Greek coaching legend Giannis Ioannidis died at 78 / News - Basketnews.com

Giannis Ioannidis, inarguably the most important coach in Greece in the 20th century, passed away. The late tactician led three Greek teams to the EuroLeague Final Four, in addition to winning 12 domestic titles. He's still the winningest Greek coach of all time.

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Giannis Ioannidis, one of the leading personalities of Greek basketball, has passed away at the age of 78.

The legendary coach, who linked his name with the emergence of Aris Thessaloniki and Olympiacos Piraeus in the 80s and 90s, had been dealing with several health issues in recent years.

Ioannidis was born in Thessaloniki on February 26, 1945 and was involved in basketball from a young age, reaching the point of playing in the first team of Aris in 1959. His career as a player spanned about two decades, yet from an early age he had shown his flair for coaching.

When he finished his career as a player, he began his great career as a coach. Aris remained his professional home for one season, from 1978 to 1979, followed by two years in Larissa. In 1980, he took over the Greek national team and in 1982 began the second and most successful tenure of his career on the bench of the team from Thessaloniki.

Led by Nikos Galis and with Panagiotis Giannakis added to the roster shortly afterwards, the team that Ioannidis built changed basketball in Greece.

Under his guidance, Aris won the Greek league in 1979 and 1983, before the team swept all domestic silverware from 1985 to 1990, accompanied by unsurpassed records, unbeaten runs and three consecutive EuroLeague Final Four berths (1988-1990).

In 1991, Ioannidis started building a second basketball dynasty in Piraeus. With Olympiacos, he won four consecutive championship titles from 1993 to 1996, two domestic Cups (1994, 1995) and led the Reds to two Final Four final games (1994, 1995), until he left for AEK Athens in 1996.

His two-year stint (1996-98) with his third team wasn't accompanied by a trophy. Still, Ioannidis managed to make history, as he led another Greek squad to the EuroLeague Final Four in 1998, when AEK lost to Virtus Bologna.

Dusan Ivkovic was the coach that succeeded him at both Olympiacos and AEK, winning the EuroLeague with the Reds in 1997 and the Saporta Cup with the yellow-and-black team in 2000.

Ioannidis had his last coaching tenure at the club level with Olympiacos in 1999-2000, before taking over the Greek NT again in 2002 and finishing in 5th place in the 2003 EuroBasket in Sweden.

In 2004, at 69, he announced his retirement from basketball and ran in the parliamentary elections with the New Democracy party. He was elected as a member of Parliament in 2007, when he became Deputy Minister of Sports, until October 2009. Three years later (May 2012), he was again appointedDeputy Minister of Sports until June 2013.

Ioannidis is still the only Greek coach to have won championships in three decades. Along with Aito Garcia Reneses, he's the coach with the most EuroLeague Final Four participations (6) without ever winning the trophy.

He ended his coaching career having lifted 12 Greek titles (8 with Aris and 4 with Olympiacos) and 6 Greek Cups (5 with Aris and one with Olympiacos).

He is survived by his wife Gioula Gkiouzelopoulou and 21-year-old daughter, Theodora.

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