Vassilis Spanoulis (), also commonly known as Bill Spanoulis (), or Kill Bill (;"Blatt hailed Spanoulis after first EuroLeague win together". born 7 August 1982) is a Greek professional basketball coach and former player who is currently the head coach of the senior men's Greek national team and Greek basketball club Aris Thessaloniki. He was the head coach of AS Monaco from 2024 until March 2026, when the club and Spanoulis mutually agreed to part ways.
In the sport of basketball, his signature move is a cut originating from under the rim where the player moves up the floor to receive a handoff from another player, which is commonly known as "Spanoulis Action","Draymond Green reveals Nuggets' secret weapon: The Spanoulis action".Draymond Green salutes Nuggets using "Spanoulis action". "The Spanoulis System", or simply "Spanoulis"."Spanoulis". During his pro playing career, at a height of tall, and a weight of , Spanoulis played as a point guard-shooting guard, and was nicknamed Kill Bill, V-Span, Greek Thunder, and MVP ("Most Vassilis Player"). Spanoulis was named the Balkan Athlete of the Year in 2009, the Eurobasket Player of the Year in 2012 and 2013, the International Sports Prize's World Athlete of the Year in 2013, and the EuroLeague MVP the same year. He earned a record eight All-EuroLeague Team selections and was voted the EuroLeague's 2010–2020 Player of the Decade. Spanoulis retired as the EuroLeague's all-time career leader in assists and total points scored. In 2025, Spanoulis was voted The Greatest of All Time (GOAT) Athlete in the 100-year history of Olympiacos Piraeus CFP,"100 ΧΡΟΝΙΑ ΘΡΥΛΟΣ 100 χρόνια Ολυμπιακός: Ο Βασίλης Σπανούλης είναι ο μεγαλύτερος αθλητής στην ιστορία του συλλόγου" ."Σπανούλης: Ο απόλυτος Θρύλος του Ολυμπιακού – Αυτοί είναι οι 10 κορυφαίοι αθλητές στην ιστορία του συλλόγου" ."100 ΧΡΟΝΙΑ ΘΡΥΛΟΣ 100 χρόνια Ολυμπιακός: Αυτοί είναι οι 10 μεγαλύτεροι αθλητές στην ιστορία του συλλόγου" ."100 χρόνια Ολυμπιακός: Αυτοί είναι οι 10 μεγαλύτεροι αθλητές στην ιστορία του συλλόγου" ."Βασίλης Σπανούλης, ο μεγαλύτερος αθλητής στην ιστορία του Ολυμπιακού: 1ος στην ψηφοφορία του SPORT24" . which is the multi-sport club with the most championships won in sports history, with over 300 awards."Olympiacos: Europe's Most Successful Multi-Sport Club; 315th Title Months Before Centennial"."Olympiacos is first in Europe! He reached 310 titles, he also passed Barcelona (pic)".
During his professional club playing career, on the international level, Spanoulis was a FIBA World Club Championship champion, a European Triple Crown winner, a three-time EuroLeague champion and five-time EuroLeague finalist, and a FIBA Europe League finalist. While on the national domestic level, Spanoulis was a seven-time Greek Basket League champion, thirteen-time Greek Basket League finalist, and a four-time Greek Cup winner and nine-time Greek Cup finalist. He spent most of his playing career in the Greek Basket League, winning four Greek League titles as a member of Panathinaikos Athens, and three Greek League titles as a member of Olympiacos Piraeus. With those same two Greek clubs, he also won three EuroLeague titles, one with the former club (2009), and two consecutively (2012 and 2013) with the latter. In total, in four seasons with Panathinaikos, Spanoulis won eight club championship titles, and in eleven seasons with Olympiacos, he won seven club championship titles.
