA Victoria Olympic Qualifying Tournament and the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

, should Greece qualify, while Skourtopoulos would remain as Greece's head coach for the

2021 EuroBasket qualification The EuroBasket 2022 qualification was a basketball competition that was played from November 2017 to February 2021, to determine the 20 FIBA Europe nations who would join the automatically qualified co-hosts Czech Republic, Georgia, Italy, and G ...

tournament. In August 2023, he became the head coach of the Qatar national team.

Personal life

Skourtopoulos failed to lead the senior

to the results at the

, in China, that many analysts, and

sports media Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism has its roots in coverage of horse racing and boxing in the early 1800s, mainly targeted towards elites, and into t ...

had predicted. Some major US sports media criticized his use of the

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: ...

of the 2018–19 NBA season,

Giannis Antetokounmpo Giannis Sina Ugo Antetokounmpo ( Adetokunbo; born December 6, 1994) is a Nigerian-Greek professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His size, speed, and strength have earned him the nick ...

at the tournament.Greece’s coach, Skourtopoulos responds to US media criticism.
/ref>

Awards and accomplishments

Assistant coach

Winner: (2001) * Greek League Champion: (2002)

References

External links

EuroCup Coaching ProfileAll4Basketball.com ProfileHellenic Federation Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skourtopoulos, Athanasios 1965 births Living people AEK B.C. players Aigaleo B.C. coaches Apollon Patras B.C. coaches Basketball players from Athens Greek basketball coaches Greek men's basketball players Greece national basketball team coaches Gymnastikos S. Larissas B.C. coaches Ikaros B.C. coaches Iraklis Thessaloniki B.C. coaches Keravnos B.C. coaches Pagrati B.C. players Panellinios B.C. coaches Panionios B.C. coaches Peristeri B.C. coaches Rethymno B.C. coaches 20th-century Greek sportsmen