Legendary basketball coach Yiannis Ioannidis dies
Yiannis Ioannidis, the Greek basketball league’s most successful coach, died Monday at the age of 78. He won 481 games as a coach, as well as 12 league championships and six cups.
He was also a player with Aris Thessaloniki for 18 years, from 1960 to 1978, before becoming the team’s coach and immediately leading it to its first title, in 1979. He returned to the team in 1982 and led it to seven more titles, in 1983 and from 1985 to 1990.
Ioannidis reached the first of his three consecutive Euroleague (then Champions Cup) Final Fours with Aris in 1988, but never made it past the semifinals.
In 1990, he took over Olympiakos, a team that had been mired in mediocrity for over a decade, and led them to four consecutive titles (1993-1996) and two Champions Cup finals, in 1994 and 1995, again without winning the title. A clash with Olympiakos boss Sokratis Kokkalis led Ioannidis to move on to AEK Athens, leading them to his final Final Four in 1998.
A one-season stint with Olympiakos, in 1999-2000, proved his final in the league. He also led the national team for two short stretches, in 1980-81 and 2002-3, with their best showing fifth place in the 2003 European Championship.
Ioannidis served as an MP for the conservative New Democracy party from 2004-15 and he was twice appointed sports minister, in 2007-9 and 2012-13. Ioannidis was known for his passion and explosive temper, which he often directed at his own players. He was also notoriously superstitious, with the media delighting in reporting on related stories.
He is survived by his wife and daughter.
