One of the most successful European clubs of the past decade, Greek powerhouse Olympiacos Piraeus is coming off a season in which it came within a victory of the Euroleague title, and returned to the throne at home. Under new head coach Giannis Sfairopoulos, the team made steady progress throughout the season and cruised to the Euroleague playoffs where it ousted FC Barcelona in an instant-classic series on Georgios 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 Madrid. At home, Olympiacos won 32 of the last 33 league games on the way to winning its second Greek League title in 18 years and first since 2012. Olympiacos was founded in the 1930s and the club lifted its first Greek League title in 1949. The Reds’ golden era came in the 1990s, when head coach Ioannis Ioannidis led Olympiacos to four Greek League titles between 1993 and 1996 and to the Euroleague title game in both 1994 and 1995, though it lost against Joventut Badalona and Real Madrid, respectively. When Dusan Ivkovic came to the bench in 1997, the Reds 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, and it has not missed either of them since. Olympiacos finally got back to the Final Four in 2009 in Berlin, however, lost the semifinals – as well as Greek League and Greek Cup finals – against archrival Panathinaikos. In 2010, Olympiacos reached the Euroleague title 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, Olympiacos broke the long spell in 2012, lifting the Euroleague and Greek League titles for the first time in 15 years behind superstar guard Vassilis Spanoulis, and with the likes of Printezis, Kyle Hines and Kostas Papanikolaou battling and bruising. Olympiacos topped heavy favorite FC Barcelona in the Istanbul semis, then rallied from a 19-point deficit to edge CSKA Moscow, 61-62, on a last-second shot by Printezis. One year later, with new head coach Georgios Bartzokas 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 the club returned to the Greek throne and to the Euroleague Championship Game last season, making it eager to try even better in the season to come.

 

2014-15 Results - Euroleague: Finalist; Greek League: Champion; Greek Cup: Quarterfinalist.