Xanthopoulos makes history: 3rd in appearances in the championship

Vassilis Xanthopoulos is making history! The experienced guard played in the Peristeri Domino’s match against AEK and reached 510 appearances in the professional league. He is now the 3rd in history, having the same number of appearances as Nikos Boudouris, while only Dimitris Diamantidis and Nikos Hatzis have more.

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It is proof that even in sports, age is a number in identity. His 41st birthday – on April 29, 2025 – will find him competing on the Stoiximan GBL floor, where we have been used to seeing him since the distant 2002. Vassilis Xanthopoulos yesterday (7/12) rose to 3rd place on the list of players with most matches in the professional Championship.

The guard of Peristeri Domino’s, with his 5th appearance this year, reached 510 in the category and with them he “caught” another great Greek guard, Nikos Boudouris, who will probably surpass him in the next Saturday (14/12, 18:00) in the home game against Prometheus Patras Vikos Cola.

If everything goes smoothly and he continues to “write” appearances, in the course of the season he will “climb” one more place since Dimitris Diamantidis is 15 games away from Xanthopoulos. However, the top seems far away where Nikos Hatzis is, in terms of the professional Championship. But with the evergreen Vassilis Xanthopoulos, one cannot be sure…

Vassilis Xanthopoulos’ long journey to 510 Championship games and 3rd place in the Stoiximan GBL list began on November 9, 2002. Then as a Near East player he played in the away game against Panionios (82-78). Tolis Karnesis had thrown him on the floor for four minutes, without recording anything in his statistics.

In the rookie season of Xanthopoulos, Nikos Boutouris, whom he reached yesterday in matches in the professional Championship, was still active and in fact as a player of Olympiakos. The two even co-existed in the division for five seasons. Xanthopoulos is now in his 21st season while Boutouris had “written” 16.

In a game in which he broke the personal “barrier” of 1,800 points, Xanthopoulos scored his biggest performance this year. He had eight while in the previous four he counted six. Of course, he had 3/5 shots, while until yesterday he had 1/3 in total. The eight points is the best performance of his last 38 games in the Championship after he had the same performance on March 11, 2023, then as a player of AEK Betsson against Lavrio DHI.