After making a minimal impact during the first two seasons in the Russian capital, he evolved into a major contributor of CSKA's success coming off the bench both in the Euroleague and the Russian league in the 2004-05 season. By his fourth season with CSKA in 2006, he earned his first All-Euroleague selection and led his team to their first Euroleague title in 35 years, being voted the Euroleague Final Four MVP.[2] The following year he was named the Euroleague Season MVP before falling short of a second Euroleague title in a row, losing in the championship's final. In 2008, he won his second Euroleague title with CSKA in what would be his last year in Moscow. In the summer of 2008 Papaloukas returned to Olympiacos and reached another two Euroleague Final Fours, thereby holding a record of eight consecutive, alongside his former teammate JR Holden.

Teó Papaloukás
Τεό Παπαλουκάς

Theodoros Papaloukas (*)
Nickname(s)	Teó Thodoris
Position	Point Guard Shooting Guard Point Forward
Height	6 ft 6.75 in (2.00 m)
Weight	215 lb (98 kg)
League	Greek League Euroleague
Team	Olympiacos
Born	May 8, 1977 (1977-05-08) (age 33) Athens, Greece
Nationality	Greek
Pro career	1995–present
Former teams	Ambelokipi (1995-97) AO Dafni Athens (1997-99) Panionios (1999-01) Olympiacos (2001-02) CSKA Moscow (2003-08)
Awards	Greek A2 League Player of the Year 1999 Russian Cup MVP 2006 2x All-Euroleague First Team: 2006, 2007 Euroleague Final Four MVP 2006 FIBA Europe Player of the Year 2006 Euroleague MVP 2007 35 Greatest Euroleague Players 2008 2x All-Euroleague Second Team: 2008, 2009 Euroleague 2001-10 All-Decade Team

Papaloukas led the Greek national team to a Eurobasket title in 2005 as well as a FIBA World Championship silver medal in 2006 coming off the bench, being elected to the All-Tournament Team in both competitions.[3] In 2006 he was named the FIBA Europe Player of the Year and one of the 50 greatest Euroleague contributors in 2008. A revolutionary figure in basketball,[4] Papaloukas symbolizes the rise of European basketball in the new millennium.

Pro career

Greece

A native of Athens, Greece, Papaloukas began his career at the small local Athens junior team Ethnikos Ellinoroson. He then played for another small, but at the time rising club called Ampelokipoi, with whom he began his pro career with in 1995. He then transferred to Dafni of the Greek A2 League in 1997, and transferred again two years later to Panionios, a traditional basketball club of the Greek A1 League. In 2001, Papaloukas finally moved to Olympiacos, a long-time Greek League power as well as one of the perennial contenders in the Euroleague.

With Dafni, Papaloukas won the Greek A2 League title and the Player of the Year award in the 1998-99 season. With Olympiacos, he led the Greek A1 League in assists in the 2000-01 season. After the 2001-02 season, he left Olympiacos and moved to another Euroleague powerhouse, the Russian Superleague club CSKA Moscow in 2002.

On June 20, 2008, Papaloukas was released from his contract by CSKA Moscow and he signed a 3 year contract with Olympiacos, making a return to Greece and his former team. Papaloukas signed through the 2010-11 season, with an annual salary of €3.5 million euros net income. He also has a Nike shoe contract.

CSKA Moscow

With 19 points in the Euroleague 2005-06 semifinal against FC Barcelona, and another 18 points at the final against back-to-back European Champion Maccabi Tel Aviv, Papaloukas was awarded the Euroleague 2005-06 Final Four MVP, having also been named the best point guard of the Euroleague for the 2005-06 season. Alongside him on the first team were the best shooting guard Juan Carlos Navarro of Barça, best small forward Anthony Parker of Maccabi (the Euroleague 2005-06 MVP), best power forward Luis Scola of TAU Cerámica, and best center Nikola Vujčić of Maccabi.

