Panionios B.C. (Greek: Πανιώνιος KAE), known in European competitions as Panionios Athens[1] is the Greek professional basketball club that is based in Nea Smyrni, and that plays its home games in Palaio Faliro, Greece. The club is also widely known as Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, or Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis, which is the Pan-Ionian Gymnastic Club of Smyrna. This is usually abbreviated to the club name of Πανιώνιος Γ.Σ.Σ. Panionios B.C. is the basketball department of the Panionios Gymnastic Club that is based in Nea Smyrni.
Panionios B.C. has been a long-time club of the top-tier level Greek Basket League, which is considered one of the best national domestic basketball leagues in Europe. Panionios B.C. has also competed in the European-wide top-tier level EuroLeague. For sponsorship reasons, the club has also been known as Panionios On Telecoms and Panionios Forthnet, as well as several other sponsorship names.
(The official logo of Panionios' basketball club.)
History
Early years
The basketball clubs' parent athletic union, the Panionios Gymnastic Club, was founded in 1890, in İzmir, Ottoman Empire (located today in the modern country of Turkey), making it one of the oldest sporting clubs in Europe. The sporting clubs' basketball department was founded in 1919. After the Greek military suffered defeat in the Greco-Turkish War in 1922, the club was transferred to the Athenian suburb of Nea Smyrni, in Greece.
The basketball department, Panionios B.C., began participation in the Greek Basket League starting in the 1928–29 season, and finished in second place in the league that year. Panionios B.C. finished in third place in the league the next year.
Rise of the club to prominence in Greek basketball
Panionios B.C. competed in the top-tier Greek basketball league, in consecutive years, from the 1981–82 season until the 2014–15 season. In the 1986–87 season, Panionios played in the championship finals series of the Greek League, losing out to Aris, and their two Greek basketball legends Nikos Galis and Panagiotis Giannakis (Giannakis would later go on to play for Panionios). In 1991, led by Fanis Christodoulou, the team won the Greek Cup title, by defeating PAOK by a score of 73–70. Panionios also played in the finals game of the Greek Cup in both 1977 and 1995. Ιn the 1993–94 season, after an exciting run in the European 3rd-tier level FIBA Korać Cup, and after scoring a couple of wins against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the quarterfinals, Panionios reached the semifinals, and played against PAOK Bravo. This marked the first civil conflict between Greek basketball clubs in European-wide competitions, ever.
The club finished in 3rd place in the Greek League in the 1995–96 season, under their head coach at the time, Dušan Ivković, and thus qualified to the EuroLeague for the 1996–97 season. In the FIBA EuroLeague 1996–97 season, the team was coached by Efthimis Kioumourtzoglou. Two years later, in 1999, Panionios once again reached the semifinals of the FIBA Korać Cup, where they were again eliminated, this time from the super favorites of the tournament, FC Barcelona, which featured Sasha Djordjević.
In the Greek League 2007–08 season, under the ownership of Elias Lianos, the founder of Proton Bank, Panionios, led by Ivan Zoroski, Giannis Kalampokis, and charismatic head coach Nenad Marković, finished in 3rd place in the Greek League. They came back from an 0–2 series deficit in the deciding best-of-five league third-place series against Maroussi, and won the series 3–2. That secured the team a place in the EuroLeague competition for the EuroLeague 2008–09 season. This marked the club's first EuroLeague appearance in more than a decade.[2]
They won the Greek 2nd Division title of the 2016–17 season, and were promoted back up to the top-tier level league, for the 2017–18 season. Due to financial difficulties, Panionios was demoted down to the Greek 3rd Division, prior to the 2020–21 season.
Panionios played its domestic Greek League home games at "Artakis" Nea Smyrni Indoor Hall, a now demolished 1,832-seat arena that was owned by the Nea Smyrni municipality. They used the arena from its opening in 1979 to 2006, and from 2009 to its close in 2019.[5] From 2006 to 2009, the club used the Helliniko Olympic Arena, which was built for the 2004 Summer Olympics, and has a capacity of 15,000, as its home arena.[6] At various times, the club has also used the National Athletic Center Glyfada Makis Liougas, which has a capacity of 3,232.[7]
The municipality of Nea Smyrni has begun the construction of a new modern-style multi-use indoor arena, called the Boban Janković Indoor Hall, named after Boban Janković, which is being built on the same location as the old Nea Smyrni Indoor Hall. The new arena was scheduled to open for the 2022–23 season but after many delays the stadium is still unfinished. The club will play at a smaller arena in Nea Smyrni neighborhood, Andreas Varikas Indoor Hall, until its new arena is completed.
_pictogram.svg){kind=small}
_pictogram.svg){kind=small}
_pictogram.svg){kind=small}
_logo.png){kind=logo}
