Nikos Galis

Nikolaos Georgalis, commonly known as either Nikos Galis or Nick Galis, is a Greek former professional basketball player. Galis, who during his playing days was nicknamed "Nick The Greek", "The Gangster", and "The Iron Man", is widely regarded as Europe 's greatest scorer to ever play the game, and as one of the all-time greatest players in FIBA international basketball history. In 1991, Galis was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players. In 2007, he became an inaugural member of the FIBA Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was chosen as one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors. In 2017, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2018, he was named one of the 101 Greats of European Basketball. In 2022, he was inducted in to the Greek Basket League Hall of Fame.
During his college basketball career at Seton Hall University, Galis played at the point guard position. However, his primary position during his pro career was shooting guard. He spent most of his club career with Aris Thessaloniki, before having a late career stint with Panathinaikos Athens. Galis was the EuroLeague's top scorer of the season numerous times. In Europe's premier basketball club competition, he reached the EuroLeague Final Four on four occasions, making it in three consecutive years with Aris, and once with Panathinaikos. Galis won eight Greek league championships, and he is also the Greek Championship's amateur era all-time leading scorer, in both career points scored and career scoring average, when counting all league formats prior to the league becoming fully professional, in the 1992–93 season.
Galis led the Greece men's national basketball team to the EuroBasket's gold medal in 1987, and he earned the tournament's MVP award in the process. Following his stunning success in winning the 1987 EuroBasket title, Galis won both the Mr. Europa and the Euroscar player of the year awards. He also led Greece to a silver medal at the 1989 EuroBasket, where he was also selected to the All-EuroBasket Team. Overall during his national team career, he was named to the All-EuroBasket Team four times. Among his myriad of accomplishments, he holds the EuroBasket's record for the highest career scoring average, and he was also the leading scorer of four EuroBasket tournaments, in 1983, 1987, 1989, and 1991. Galis also owns two major records of the FIBA World Championship/Cup tournament. He holds the records for the highest career scoring average, and the most total points ever scored in a single tournament, which he set at the 1986 FIBA World Championship.
Galis, who was named the Greek Male Athlete of the Year three times, is highly revered in Greece, where he is considered by many to be one of the greatest national athletes that the country has ever had. His years with Aris Thessaloniki and the Greece national team, lifted Greek basketball from a place of relative obscurity, to both European and global power status. Galis was the sports icon that eventually inspired thousands of Greeks to take up playing the game of basketball. He is still widely lauded in Greece and has kept his position as a legend and a hero for the Greek nation and people. Galis' number 6 jersey was retired by Aris, in 2013, and his number 4 jersey was retired by the Greece national team, in 2023.
In 2013 the Main Hall of Thessaloniki's "Alexandreion Melathron" was named "Nick Galis Hall".
In 2016 the "Olympic Indoor Sports Center in O.A.C.A." was renamed after his name. Thus becoming "Nikos Galis Olympic Indoor Sports Center in O.A.C.A.".

Early life and high school

Galis was born in Union City, New Jersey. The child of a poor immigrant family, from the Greek islands of Rhodes and Nisyros, Galis took up boxing in his early years, after his father, George Georgalis, who had also been a boxer in his youth. He was later persuaded to give up boxing by his mother, Stella Georgalis, who was terrified after each time that her son would return home from boxing training with a new facial injury. As a result, Galis started playing the sport of basketball instead of boxing. He attended Union Hill High School, in Union City, where he played high school basketball for legendary coach William J. McKeever, as well as American football.

College career

After high school, Galis enrolled at Seton Hall University, where he played college basketball as a member of the Seton Hall Pirates. In his senior 1978–79 season, Galis saw his scoring average reach 27.5 points per game, which was third in the nation, behind Idaho State's Lawrence Butler and Indiana State's Larry Bird, including a 48-point outburst against the University of Santa Clara.
Also in his senior year of college, Galis won the Haggerty Award, and the Eastern College Athletic Conference Player of the Year award. The same year, he also played in the 1979 Pizza Hut All-American game, alongside Bird and Vinnie Johnson. During his four-year college career, Galis played in a total of 107 games and scored 1,651 points, for a career scoring average of 15.4 points per game.
Galis' head coach at Seton Hall, Bill Raftery, would later state that Galis was the best player that he ever coached. While at Seton Hall, Galis was a good friend and roommate of Italian-American professional basketball player Dan Callandrillo. Galis was later inducted into the Seton Hall Athletic Hall of Fame, in 1991.