In international competitions of the national team, Spanoulis played an instrumental role in the gold medal win of the senior men's Greek national team, at the 2005 FIBA EuroBasket. He was also one of the main stars of Greece's 2006 FIBA World Cup silver medal team, as he led Greece with 22 points scored in their memorable victory over Team USA, by a score of 101–95, in the tournament's semifinals. It was however, Greece's bronze medal win at the 2009 FIBA EuroBasket, that emphasized Spanoulis' leadership within an injury-plagued Greek national team, and consequently earned him a EuroBasket All-Star Five honor. In 2020, Spanoulis was named to the FIBA Summer Olympics 1992–2020 Dream Team, which consisted of the 25 best players in FIBA Summer Olympics history, since the inclusion of NBA players, in 1992, and to the FIBA EuroBasket 2000–2020 Dream Team, which consisted of the five best players of the FIBA EuroBasket, since the year 2000.
Spanoulis, whose clutch end-of-game play earned him the nickname "Kill Bill",Vassilis Spanoulis is nicknamed "Kill Bill". is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players in Europe. In 2017, the European basketball expert and historian, Vladimir Stanković, and the EuroLeague's expert basketball panel, named Spanoulis "The Most Clutch Player in EuroLeague History". In 2018, he was named to the 101 Greats of European Basketball selection. Along with the Spanish player Juan Carlos Navarro, Spanoulis was one of just two players, that were still active players at the time, that were specially selected for the honor. In 2020, Spanoulis was named the "Best EuroLeague Player of The 2010s Decade" by the readers of the website Eurohoops.net. HoopsHype.com named Spanoulis one of the 75 Greatest International Players Ever in 2021. In 2022, Spanoulis was named a EuroLeague Legend, which is the EuroLeague's Hall of Fame award. Spanoulis was also inducted into the Greek Basket League Hall of Fame, in 2022. Spanoulis' number 7 jersey was retired by the Greek EuroLeague club Olympiacos Piraeus, on 17 September 2023. In October 2023, Spanoulis was voted the EuroLeague's "GOAT" ("Greatest of All Time") player, in a BasketNews.com poll of EuroLeague players. Spanoulis received 40% of the vote total, while the second-placed vote-getter, Nando de Colo, received a total of 14% of the vote.
Early life and youth career Spanoulis was born in Larissa, Greece, on 7 August 1982. His father Thanasis Spanoulis, was the owner of a drug store, and his mother Georgia Spanouli, was a bank clerk. Spanoulis was the couple's second and last child, being born three years after his older brother Dimitris.
At the age of 7, Spanoulis began training in the sports of judo, football, swimming, and basketball. As a youth, Spanoulis idolized the basketball players Michael Jordan and Nikos Galis. In 1994, at the age of 12, Spanoulis joined the youth basketball program of the multi-sports club Gymnastikos S. Larissas. Spanoulis' father Thanasis, died of cancer, on 4 November 1997, when Spanoulis was 15 years old.
In 1999, at the age of 16, Spanoulis won the 1998–99 season's national under-18 club championship of Greece. He led Keravnos Larissa, the youth basketball subsidiary of Gymnastikos S. Larissas, to the title of the Panhellenic Youth Championship. He was the championship's leading scorer and Most Valuable Player. In the competition's semifinals, he scored 40 points against the youth team of Aris Thessaloniki. In the competition's final, he led his team to a 64–61 victory over the youth team of Olympiacos Piraeus. He hit the game-winning 3-point shot, to win the title, at the buzzer.
In 2000, at the age of 17, Spanoulis won the silver medal at the DBB Albert Schweitzer Under-18 World Tournament and the bronze medal at the 2000 FIBA Under-18 EuroBasket. In 2002, at the age of 19, Spanoulis won the gold medal at the 2002 FIBA Under-20 EuroBasket, in which he made the game-winning free-throws.