In 2007, Papaloukas was voted the Euroleague MVP of Euroleague 2006-07 for the regular season. CSKA advanced to the final against Panathinaikos, held on the Greens' home court, the Athens Olympic Indoor Hall (which had been chosen as the site more than a year in advance). Panathinaikos won the game by a score of 93-91 in a very exciting game. Papaloukas scored 23 points and dished out 8 assists, but a number of sportswriters intimated that he did not receive adequate support from his CSKA teammates and thus his team lost the final. Papaloukas was also a key member of CSKA's Euroleague 2007-08 championship team.

Papaloukas has been pursued by the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, and the Miami Heat to fill their point guard spot. On July 7, 2007, Greek newspapers reported that Papaloukas agreed to a newly-structured 3-year contract with CSKA, worth €10.5 million euros net income. He had the option to leave his contract with no buyout at any time, and he did so just one year later, when he signed with Olympiacos.

Euroleague statistics

Euroleague official website, Theodoros Papaloukas' page.[5]

SEASON	LEAGUE	TEAM	GP	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG
2001-02	Euroleague	Olympiacos	19	27.0	8.4	2.9	4.0	2.0	0.2
2002-03	Euroleague	CSKA Moscow	21	16.5	4.7	2.0	3.4	1.1	0.0
2003-04	Euroleague	CSKA Moscow	21	17.4	6.3	1.7	2.7	1.5	0.1
2004-05	Euroleague	CSKA Moscow	23	18.5	7.6	2.3	3.8	1.3	0.1
2005-06	Euroleague	CSKA Moscow	24	22.8	9.3	3.1	4.0	1.8	0.3
2006-07	Euroleague	CSKA Moscow	25	24.4	9.8	3.2	5.4	1.7	0.2
2007-08	Euroleague	CSKA Moscow	23	21.8	7.7	2.7	4.6	1.2	0.0
2008-09	Euroleague	Olympiacos	22	25.0	8.0	2.7	5.2	1.1	0.0
2009-10	Euroleague	Olympiacos	19	24.4	7.4	2.1	5.1	1.3	0.1

Greek national team

Medal record
Men's Basketball
Competitor for  Greece
FIBA World Championship
Silver	2006 Japan	National Team
FIBA European Championship
Gold	2005 Serbia	National Team

Papaloukas was a core element of the senior men's Greek National Basketball Team. He played at the FIBA European Championships of EuroBasket 2001 in Turkey, EuroBasket 2003 in Sweden, EuroBasket 2005 in Serbia and Montenegro, and EuroBasket 2007 in Spain.

Papaloukas, who was already well-established in European basketball as a result of appearances in three consecutive Euroleague Final Fours with CSKA Moscow, achieved an acclaimed position among the elite of European basketball at the EuroBasket 2005 in Serbia and Montenegro. After a series of mediocre performances in the first round, he led Greece to a victory over the Russian National Basketball Team in the quarterfinals and orchestrated a major comeback against the French National Basketball Team in the semifinal, when Greece was down 7 points with 47 seconds left on the clock.

In the final against the German National Basketball Team, led by the prodigious NBA All-Star Dirk Nowitzki, Papaloukas scored 22 points, leading Greece comfortably to its second European title, eighteen years after its first win at the 1987 Eurobasket. As such, Papaloukas was selected to the top-5 team of the 2005 European Championship, along with fellow Greek team player Dimitris Diamantidis, Spanish National Basketball Team shooting guard Juan Carlos Navarro, French National Team swingman and NBA player Boris Diaw, and Nowitzki, who also claimed the MVP title.

Papaloukas also joined the elite club of players who have achieved the European title at both the national and club levels during the same year, as he won the Euroleague title with CSKA at the Final Four in Prague, April 28–30, 2006.

