Greek powerhouse Olympiacos Piraeus has been one of the most successful clubs of the decade with six Final Four appearances, five trips to the championship game and a pair of EuroLeague crowns. Olympiacos was founded in the 1930s and lifted its first Greek League title in 1949. The Reds' golden era came in the 1990s, when Coach Ioannis Ioannidis led Olympiacos to four Greek League titles between 1993 and 1996 and to the EuroLeague championship game in both 1994 and 1995, though it lost at the hands of Joventut Badalona and Real Madrid, respectively. When Dusan Ivkovic came to the bench in 1997, Olympiacos promptly became the first Greek winner of a triple-crown – Greek League, Greek Cup and EuroLeague titles – the latter by beating FC Barcelona 73-58 in Rome on the shoulders of David Rivers, Georgios Sigalas, Eddie Johnson, Panagiotis Fasoulas, Franko Nakic and Milan Tomic. Olympiacos made it back to the Final Four in 1999 and lifted the Greek Cup in 2002 before coming one victory shy of a spot at the 2003 Final Four. After a few quiet years, the Reds returned to prominence in the 2005-06 season by returning to the EuroLeague Playoffs and the Greek League finals. Olympiacos finally got back to the EuroLeague Final Four in 2009, however, lost in the semifinals – as well as the Greek League and Greek Cup finals – to archrival Panathinaikos. In 2010, Olympiacos reached the EuroLeague championship game in Paris, but Barcelona walked away with the crown. The club added to its trophy case with back-to-back Greek Cups in 2010 and 2011 and, with Coach Ivkovic back at the helm, broke the long spell in 2012 by lifting the EuroLeague and Greek League titles for the first time in 15 years behind superstar guard Vassilis Spanoulis, and with the likes of Georgios Printezis, Kyle Hines and Kostas Papanikolaou battling and bruising. Olympiacos rallied from a 19-point deficit to edge CSKA Moscow, 61-62, on a last-second shot by Printezis in the championship game in Istanbul. One year later, with head coach Georgios Bartzokas now on the sidelines, Spanoulis repeated his heroics and earned EuroLeague MVP and Final Four MVP honors in London, where the Reds sent CSKA and Real Madrid away to defend the EuroLeague title in style. Olympiacos missed out on the trophies in 2013-14, but Coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos oversaw its return to the Greek throne and to the EuroLeague championship game in 2015. Olympiacos cruised to the playoffs, where it ousted Barcelona in an instant-classic series on Printezis’s buzzer-beating triple in Game 4. At the Final Four in Madrid, the Reds won a come-from-behind semifinal thriller against CSKA Moscow before bowing out in the championship game against Real. At home, Olympiacos won its second Greek League title in 18 years. Olympiacos missed the EuroLeague Playoffs in 2016 after 10 consecutive appearances, but bounced back to defend its Greek League title. In 2017, Olympiacos reached its fifth EuroLeague championship game in eight seasons before losing to Fenerbahce Istanbul, but endured the first of three consecutive title-free seasons in Greece. The Reds lost in the 2018 playoffs to Zalgiris Kaunas and did not get past the regular season in the EuroLeague 2019. Last season, Olympiacos's first team only competed in the EuroLeague and had to part ways with Coach David Blatt due to illness and never found the right rhythm, ranking 11th with a 12-16 record when the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trophy Case
Euroleague: 1997, 2012, 2013 |
Intercontinental Cup: 2013 |
Greek National League: 1948-49, 1959-60, 1975-76, 1977-78, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97, 2011-12, 2014-15, 2015-16 |
Greek National Cup: 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1994, 1997, 2002, 2010, 2011 |