Mavroidis: “With Bilbao I established myself at the highest level – I told them we would play Euroleague and they laughed”

For the highly successful two years she was in Spain and the Basque Country to wear her jersey Bilbaospoke to the Spanish magazine “Gigantes del Basket”, o Dimitris Mavroidis!

With him on their roster and with Fotis Katsikaris in their technical leadership, Bilbao experienced great moments, after reaching the finals of the Spanish league and competing for the first time in the Euroleague, with the Greek center remembering his presence in the team and he reveals the two Spanish teams that had approached him, with no deal in the end.

What he said in detail:



On Bilbao being the only team he played for abroad: “I had just finished the year with Maroussi, where I played in the Euroleague for the first time in my career, and I told my manager, blessed George Dimitropoulos, that I wanted to go to Spain. It was clear in my mind – I wanted to play in the Spanish league and nowhere else! “Don’t look away… Only there”. I don’t know how I got this idea, I just felt ready to play in the best league in Europe. It so happened that Fotis Katsikaris was a coach in Bilbao; he knew me and I had made good appearances with Marousi against his former team, Aris. In the same summer, Kostas Vassiliadis came. In any case, my decision to play in Spain was completely conscious”.

On whether he’s had other offers from Spain over the years:

“Yes, twice. One was before I signed with AEK. I had finished the 2014-15 season with Kifisia, which was my first full year after the serious injury. I was MVP in the first round of the Greek league and generally performed very well. I had verbally agreed with AEK, but the contacts were interrupted before the transfer was completed. In the meantime, I had turned down Olimpija Ljubljana because I thought I would continue at AEK. Finally, I lost both AEK and Olympia! I started the following year by signing an open contract with Kifissia. Then there was interest from Tenerife, but AEK appeared again. Their plan had not gone as they expected and they turned to me. In the meantime, the president of Tenerife had gone to the offices on Sunday to send the contracts and close my transfer. I then said to my manager, “George, because I don’t want it to be seen that we didn’t talk to them, please tell AEK that I have this proposal”. In the end, I agreed with AEK and the transfer to Tenerife never happened”.

For the second one: “It was 2018, the year we reached the Final Four of the Basketball Champions League in Athens. We had eliminated Niebuhrk in the round of 16 and were coming up against Strasbourg in the quarter-finals when Malaga showed interest. I think a tall man was injured and they were looking for a player in the market. Finally, I stayed at AEK and we won the BCL”.

On what Bilbao’s status was at that time, what he expected to find in the Basque Country and, ultimately, what he found: “When I went to Bilbao, the team had never won in the play-offs! I will never forget one of the first conversations I had with the president. I met him in a restaurant, we talked about the team, and I told him jokingly: “You know, whatever team I go to, we play Euroleague. I went to Maroussi and we played Euroleague. I’ll do it here too!” He laughed! “Don’t laugh”, I told him, “we will play in the Euroleague”. The first year we reached the finals in Spain, and the next we lived the dream! Meanwhile, Bilbao have never won in the play-offs, and we knocked out Valencia and Real on home handicap! In the finals we faced Navarro’s great Barcelona, ​​who won three titles in Spain that year. For us, it was a real feat”.

For the games against CSKA in the quarterfinals of the Euroleague: “CSKA had won the two matches in Moscow and they were confident of winning the third in Bilbao. In fact, their plane was about to take off. We are talking about the team of Kirilenko, Teodosic, Siskauskas, Sved and Krstic. They had also emptied the hotel, checked out and came to the stadium with their bags! We played the second match in Moscow on Friday and on Sunday at noon we had a match in Seville for the championship! We traveled all day, arrived Saturday night in Seville, went to train and couldn’t walk from exhaustion! We went out to a bar that night, stayed up all night and the next day some were a bit drunk at the race (laughs)! In the end, we won in overtime. After two days we played CSKA Moscow, we did two standard training sessions just to get ready for the game, and we beat them. We had built a very fighting team”.

On how he tackled the adjustment part: “I remember Vassiliadis telling me that he had entered a 15-20 day program to be able to withstand the pace of training, not competition!

It’s what I explained to you before. We didn’t play much… Spanish. Did you understand? We didn’t play up and down like crazy, like Gran Canaria played with Jaycee Carroll for example. In Bilbao we played more set. On a personal level, adjusting to the game was not difficult for me. It was hard being there alone, without my family and friends. Competitively, that Bilbao didn’t always play run-and-gun. We were playing… Greco-Spanish basketball, with tough defense and flow in attack. That’s why we filmed countless matches that year! I remember Katsikaris telling us: “If we don’t lose by 20 points at the beginning of the match, I’m worried” (laughs)! We had lost too many matches because we played hard and focused. It was a team with toughness, character and basketball IQ”.

On what place Bilbao has in his career and his basketball journey: “I think it helped me establish myself at the top level. After Bilbao, the way was opened for my transfer to Olympiacos, with which I won the Euroleague. I also played for the Greek National Team. Maroussi was the stepping stone for something more. In Bilbao, my career became more professional. I remember those years with joy and nostalgia”.