Giannis Ioannidis

Giannis Ioannidis (Greek: "Γιάννης Ιωαννίδης"; born February 26, 1945 in Thessaloniki, Greece) is a Greek New Democracy (ND) politician and a famous ex basketball coach. Ioannidis was born in Thessaloniki, and studied Agriculture in the Faculty of Geotechnical Sciences at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

During his youth, he became a member of the Aris Thessaloniki basketball team at the age of 15 and he later went on to coach and manage the club to conquer a total of 8 Greek Championships and 6 Greek Cups, and also to participate at 3 consecutive FIBA Champions' Cup Final Fours. Later, he worked in Olympiacos, where he won 4 consecutive Greek Championships, 1 Greek Cup, and participated at 2 consecutive FIBA Euroleague finals.

He was the architect of the most glorious victory of Olympiacos against Panathinaikos in the final game of the 1995-96 Greek Playoffs with score 73-38, which was ironically his last game with Olympiacos. The next year he joined AEK where he stayed for 3 seasons and managed to reach one more final of FIBA Euroleague. After a short come-back at Olympiacos, he finished his career in the Greek national basketball team, which he managed in the Eurobasket 2003. He is considered to be the best Greek basketball coach, since he is the one with the most titles won (19 in total, 14 with Aris and 5 with Olympiacos). He is a member of the Greek Basketball Hall of Fame, inducted as both a player and a coach.

He announced his retirement from professional basketball in the year 2004, before he was elected a New Democracy MP for the Thessaloniki A constituency in the 2004 general election, and re-elected in 2007. He is married and he has one daughter. Since September 2007 he is Deputy Minister Of Culture Responsible for Sports.

External links

* [http://www.giannisioannidis.gr/ Giannis Ioannidis website]
* [http://www.parliament.gr/english/synthesh/mp.asp?MPID=725 Biography on Greek Parliament website]