Ioannis Bourousis
Giannis Bourousis (Greek: Γιάννης Μπουρούσης; born November 17, 1983) is a Greek professional basketball player for ASK Karditsa of the Greek A2 Basket League. He is a 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 270 lb (122 kg) tall center. A two-time All-EuroLeague First Team selection, Bourousis has been compared to FIBA Hall of Fame center Vlade Divac by San Antonio Spurs' head coach Gregg Popovich. Bourousis was on the Greek national basketball team that won the gold medal at EuroBasket 2005 in Serbia, and played an instrumental role as Greece won the bronze medal at EuroBasket  2009. He was also a member of the Greek national teams that finished fourth at EuroBasket 2007, and fifth in the 2008 Summer Olympics. Early years. Bourousis originally began his athletic career training to be a professional swimmer, but he grew too tall for the sport, and so he instead took up playing basketball, at the age of 18. He began playing basketball as a member of the youth clubs of G.S. Karditsas. Professional career. Bourousis began his professional career in the year 2001, with AEK Athens of the Greek Basket League. In 2006, he transferred to FC Barcelona of  the Spanish ACB League. Later that same year, he joined the Greek EuroLeague club Olympiacos. In 2009, he was offered a 3-year $12 million contract by the NBA club the San Antonio Spurs. However, he turned down San Antonio's offer, and instead signed a 3-year contract extension with Olympiacos worth €5.1 million euros net income. The contract contained a €1 million euros buyout amount, which could only be used to sign with an NBA team. After 5 years with Olympiacos, the club decided to terminate his contract. In the summer of 2011, just weeks  before signing with Olimpia Milano, Bourousis was involved in a doping-related media controversy in Greece, after an unrelated football match-fixing probe of his (then future) father-in-law, Makis Psomiadis. However, Bourousis was quickly cleared of any suspected wrongdoing, after he submitted to drug testing for FIBA protocols, which are overseen by the World Anti-Doping Agency, in order to be cleared to play with Greece's national team at FIBA EuroBasket 2011. On July 6, 2011, Bourousis then agreed to a two-year contract with the Italian A League club Olimpia Milano. In July 2013, Bourousis signed  a contract with the Spanish League club Real Madrid. With Real Madrid, Bourousis won the Spanish Supercup in 2013, and the Spanish King's Cup 2014. In the summer of 2014, Real Madrid picked up their team option to keep him in the club for one more season. In the 2014–15 season, Bourousis won the EuroLeague 2014–15 season championship, after his team, Real Madrid, defeated his former team, Olympiacos, by a score of 78–59 at the 2015 EuroLeague Final Four. Real Madrid also eventually finished the season winning the 2014–15 Spanish League championship, after a 3–0 series score in the  ACB Finals against Barcelona. With that trophy, they won the triple crown. In September 2015, Bourousis signed a contract with the Spanish team Saski Baskonia. On December 30, 2015, he was named Spanish League Player of the Month, after being MVP of the week three times in the first half of the 2015–16 ACB season. He repeated his win again as the Spanish League's Player of the Month in January 2016, after averaging 18.5 points per game and 7 rebounds per game, including 24 points scored in the win against Real Madrid. On May 23, 2016, he was named  the Spanish League's MVP of the 2015–16 season, after averaging 12.9 points per game, 7.1 rebounds per game, 2.2 assists per game, and 0.9 steals per game. On July 12, 2016, Bourousis signed a two-year contract with Panathinaikos. On July 4, 2017, Panathinaikos announced the termination of Bourousis' contract. On July 10, 2017, Bourousis signed with the Zhejiang Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). Bourousis spent the 2020-21 season with Peristeri. He averaged 6.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game. On September 28, 2021, Bourousis signed with ASK Karditsa of the Greek A2 Basket  League. National team career. Greek junior national team. Bourousis was a member of the junior Greek national basketball team that won the gold medal at the 2002 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship in Lithuania. Greek senior national team. Bourousis was on the senior men's Greek national basketball team that won the gold medal at the EuroBasket 2005 in Serbia, and played an instrumental role as Greece won the bronze medal at the EuroBasket 2009. He was also a member of the Greek national teams that finished fourth in the EuroBasket 2007, and fifth in the 2008 Summer Olympics. During an  international friendly game between the national teams of Greece and Serbia, during the 2010 Acropolis Tournament, the Serbian player, Nenad Krstić, hit Bourousis on the head with a chair. "I thought he was a fan attacking me", Krstić declared the next day. Bourousis first pressed charges against Krstić and decided to sue, but he quickly changed his mind and dropped the charges and the lawsuit. Bourousis was also a member of the Greek national teams that competed at the: 2010 FIBA World Championship, the EuroBasket 2011, the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the EuroBasket 2013, the 2014 FIBA World  Cup, the EuroBasket 2015, the 2016 Turin FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the EuroBasket 2017, and the 2019 FIBA World Cup qualifiers.