College stats

Season	Team	Competition	Games Played	Field Goal%	Free Throw%	Rebounds	Assists	Points
1975–76	Seton Hall	NCAA D-I	24	47.5	70.4	1.1	1.8	3.2
1976–77	Seton Hall	NCAA D-I	29	38.1	81.9	2.3	4.8	12.6
1977–78	Seton Hall	NCAA D-I	27	52.1	82.6	2.4	4.5	17.3
1978–79	Seton Hall	NCAA D-I	27	57.6	82.6	3.5	3.9	27.5
Career Totals	Seton Hall	NCAA D-I	107	50.0	81.7	2.4	3.8	15.4

Professional career

Boston Celtics

After finishing his collegiate career in 1979, Galis signed with agent Bill Manon, who also managed Diana Ross. Manon did not have Galis work out with any NBA team. Galis was eventually selected by the Boston Celtics in the 4th round of the 1979 NBA draft, 68th overall. Due to a severe ankle injury that Galis suffered during the Celtics preseason training camp of the 1979–80 season, the franchise was no longer interested in offering him a contract because Gerald Henderson had taken his place on the team, and his injury would keep him out for the foreseeable future.
Galis then decided to pursue a professional career in Greece's top-tier level Basket League. Later, while still playing in Greece, he would be offered NBA contracts by the Celtics and the New Jersey Nets. However, he turned the offers down, because at the time, and until 1989, FIBA did not have professional status, and consequently did not allow NBA players to compete at the national team level. Since playing with the Greek men's national basketball team meant so much to him, he stayed in Greece. Celtics then-president Red Auerbach later said that the single biggest mistake he ever made in his career was not keeping Galis.

Aris Thessaloniki

After suffering an ankle injury in the Boston Celtics 1979–80 preseason training camp, which prevented him from receiving a contract with the Celtics, Galis made the move across the Atlantic, and signed to play with Aris Thessaloniki of Greece, in 1979. The two major Greek clubs of Panathinaikos Athens and Olympiacos Piraeus, had also shown some interest in signing him, but it was Aris Thessaloniki's interest that was the most persuasive to Galis. His move to the country would eventually help Greek club basketball to reach a level of popularity that had never been previously imagined.
Galis was the indisputable leader of Aris Thessaloniki, as he averaged more than 30 points per game in nearly every season and competition that he played in with the team. With Aris Thessaloniki, he played alongside other great European players like Panagiotis Giannakis and Slobodan Subotić, who was known in Greece as Lefteris Soumpotits. With Aris Thessaloniki, Galis won eight Greek League championships, in the years 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1991. He won seven out of his eight Greek League championships in consecutive years, with three of those championships being won in undefeated seasons. He also won six Greek Cup titles with Aris Thessaloniki, in the years 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1992. Four of his six Greek Cup titles were won in consecutive years.
In the top-level European-wide club competition, the FIBA European Champions' Cup, Galis led Aris Thessaloniki to three consecutive appearances at the competition's Final Four. Galis' team played at the 1988 Ghent Final Four, the 1989 Munich Final Four, and the 1990 Zaragoza Final Four. In the one major disappointment of an otherwise glittering club career with Aris Thessaloniki, all three of Galis' FIBA European Champions' Cup Final Four appearances ended in losses in the semifinals. Which thus deprived him of the opportunity to shine all the way onto Europe's biggest club stage, at the FIBA European Champions' Cup Finals. However, the team's performances and general standard of play, won over the hearts of most basketball fans in Greece. In fact, cinemas and theaters in Greece would often reduce their ticket admission prices on Thursday evenings, when Aris Thessaloniki was playing European games, as large segments of the country settled down to watch them on television.
In June 1991, Galis was chosen as a member of The Balkans Selection All-Star Team that played against The European Selection All-Star Team at the 1991 FIBA Centennial Jubilee. The 1991 FIBA Jubilee event was held in order to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the creation of the sport of basketball in 1891, by the Canadian James Naismith. The FIBA Jubilee All-Star Game took place at the Peace and Friendship Stadium, in Piraeus, Athens, Greece, and it included numerous legends of European basketball. The Balkans' All-Star Selection won the game, by a score of 103–102. Galis was the game's top scorer, with 20 points.
On 19 December 1991, in one of his final FIBA EuroLeague games with Aris Thessaloniki, Galis rolled back the clock. At the age of 34, he scored 46 points, on 13/20 field goals overall, 8/14 2-point field goals, 5/6 3-point field goals, and 15/18 free throws, in a 111–108 loss against the Italian League club Olimpia Milano. However, Aris Thessaloniki's 1991–92 FIBA EuroLeague season was a disappointment, as the club finished group stage play with a record of 3–11.
Also in that same 1991–92 season, in a Greek League game against Panionios Athens, Galis scored 48 points, on 17/21 field goals overall, 15/18 2-point field goals, 2/3 3-point field goals, and 12/13 free throws. However, Aris Thessaloniki failed to make it to the 1992 Greek League's Finals. It was the first time that the team had not won the Greek League championship, since 1984.
Eventually, the 1991–92 season ended up being Galis' final campaign with Aris Thessaloniki. At the time, the team was under new management and was trying to bring down the club's debts. That combined with Galis' huge salary at the time and the fact that the team was in a period of decline, were the main reasons for his departure. Galis, who adored the city of Thessaloniki and Aris' fans, had originally insisted on remaining with the club and playing for the team, as he believed that he still had a lot to offer. Ultimately however, Galis was forced to leave the club. In his last game for the club, Galis scored 18 points as Aris beat AEK 74–62 to win yet another Greek Cup title in 1992.