Young Greeks to provide tough competition

The Greek men’s national team that will take on the Australian Boomers in The Farewell Series in Victoria starting this Sunday (24 June) has been named and Australian men’s Head Coach Brett Brown says they will give his side just the sort of tough competition they need in the lead-up to London.

The Greek national federation confirmed their 12-man touring squad today and it includes a number of young stars who have started to make their mark in the tough European competition.

The team includes shooting guard Charalampos “Charis” Giannopoulos, who led Greece to the gold medal at the 2009 FIBA European Under-20 Championship. Also named is forward Leonidas Kaselakis who was a star of the 2009 FIBA World Championships in New Zealand on the Greek team that won silver, averaging14.6 points and 6.2 rebounds, and guard Dimitrios Katsivelis who was a member of the Greek championship winning team this season with Olympiacos.

Brown said the Greeks will be no easybeats and his men had better be prepared when the series opens on Sunday at Hisense Arena.

“When we approached the Greek national federation to bring a team out to Australia to play the Boomers we always understood that, because of Greece’s commitment to the London qualifying tournament, it would be a national team filled with younger players,” said Brown. “The side Greece has named is exactly that and includes some very talented young athletes.

“We had two major goals with this series,” Brown added. “Firstly we wanted to provide some tough competition for the Boomers to help prepare them for London. Greece is one of the deepest basketball nations in Europe, is ranked number four in the world by FIBA as a nation and has one of the toughest domestic professional leagues in the world. We know they will be a difficult opponent and all the guys on this Greek team will be out to make a name for themselves.

“Secondly, we wanted to give the Australian public the chance to say farewell to their team before the Boomers head to London. This series against Greece will give people all over Victoria the chance to do just that, so we believe we have achieved those two goals.”

The Boomers will open The Farewell Series with a double-header with the Australian Opals at Melbourne’s Hisense Arena on June 24. The Boomers will also play Greece at the State Basketball Centre in Knox on June 25 and the Geelong Arena on June 27.

Tickets for the Geelong and Knox Boomers’ games have already sold-out, with limited tickets still available for the Hisense Arena match.

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