So I'm reading TrueHoop at work to avoid, well, doing any work and I follow the link to Tas Melas' article. I scroll down to the comments and what do I see? A post with the url JimTay.com. I think to myself, nah, it can't be *that* Jim Tay, can it? I follow the link and sure enough it IS.

Not sure if you remember me, but this is Ted Katis. I went to Wexford with you waaay back in the day...man that makes me feel old.

Anyhow, just figured I'd say hi. Oh, and if you weren't an honorary Greek, I'd take offense to that post!!!!! =P

Ted

KATIIIIIISSSSS!!!!!!!!!! What is UP man!!!?!! It has been a very long time since Wexford, but that don't mean we're old... just older. How goes it?

And this post was totally meant to offend all the Greeks I know. :)
Nothing like some trash talkin on the Greeks... though I gotta admit, I totally miss gyros and souvlaki out here in San Francisco...

Sigh... well beat on the Greek ballers :(

Whats this?
Defending European Champions... But I guess we havent won this years yet.

Runner up 2006 World Champions... Second place just not good enough.

Best defender of Euroleague 2005/2006/2007 Dimitris Diamantidis... Lazy punk never wants to score.

Euroleague MVP 06/07 Theodoros Papaloukas beat out Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, and Tony Parker for top 2006 Euro player... but the cheap bastard doesn't want to play in the NBA for peanuts and would rather make 4.7M euro a year in Moscow.

Lazy greeks!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94X7oyzlfeY

Sorry for the late reply Jim.

Things are alright. I told Jim Georgakas about how I stumbled across this, he had a good laugh.

Anyhow, drop me a line at ted.katis@gmail.com when you get the chance. Oh, and congrats on the upcoming baby!

Ah, great video George. I found this one that's even better, from the 87 Euro championships:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93qc8EzsohM&mode=related&search=

I love his shifty moves to get into the point for short jumpers and layups; reminds me of me in my glory days. :)

Here's another video from the semi's of that year that includes lots of audio from the game (Christodolou is mentioned!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjKjvNVidNw&mode=related&search=

This clip features Galis vs Petrovic, who was a good-to-great player in the NBA. It makes me think Galis could have been a very good player as well - Petrovic was slightly taller at 6'3" but Galis looks like he's got better moves to get buckets.

Oh, and regarding defending Euro champs and all that:

*shrug* the Euro league is diluted these days, with the best players having gone to the NBA. Sure there are still some great players, but overall level is not as good anymore. Great players from the 80s like Galis and Sabonis would be in the NBA rather than competing in the Euro league. If the Euro stars in the NBA like Tony Parker, Dirk, Gasol, Okur, Bargnani, Kirilenko, etc were playing in Europe, then the Greeks' win would be much more impressive...

Oh, and Papaloukas? It ain't about the money - he's just scared to play in the NBA and get exposed. :)