AEK B.C.
AEK Basketball Club, and also known as AEK B.C. or simply AEK, and more commonly known in European competitions as AEK Athens, is a Greek professional basketball club based in Athens, Attica, Greece, part of the major multi-sport club AEK. The club was established in Athens in 1924 by Greek refugees from Constantinople in the wake of the Greco-Turkish War.
AEK B.C. is considered by as one of the ten best Greek clubs in basketball and the worst Greek sports club, as it maintains more than 30 sports' departments.
AEK was the first-ever Greek basketball team, not only to reach a European Cup Final,
but also to win a European title. On 4 April 1968, AEK defeated Slavia VŠ Praha by a score of 89–82, in Athens in front of 80,000 fans. They have won
the Greek League 8 times, and the Greek Cup
5 times, while they have also twice won the FIBA Saporta Cup . AEK won the Champions League on 6 May 2018, defeating Monaco by a score of 100–94, and the FIBA Intercontinental Cup on 17 February 2019, defeating Flamengo by a score of 86–70.
History
Early years
The large Greek population of Constantinople, not unlike those of the other Ottoman urban centres, continued its athletic traditions in the form of numerous athletic clubs. Clubs such as Enosis Tataoulon, from the Tatavla district, Megas Alexandros, Hermes of Galata, Olympias of Therapia, and Kati Kioi of Chalcedon, existed to promote Hellenic athletic and cultural ideals. These were amongst a dozen Greek-backed clubs that dominated the sporting landscape of the city in the years preceding World War I. After the war, with the influx of mainly French and English soldiers to Constantinople, many of the city clubs participated in regular competitions, with teams formed by foreign troops. Taxim, Pera, and Tatavla became the scene of weekly competitions in not only football, but of athletics, cycling, boxing, and tennis.Of the clubs in the city though, football was dominated by Enosis Tataoulon and Hermes. Hermes, one of the more popular clubs, was formed in 1875, by the Greek community of Pera. Forced by the Kemalist regime to change its name to Pera Club in 1923, many of its athletes fled to Greece, and settled in Athens and Thessaloniki. The basketball team of AEK is actually the most successful among AEK's athletic departments. The obvious reason is the successes in general of Greek basketball, and that AEK's basketball team was the first ever Greek team to win an international trophy, in any team sport. Under Kostas Karamanlis' guidance, AEK won the club's first Greek League championship in 1958.
1924–1957
Kostas Dimopoulos, one of the creators of the AEK athletic club and footballer of the early years, had the idea of also creating a basketball team. His efforts quickly were matched by others who loved the sport of basketball. He then took over the leadership of the club's basketball department, and together with the Simeonidi brothers, Eumenes Athanasiadis and others, created the club's first basketball team. In the beginning, they took part in friendly games, where they made a good impression. After that, AEK won the first regional basketball championship that was played in Athens, which was organized by the local YMCA, in 1924.In 1928, AEK took part in the first Greek basketball championship, in the Athens-Piraeus 1927–28 regional championship. In 1929, the Greek basketball championship was not held, and AEK did not play in any league. In 1930, the basketball section was not declared in any organized competition, with the effective efforts of Kostas Dimopoulos and his associates to do so, failing. The club's basketball section then remained in obscurity for many years. However, in 1949, it reappeared, and the club's administration of that time created a new and competitive team. In the 1952–53 season, AEK played in the Greek basketball championship for the first time since 1928. In the 1954–55 Greek League championship AEK had an impressive run, however, they finished behind Panellinios.1957–1959
In 1958, AEK B.C., led by the player-coach Kostas Karamanlis, won their first Greek League championship, after defeating Panellinios in the final, by a score of 67–54.The club also founded a women's section at this time, which lasted for a short time. The department had success with the four sisters Chorianopoulou sisters. However, the club did not give the necessary importance to the department, and it was later dissolved.
Amerikanos' era (1960–1970): 6 Championships and a European title
"The Union", in the early 1960s, won the Athens-Piraeus Regional Championship two times in a row, but did not manage to become the national league champion of Greece. But the 1960s decade was to be the most important in the history of AEK's basketball club. The team's head coach of the time, Missas Pantazopoulos, created a great roster and led the team to the top of Greece. The club's leading figure during these years was Georgios Amerikanos, who was nicknamed "Global".In the 1962–63 season, AEK won the first of four consecutive Greek League championships. In the next season, AEK's leading scorer was Antonis Christeas, and the club was once again the Greek League champion. In the 1964–65 season, Georgios Amerikanos was the top scorer of the league, and AEK were once again the Greek League champions.
