Panathinaikos BC

Panathinaikos BC

Panathinaikos Basketball Club is the professional basketball team of the Athens-based multi-sport club Panathinaikos. The team also goes by the name of P.A.O., which stands for Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos (i.e. Panathenian Athletic Club). It is owned by Dimitris Giannakopoulos. The parent athletic club was founded in 1908, while the basketball team was founded in 1922. It has since developed into the most successful basketball team in Greece, and among the best in Europe. Panathinaikos has won 32 Greek Basket League championships, 14 Greek Cups, 6 Euroleague championships, 1 Intercontinental Cup, and 2 Triple Crowns.

Among the well-known players that have played with the club over the years include: Dominique Wilkins, Byron Scott, Antonio Davis, Dino Rađa, Dejan Tomasevic, Ramunas Siskauskas, İbrahim Kutluay, Nikos Galis, Antonis Fotsis, Fanis Christodoulou, Željko Rebrača, Arijan Komazec, Stojko Vranković, Žarko Paspalj, Dimitris Diamantidis, Šarūnas Jasikevičius, Nikola Peković, Mike Batiste, Vassilis Spanoulis, Johnny Rogers, Fragiskos Alvertis and Dejan Bodiroga. Such players, the successful management of former long-time owners Pavlos Giannakopoulos and Thanassis Giannakopoulos, and the long-time guidance of the most successful coach in Euroleague history, Željko Obradović, have made Panathinaikos the most successful team in Europe over the last two-and-a-half decades. Panathinaikos is the only team on the European continent to win as many as six Euroleague titles, since the establishment of the modern era Euroleague Final Four format in 1988 (no other club has won more than three Euroleague championships in this period). Overall, and on the basis of the club's achievements, in both Greece and Europe, Panathinaikos B.C. is the most successful Greek basketball team ever.