THE Vangelis Zougris of Peristeriou was her latest podcast guest Stoiximan GBL for the 2024 and talked about many interesting topics.
The 20-year-old talented tall mentioned his relationship and his collaboration with Vasilis Spanoulisto his basketball idol, Kyle Hinesbut also in the way he handles criticism.
At the same time, he spoke about his ambitions for the rest of his career.
In detail what he said:
On starting basketball at the age of 15: “I had a love for it football since childhood. I was born in 2004, when our national team won the Euro. All I watched was football. All the kids at school were playing ball. I think that’s how it started, but it kind of ended ignominiously with me being fed up and tired of playing football every day. I wanted to start something else, but I didn’t want it to be basketball. I had a bias not to start basketball. Everyone told me to start playing basketball, but I was a stubborn kid and I wanted to go against everyone. So I just went to try it and tell them I don’t like it. To get out of this obligation I thought I had. Of course, when I went to the first training session, I fell in love with it.”
About being discovered by Sofia Kligopoulou, current team manager at Peristeri Domino’s: “I went to the stadium, I knock on the door, the coach opens, she sees me so long, I was tall, much weaker and thinner of course, and she asks me ‘where are you playing?’ I call her ‘Garden City’. And I could see her scratching her head to see where this group is. I understand and I tell her ‘I don’t play basketball, I play football’. He rolls his eyes, I still remember that, so much, I was scared, and says ‘come in now’. And so this journey began.”
On working with Milan Tomic, who was his first coach at men’s level: “Awesome. I still talk to the coach, he still texts me. Really all the children at Peristeri at that time had helped us to a huge extent. What I tell everyone is that my basketball mom is Sofia Kligopoulou and coach Deli and my basketball dad, among many faces, is Tomic. Psychologically it had lifted me up a lot at that time, because I was a kid who had been playing basketball for two years and the future, just like now then to a much greater extent, seemed uncertain. And this man spoke to me, told me ‘you can’ and gave me enormous confidence to continue.”
On his reaction when he learned that Vassilis Spanoulis is taking over as coach at Peristeri Domino’s: “A lot of mixed emotions. An awe that this man will be my coach and I will have the opportunity to be under his wings. On the other hand, I had heard that he is a very demanding person, a very big competitor, who wants to be the best in everything he does, things that scared me a bit back then as a younger child. But in the end it went the way it did. I am very happy and blessed that he was my coach.
I remember it very vividly. For sure for 6 months I would go to training, I would see him sitting there on the bench and I would say ‘hey, is that Coach Spanoulis?’ It’s not possible. It was 6 months, I went every day and I really had the same feeling every day again. That awe, that wow.”
On how their relationship evolved: “I think about these two years, which seem like little, but you get lost in all that has happened. I don’t know how to explain it. I don’t know how he sees it, but I saw him as a role model in my everyday life, in basketball, in the way I want to live and serve the sport.”
For his role this year in Peristeri Domino’s: “Coach Limniatis shows a huge amount of trust in me, which makes me feel even more confident, makes me play with more freedom. I feel very good when I play, I have no anxiety, no pressure. I can do what I know well and for now that is paying off and helping the team.
The leading part, as I have read that they write, is not something that concerns me directly. Being a leader in a team, as I learned from coach Spanoulis, is a completely different process, it doesn’t work exactly like that (pp. based on the years you have in a team). You must always be right, you must always be there, when you must be there. It’s a huge process. I’m not saying I can’t do it. I say that is not my goal.”
Has the NBA ever thought about it: “My dream was to play in the EuroLeague. This is my dream. I don’t know why I never said NBA. It seems so far-fetched and difficult that it might not even have crossed my mind. My goal is to play in the EuroLeague, to have a role in a team. Without that meaning that I’m eager for this moment to come, I’m not holding back, I’m rushing.”
On whether he thinks kids of his generation are being criticized too much: “I’m basically not interested, I’m not involved. Everyone opens their cell phone and writes whatever. If every athlete of my age sat down and was consumed by what everyone writes on their computer, we would not play, because we would be busy for so many hours, that there would be no time left for training. It’s something that leaves me indifferent. I do what I love and I will continue to do it regardless.”
On how he’s managed to block out that outside noise: “You suffer and you learn. I suffered and learned. First I had a good game, I went in and saw and I was excited. Then I fell. These ups and downs in an athlete’s psychology are hugely important to their performance and therefore I believe they should not exist. One way to eliminate them is simply by turning off your cell phone.
Another way is with the help of a psychologist. I personally have someone who advises me and gives me guidance in my life and on the floor, about how I want to be. It has helped me tremendously to limit how much I care about what anyone has to say. So I moderated, basically zeroed in on how much I care about what people think.
Apart from the pressure that exists, which is indeed enormous, there is also no corresponding understanding. If I have a problem in my daily life and I go to my mother, my father, my brother, they will tell me ‘okay Vangelis, you play basketball’. So I sought the help of a psychologist. I don’t blame anyone in my family. It’s understandable that they can’t understand what I’m going through.”
On Kyle Hines’ tweet about him over the summer: “Hines is my basketball idol, my basketball role model. What can I tell you? Plotas showed it to me, when we were together in the same room. I see it and I say to him ‘hey, are you sure?’. I looked at it for 20 minutes to understand that it is not fake. Terrible moment. I get compared to Hines. I will say sacrilege on the one hand. On the other hand, I understand why they compare us. But when I saw it, I was speechless.”
On whether he imagined he would end up playing in the Men’s National Team when he started basketball 5 years ago: “Not even is too little. I started at an age where the rest of the kids were miles away. I look back and it all seems incredible. On the other hand, I have worked a lot and I will not say that I am enjoying the fruits, because my goal as Vangelis is not to be in the National team in the windows. It is to be in the National team in the windows and in the summers.
Now Papanikolaou, Larentzakis, Kalaitzakis from the EuroLeague joined us and our coach Spanoulis brought them as an example. He himself said ‘I have never played in the windows, but these athletes left their schedule and came to help the National Team’. This is my goal, to be able to be in the National team every time. I really don’t think there is a greater honor for an athlete. When I put on the shirt and heard the National Anthem, especially in Thessaloniki, all my hair stood up. May God bless me and experience this countless times. You are not so much a goal as a dream and a will. I want to experience this again.”
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.
