Olympiacos Basketball Club (), commonly known as Olympiacos or Olympiacos Piraeus, is a Greek professional basketball club based in Piraeus, part of the major multi-sport club Olympiacos CFP. The parent club was founded in 1925, and a basketball department was first established in 1938. Currently, and until the completion of the renovation of Olympiacos' home court, the Peace and Friendship Stadium, the club plays its home games at the SUNEL Arena in Athens.
Olympiacos has been established as one of the most successful clubs in Greek and European basketball, having won 4 EuroLeagues, 1 FIBA Intercontinental Cup, 16 Greek Championships, 12 Greek Cups, and 5 Greek Super Cups. Among Greek clubs, Olympiacos is the first ever to reach a EuroLeague final, as well as to achieve a Triple Crown, and the only one to be crowned back-to-back European champions. Olympiacos is also the Greek club with the most appearances in EuroLeague finals, 10 in total.
The first major achievement of Olympiacos in European competitions was their qualification for the 1978–79 FIBA European Champions Cup semi-finals group stage. However, it was in the 1990s that Olympiacos emerged as EuroLeague contenders, having been runners-up in two consecutive seasons (1994, 1995) and winning their first title in 1997 by beating FC Barcelona 73–58, which was at the time the competition's biggest winning margin in a single-game final. As European champions, they participated in the 1997 McDonald's Championship, where they played against the NBA champions, Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls. During this period, Olympiacos also dominated the Greek Championship, which had become one of Europe's top national basketball leagues, winning five consecutive titles. Thus, FIBA declared Olympiacos as the best European team of the 1990s.
Olympiacos reached again the EuroLeague final in 2010 and returned to the top of European basketball in 2012, when they won their second EuroLeague title by overcoming CSKA Moscow 62–61 on the last shot of the game, rallying from 19 points down, and achieving the greatest comeback in the competition's finals history. In 2013, Olympiacos won their third title after defeating Real Madrid 100–88, pulling off another memorable comeback, this time overturning a 17-point deficit. These consecutive triumphs, along with two more final appearances (2015, 2017), made the 2010s the most successful decade in the club's EuroLeague history. However, on the domestic front, growing tensions regarding refereeing decisions during the 2018–19 Greek Basket League season resulted in Olympiacos refusing to play against their archrivals, Panathinaikos Athens. Consequently, as per the league's regulations, the club was relegated to the A2 National Division, in which a newly created Olympiacos B Development Team competed.
Olympiacos returned to the top-tier Greek league after a two-year absence, during which they continued to compete in the EuroLeague. In recent years, Olympiacos have once again become one of the most consistent contenders for the European crown, having qualified for five consecutive Final Fours, a record for the club, having been runners-up in 2023 and eventually winning their fourth EuroLeague title in 2026.
Some of the greatest players in European basketball have played for Olympiacos over the years, including Charlie Yelverton, Carey Scurry, Žarko Paspalj, Giorgos Sigalas, Dragan Tarlać, Walter Berry, Panagiotis Fasoulas, Roy Tarpley, Eddie Johnson, Alexander Volkov, David Rivers, Artūras Karnišovas, Dino Radja, Thodoris Papaloukas, Alphonso Ford, Tyus Edney, Arvydas Macijauskas, Miloš Teodosić, Nikola Vujčić, Linas Kleiza, Rašho Nesterović, Kostas Papanikolaou, Kyle Hines, Acie Law, Georgios Printezis, and Vassilis Spanoulis. In 2008, Olympiacos signed NBA player Josh Childress, whose US$20 million net income contract for three years made him the highest-paid basketball player of all time in Europe.
History
1930s–1960s
Olympiacos basketball club has its origins in the 1930s, when the first attempts to establish it were made, in 1931 and then again in 1938. After World War II, the "red-and-whites" were the first Greek team to familiarize themselves with American basketball, as Alekos Spanoudakis learned to use the jump shot, and his brother, Ioannis Spanoudakis (who was both a player and the head coach of the team), met basketball legend Bob Cousy and practiced many of his techniques on the court. During the Spanoudakis brothers' era, Olympiacos won their first Greek Championship in 1949, as well as a second in 1960, and were consistently among the best Greek teams throughout the 1950s. As Greek champions, they also qualified for their first European competition, the 1960–61 FIBA European Champions Cup.
However, this last success was followed by a period of sharp decline, and in 1964, as the Spanoudakis brothers' playing days were coming to an end, Olympiacos was relegated to the Greek Second Division. In early 1967, Faidon Matthaiou, the so-called "patriarch" of Greek basketball, took over as the head coach, and, under his guidance, the club was promoted back to the First Division. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Reds were a decent and tough team, with key players such as Thanasis Rammos, Tolis Spanos, Makis Katsafados, Manolis Efstratiou, and Stelios Amerikanos, but they were not yet capable of claiming the championship against the dominant forces of Athenian and Greek basketball at that time, AEK and Panathinaikos.
