A crowd of people, as well as prominent personalities of the sport, such as Giannakis, Papaloukas, Tsartsaris, Hatzis, Karagoutis and Maltsis honored him Dimitris Papanikolaou at the naming ceremony of the court where basketball was started by Municipality of Ilio! The veteran forward thanked those who were by his side in this honorable and emotional moment. In his message on Facebook he says:
They were all there yesterday in the honor that I had, to receive the field that I raised my name, or almost everyone.
It was the mayor, Nikos Zenetos, whom I thank once again, as do the entire Board of Directors.
They were my family and old friends.
They were children on the autism spectrum playing with typically developing children.
They were people with mobility disabilities who showed us how to play wheelchair basketball.
They were basketball academies of Ilio.
They were my former and great teammates Panagiotis Giannakis, Evina Maltsis, Kostas Tsartsaris, Thodoris Papaloukas and happy birthday for today, Nikos Hatzis, Giorgos Karagoutis whom I thank from the bottom of my heart for coming on Sunday and leaving their obligations. It was not a given at all.
In the last few years running off the field a lot, I know how to respect other people’s time and effort and I thank them.
Running the event was the eurohoops technocrat team of which I am honored to be an ambassador and once again the event ran perfectly.
The one and only Vangelis Ioannou was on the microphone.
There were a lot of people who sold out early on in the open stands and there were people left outside the stadium.
They were close friends who supported me in difficult times, they know.
They were current partners.
It wasn’t my father with whom we started this journey together, but there were all the sweet memories of another time, with lots of play and less scooting.
I have no words to thank you, as I said on the microphone and there were better players, but the Municipality, apart from my athletic career, respected my current effort, which is not easy both practically and psychologically, and wanted to give me the honor it gives me extra strength to continue.
I wish that in this playground there will always be children’s laughter, and children’s dreams that will come true.
As then….
Thank you
Source: Sport Fm
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
