Aris formed the backbone of the senior men's Greek national basketball team, sending Galis, Giannakis, Filippou, Romanidis, and Lipiridis (to help Greece win the gold medal at the EuroBasket 1987, and the silver medal at the EuroBasket 1989). The back court combination of Galis-Giannakis first came to European prominence at the 1986 FIBA World Championship in Spain, where upstarts Greece performed surprisingly well, while Galis won the top-scorer of the tournament award.