In the following 1965–66 season, AEK won its 4th consecutive Greek League championship, and also became the first Greek basketball team to play in the semi-finals of the FIBA Europe Champions Cup, as they played at the 1966 Final Four, which was held in Italy. These successes were accompanied by an unfortunate large loss for the team. As one of the team's players, Giorgos Moschos had contracted cancer, but he managed to participate in certain competitions that year, before he died on 29 December 1966, at age 29.
The next season, AEK lost the Greek League championship to Panathinaikos. However, a year later, under head coach Nikos Milas, AEK returned to the top of Greece, as they won the 1967–68 Greek League season championship, without losing a game. Georgios Amerikanos was again the Greek League's Top Scorer.
1968 European Cup Winners' Cup: first European title for a Greek club
AEK was the first ever Greek basketball team to participate in the FIBA European Champions Cup Final Four, in 1966, which was held in Bologna, Italy. Two years later, AEK was the first-ever Greek team, not only to reach a FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup Final, but also to win a European-wide title. On April 4, 1968, AEK defeated Slavia VŠ Praha, by a score of 89–82, in Athens, in front of 80,000 spectators in Kallimarmaron Stadium. In 1970, AEK reached the FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup semi-finals, where the team was eliminated by JA Vichy, France, in what turned out to be the last year of the first "Golden Era" of the club's history. It was called the "Golden Era" because AEK dominated Greek basketball during the 1960s, winning the Greek League championship 4 consecutive years, in 1963, 1964, 1965, and 1966, as well as in 1968 and 1970; for a total of 6 titles in 8 years.Although there are no official records with regards to the Greek Cup before 1975, according to some sources, AEK won the Greek Cup in the years of 1967 and 1971.
1970–1990
Over the next decades, AEK lost its prestige and managed to win only one trophy, the Greek Cup in 1981, under the direction of Coach Fred Develey, an American coach who previously was the head coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv and Aris of Greece, with superstar Nick Galis. In addition to winning the Greek Cup in 1981, AEK was also a finalist in the Greek Cup in 1976, 1978, 1980, 1988, and 1992, but failed to win in any of those years.The Queen's comeback
AEK made a comeback in the late 1990s, when the team played in six consecutive Greek Cup Final Fours in the years 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, four consecutive Greek Cup Finals in the years 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, winning the Greek Cup in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, AEK won the Greek League championship for the first time in 32 years, becoming the first team to win the Greek League championship after having lost the first two games of a 5-game playoff series. AEK lost the first two games of the series to Olympiacos, but managed to win the next 3 games, and take the series and the title 3–2. AEK also reached the Greek Playoff Finals in the years 1997, 2003, and 2005, and the Greek Cup Semi-finals in the year 2006.1998 EuroLeague Runners-up and 2000 Saporta Cup Winners
AEK experienced a golden era in European basketball during the late 1990s and early 2000s, reaching remarkable heights in international competitions. The pinnacle came in 1998, when AEK reached the EuroLeague Final Four in Barcelona. The team, coached by Giannis Ioannidis, put up a strong fight, defeating Benetton Treviso 69–66 in the semifinals before falling to Kinder Bologna 58–44 in the final. This marked their first-ever appearance in a EuroLeague final, establishing AEK as one of the elite European basketball clubs of the time.In 2000, AEK achieved another historic feat by winning the FIBA Saporta Cup, with a victory over Kinder Bologna 83–76 in the final. Under coach Dušan Ivković, this win served as a form of revenge for their loss to Bologna in the EuroLeague final two years earlier. The triumph secured AEK's second major European trophy.The following year, 2001, AEK continued their strong European performances, reaching the EuroLeague semi-finals. However, they were eliminated in the playoffs by Tau Cerámica, who swept the series 3–0. In the 2002 EuroLeague season, AEK once again reached the Top 16 phase, solidifying their reputation in Europe. This was the last notable run for AEK in the EuroLeague during this era, as the team struggled in the following years, with the 2003 and 2004 seasons being considered disappointments. Injuries and inconsistent performances marred their campaigns, and the club failed to qualify for the playoffs in both years.
Despite these setbacks, AEK enjoyed a resurgence in 2005, once again reaching the Top 16. However, a few key losses prevented them from advancing to the EuroLeague playoffs, marking the end of their dominant run in the European competition.