Professional career Spanoulis first played pro club basketball with Gymnastikos S. Larissas and enjoyed a highly successful career start. His skill set earned him a transfer to Athens and Maroussi, where he won the Greek Basket League's Best Young Player award for the 2002–03 season. Following an impressive 2004–05 season, during which he was the Greek Basket League Top Scorer, and helped lead Maroussi to the Greek Basket League's finals and the 2005 EuroCup quarterfinals, he moved to Panathinaikos, where he became one of European basketball's major stars. In the 2005–06 EuroLeague season, Spanoulis made his debut in the EuroLeague in impressive fashion, earning his first All-EuroLeague Team selection, as a rookie in the competition. After a stint in the NBA with the Houston Rockets, during the 2006–07 season, he returned to Panathinaikos and helped lead them to a EuroLeague title in 2009, being voted the EuroLeague Final Four MVP in the process.
Spanoulis' transfer from Panathinaikos to Olympiacos, in the summer of 2010, marked a new step in his career, given Olympiacos' feisty rivalry with Panathinaikos. Spanoulis' move from Panathinaikos to Olympiacos, is generally considered to be one of the biggest transfers and at the same time one of the biggest betrayals in the history of Greek sports. Spanoulis despite being given the opportunity to compete at the highest level with Panathinaikos and being accepted back after his unsuccessful spell in the NBA decided to leave Athens for Pireaus. It also led to perhaps the greatest individual rivalry in the history of Greek sports, between Spanoulis and Panathinaikos player Dimitris Diamantidis. Within a young and rebuilding Olympiacos team, which eventually became well known by its nickname, "The Comeback Kids", Spanoulis not only led the club to an improbable EuroLeague title run in 2012, but he also went on to lead the team to a historical back-to-back EuroLeague championship repeat in 2013. In the process, he gained another two EuroLeague Final Four MVP awards, thus joining Toni Kukoč, as the only two players in the history of European basketball to achieve that distinction on three occasions. Under his leadership, Olympiacos reached another two EuroLeague Finals, in 2015 and 2017.
Gymnastikos S. Larissas Spanoulis joined the youth system of the Greek sports club Gymnastikos, and its subsidiary youth club Keravnos, in Larissa, in 1994. He played with Keravnos, in the Greek junior club levels, from 1994 to 1999. After that, he played two seasons of professional club basketball with the senior men's club of Gymnastikos, from 1999 to 2001.
1999–00 season Spanoulis made his professional club debut in the year 1999, at the age of 17, with the senior club of Gymnastikos S. Larissas, in the 1999–00 season. He played that season in the 2nd-tier level Greek 2nd Division, with Gymnastikos. In 13 Greek 2nd Division games played, he scored a total of 90 points, for a scoring average of 6.9 points per game."Championship 1999-2000 Division A2".
2000–01 season In the 2000–01 season, Spanoulis again played in the 2nd-tier level Greek 2nd Division, with Gymnastikos S. Larissas. In 26 Greek 2nd Division games played, he scored a total of 213 points, for a scoring average of 8.2 points per game."Championship 2000-01 Division A2".
Maroussi After playing two seasons with Gymnastikos S. Larissas, in the Greek 2nd Division, Spanoulis signed a four-year contract with Maroussi of the top-tier level Greek Basket League, the European-wide 3rd-tier level FIBA Korać Cup, and later, the European-wide 2nd-tier level EuroCup. Maroussi paid Gymnastikos S.Larissas a contract buyout in the amount of 50 million Greek drachmas, in order to secure his player rights. When Spanoulis first joined Maroussi, the team's head coach at the time, Nikos Linardos, had the then 19-year-old Spanoulis play one-on-one against the well-known veteran EuroLeague player Michael Koch. After their one-on-one match, Koch reportedly said to Linardos, "Coach, this kid is a star. He will be a great basketball player."
2001–02 season During the 2001–02 season, Spanoulis helped to lead Maroussi to the Greek Cup Final. This was the first time the team had ever made it to the Greek Cup title game. Maroussi also competed in the European-wide 3rd-tier level FIBA Korać Cup's 2001–02 season.
2002–03 season Spanoulis was voted the Greek Basket League's Best Young Player, of the 2002–03 season. He also played with Maroussi in the European-wide 3rd-tier level FIBA Europe Champions Cup's 2002–03 season.
2003–04 season