Papaloukas climbed to the second position of global basketball as he, along with his fellow Greek team players, drove Greece to the final of the 2006 World Championship in Japan, losing there in the final to the Spanish National Basketball Team. In Greece's win over Team USA in the semifinal, by a score of 101-95, Papaloukas had 12 assists, 8 points and 5 rebounds. He also earned a place on the all-tournament team, which also included the tournament MVP Pau Gasol of The Spanish Team, Gasol's teammate Jorge Garbajosa, Team USA's Carmelo Anthony, and Manu Ginobili of the Argentina National Basketball Team.

His most formidable personal recognition came on January 26, 2007, when he was voted by fans and journalists as the FIBA Europe Player of the Year for 2006, topping the likes of Nowitzki, Gasol, and Tony Parker. In the summer of 2008, Papaloukas became the captain of Greece's national team.

Player profile

Papaloukas is a 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) in height player that can play as either a point guard, shooting guard, or point forward on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. He is a pass first play maker, or "pure point guard" with a distinctive style of play. His play making ability and pass first or "pure" point guard skills at his height, combined with his versatility to play multiple positions on the basketball court on both ends of the floor make him an extraordinary player.

He is also the ULEB era Euroleague's all time record holder in both career steals and assists. Papaloukas was selected to the Euroleague's 50th anniversary Euroleague's 35 Greatest All-Time Players list in 2008. Papaloukas is widely known by the nicknames of Teó and Thodoris. He has also sometimes been given other much less used nicknames, such as The Computer, due to his ability to analyze the court, The Thread, because of his unique ability to complete passes through opposing defenses, like threading a needle, and other nicknames like Paps, Pappas, and The Tsar.

Awards and accomplishments

Pro clubs

* Won the Greek A2 Championship: (1999)
* Greek A2 League Player of the Year: (1999)
* Led the Greek League in assists: (2001, 2009)
* 4× Greek All-Star Game: (2001, 2002, 2009, 2010)
* Won 2 Greek Cups: (2002, 2010)
* Won 6 Russian Championships: (2003–08)
* Won 3 Russian Cups: (2005–07)
* Russian Cup MVP: (2006)
* 2× Euroleague Champion: (2006, 2008)
* 2× All-Euroleague First Team: (2006, 2007)
* Euroleague Final Four MVP: (2006)
* Won the Triple Crown: (2006)
* Euroleague MVP: (2007)
* Euroleague's 35 Greatest Players: (2008)
* 2× All-Euroleague Second Team: (2008, 2009)
* All-Time ULEB Euroleague record holder in career steals
* All-Time ULEB Euroleague record holder in career assists
* Euroleague 2001-10 All-Decade Team

Greek national team

* Won 7 Acropolis Tournaments: (2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)
* Gold medal at the 2005 FIBA European Championship
* 2005 FIBA European Championship: All Tournament Team
* Won the 2006 Stanković Continental Champions’ Cup
* Won the silver medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship
* 2006 FIBA World Championship: All Tournament Team
* FIBA Europe Player of the Year: (2006)

Video highlights

* "Greek Magic" Theo Papaloukas World's Greatest Play Maker

References

1. ^ Euroleague.net, All-Decade Selection article
2. ^ Euroleague.net, All-Decade Selection article
3. ^ FIBA.com profile
4. ^ Euroleague official Website, All-Decade selection article
5. ^ Euroleague stats.

External links

* Theodoros Papaloukas' Official Website (Greek) and (English)
* Euroleague.net Profile
* CSKA Moscow Profile
* Interbasket.net Profile
* Draftexpress.com Profile
* NBADraft.net Article On Papaloukas At The Euroleague Final Four
* Eurobasket2005.com Papaloukas All First Team 2005 European Championship
* FIBA.com Papaloukas All First Team 2006 World Championship
* FIBAEurope.com Papaloukas Voted Best European Player
* From FIBA Europe Official Website: "Papaloukas Legend Grows With FIBA Europe Player Of Year Honor" {26 January 2007} by Jeff Taylor