Panathinaikos B.C.

Panathinaikos B.C. (Greek: ΚΑΕ Παναθηναϊκός), also simplified to Panathinaikos or PAO and officially referred to as Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens for sponsorship reasons, is the professional basketball team of the major Athens-based multi-sport clubPanathinaikos A.O. It is owned by the Giannakopoulos family.

The parent athletic club was founded in 1908, while the basketball team was established in 1919. Panathinaikos, along with Aris, are the only Greek teams never to have been relegated from the top division, with participation in every Greek First Division Championship.

Panathinaikos has developed into the most successful basketball club in Greek basketball history and one of the most successful teams in European basketball. The team has won seven EuroLeague Championships, forty Greek Basket League Championships, twenty-two Greek Cups, one Intercontinental Cup, one Greek Super Cup, and two Triple Crowns. The Greens count one more Greek Championship (forty-one in total), that took place in 1921 and was organized by the YMCA, but is not oficially recognized, because it was before the creation of the Hellenic Basketball Association. They hold the world record for the longest title-winning streak, spanning 27 seasons from 1995–96 to 2021–22, during which the team won at least one title each season.

The team plays its home games at the Telekom Center Athens, also known as Nikos Galis Olympic Indoor Hall with a capacity of 18,300.

Many top-class players have represented the club over the years, including Dominique Wilkins, Fragiskos Alvertis, Byron Scott, Nick Galis, John Salley, Dimitris Diamantidis, Antonio Davis, Stojko Vranković, Dino Rađja, Šarūnas Jasikevičius, Dejan Bodiroga, Nick Calathes, Nikola Peković, Panagiotis Giannakis, Fanis Christodoulou, Mike Batiste, Antonis Fotsis, Kostas Tsartsaris, Željko Rebrača, Vassilis Spanoulis, Dejan Tomašević, Nikos Oikonomou, Ramūnas Šiškauskas, Mike James, İbrahim Kutluay, Sani Bečirovič, Jaka Lakovič, Marcelo Nicola, Hugo Sconochini, Nando Gentile, Pepe Sánchez, Darryl Middleton, Lazaros Papadopoulos, Žarko Paspalj, Nikos Chatzivrettas, Drew Nicholas, Stratos Perperoglou, Byron Dinkins, Oded Kattash, Alexander Volkov, John Amaechi, Tiit Sokk, Sofoklis Schortsanitis, Jason Kapono, Arijan Komazec, Edgar Jones, Romain Sato, Johnny Rogers, Tony Delk, James Gist, Stéphane Lasme, Jonas Mačiulis, Roko Ukić, Robertas Javtokas, Ioannis Bourousis, Keith Langford, Jimmer Fredette, Kostas Sloukas, Juancho Hernangómez, Mathias Lessort, Kendrick Nunn and Cedi Osman. Players of that caliber, under the wing of the Giannakopoulos family and guided by top basketball coaches, such as Rick Pitino, Božidar Maljković, Xavi Pascual and later Ergin Ataman, but mainly Željko Obradović who coached the team for 13 straight years, winning at that time with the Greens 5 EuroLeague titles, 11 Greek Championships and 7 Greek Cups, have made Panathinaikos one of the biggest powerhouses in European basketball history.

Panathinaikos is the only team on the European continent to win seven EuroLeague titles (1996, 2000, 2002, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2024) since the establishment of the modern EuroLeague Final Four format in 1988 (no other club has won more than four championships in this period). They were also runners-up in 2001. Panathinaikos reached the EuroLeague Final Four thirteen times overall (1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2024, 2025).