1970s–1980s
The arrival of 22-year-old Greek-American Steve Giatzoglou in early 1972 proved to be a game changer. Later that year, he was followed by fellow Greek-Americans Giorgos Kastrinakis, Pavlos Diakoulas, and, in 1974, Paul Mellini. These U.S. college graduates, along with the remaining old guard of the 1960s and the signings of experienced Greek players such as Giorgos Barlas, Nikos Sismanidis, Aris Raftopoulos, and Christos Iordanidis, as well as younger players such as Kimon Kokorogiannis and Giannis Garonis, formed the core of Olympiacos' rosters from 1972 until 1981, which was arguably the best period in the club's history up to that point.
After three seasons in which Olympiacos narrowly lost the Greek Championship to Panathinaikos, the Reds became champions again in 1976 in impressive fashion, without losing a single game. They went on to win the newly established Greek Cup, achieving the first domestic Double in the history of Greek basketball. In the same season, Olympiacos also reached the quarter-finals of a European competition for the first time. This was the year that Olympiacos fans' dreams finally came true and the pinnacle of Faidon Matthaiou's coaching career with the club.
During the following season, Kostas Mourouzis was appointed as the head coach, and the Reds won the Greek Cup again, after first eliminating archrivals Panathinaikos by defeating them 110–68 in front of 20,000 spectators at the Panathenaic Stadium. This 42-point difference remains the largest in the history of the matches between the two clubs. In 1978, Olympiacos won their fourth Greek Championship, having lost only one game this time, as well as their third consecutive Greek Cup, achieving their second Double in three years.
In 1979, Olympiacos also achieved their first major success in the top European competition, reaching the semi-finals group stage of the 1978–79 FIBA European Champions Cup, where they faced Real Madrid, Pallacanestro Varese, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Bosna Sarajevo, and Joventut Badalona. Olympiacos was a difficult team to beat in Piraeus, winning one game and losing the rest by narrow margins, but they easily lost most of their away games against the best European clubs, eventually finishing sixth.
In early 1980, coach Mourouzis left Olympiacos as a worthy successor to Matthaiou's legacy. He was replaced by former club player Giorgos Barlas, who led the Reds to yet another Greek Cup victory. This was to be the last trophy for Olympiacos until the 1990s. Matthaiou returned as head coach for the following season, and Olympiacos finished second in the Greek League for the third consecutive time, marking the end of a great era.
Over the next decade the Reds were not only overshadowed by the rising powers of Thessaloniki, Aris and PAOK, but also often performed poorly enough to finish in the bottom half of the Greek League standings. After the departure of Mellini in 1980, Diakoulas in 1982, Giatzoglou and Kastrinakis in 1984, the team was led by players such as Andreas Kozakis, Giannis Paragios, Tzimis Maniatis, and Argyris Kampouris, the hero of the EuroBasket 1987 final. However, their efforts were not enough to bring notable results, with the exception of the 1985–86 season, when Olympiacos finished second in the Greek League and reached the Greek Cup final. The 1988–89 season was the first in which non-Greek players were allowed to participate in Greek basketball competitions, but even former NBA players such as Carey Scurry and Todd Mitchell were unable to lead the club to success.
1990s: FIBA's best European team of the decade
In the 1991–92 season, businessman Sokratis Kokkalis took over the management of the club, and the situation changed radically, as Olympiacos brought in the top Greek basketball coach, Giannis Ioannidis, and the Yugoslav star Žarko Paspalj. In addition, the club left the old Papastrateio Indoor Hall to move to the Peace and Friendship Stadium (commonly called SEF), the largest indoor arena in Greece until the inauguration of the OAKA Indoor Arena in 1995. With SEF being packed for most of their games, the Reds became one of the best-supported basketball teams in Europe. The club had now fully recovered, climbing once again towards the top of the Greek League.
Five consecutive Greek Championship titles from 1993 to 1997 and two Greek Cup titles in 1994 and 1997 established Olympiacos as the dominant club in Greece. In addition to their domestic successes, the Reds became one of the most successful clubs in the FIBA EuroLeague of the 1990s, as they won the title in 1997, were finalists in 1994 and 1995, and finished third in 1999, leading FIBA to select them as the Best European Team of that decade.
1991–96: Four consecutive Greek championships, two-time EuroLeague runners-up
After the radical changes that took place at the club in the summer of 1991, expectations were now high. Olympiacos was initially eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Greek Cup after a heavy defeat to Aris Thessaloniki. However, the Reds managed to join the duo of Aris and PAOK Thessaloniki as contenders for the Greek League, eventually finishing in second place behind PAOK and earning a spot in the next FIBA European League.
In the 1992–93 season, former NBA and Aris player Walter Berry, as well as 19-year-old Yugoslavs Dragan Tarlać and Milan Tomić, joined Žarko Paspalj and 21-year-old homegrown talent Giorgos Sigalas to form the core of Olympiacos' roster. The Reds' journey in the European League began against Olimpija Ljubljana in the second qualifying round and continued in the group stage, where they finished third, advancing to the quarterfinals alongside Arvydas Sabonis' Real Madrid, Toni Kukoč's Benetton Treviso, and Gheorghe Mureșan's Pau-Orthez. However, Olympiacos failed to qualify for the Final Four held at their home venue, the Peace and Friendship Stadium, as they were eliminated in Beaublanc by the eventual European champions, Limoges CSP, with the third game in a best-of-three series being decided in the dying seconds by an off-balance two-point shot by Slovenian star Jure Zdovc.