With the final four of the Basketball Champions League coming up this weekend, Vassilis Spanoulis is in familiar territory. The Greek legend is synonymous with Final Four appearances. This may not be Euroleague but bringing Peristeri to Basketball Champions League glory would be quite a triumph early in his coaching career.
It’s Kill Bill in a Final Four with the odds against him. The role may be different, likewise the competition, but that’s enough of a recipe to get anyone excited. Vassilis Spanoulis will seek his first major honour as a head coach this week when he leads Peristeri into the Basketball Champions League Final Four in Belgrade.
A journey just getting here
Peristeri have been fighting from underneath throughout this season in the Basketball Champions League. In the first group phase, they finished third of four teams. That meant they had to go through play-ins just to make the round of 16.
Then things got utterly ridiculous. Opening that second group phase 0-3, there were three straight game days where Peristeri didn’t control their fate. On each of them, the Greek side could have been eliminated. Instead they somehow won three straight and the other results broke their way to send them to the playoffs.
Not that the drama was done. Telekom Baskets Bonn, the defending champions, took Game 1. Peristeri responded at home before taking Game 3, and the series, to make it to Belgrade. Given the man on the sideline, Vassilis Spanoulis, we should have expected drama.
The legend of Kill Bill
Anyone who watches European basketball knows that Spanoulis is an all-timer on the continent. The legend however was truly forged in his trips to the Euroleague Final Four. His MVP performance as Panathinaikos took the crown in Berlin in 2009 was just the starter course.
There were his Istanbul heroics in 2012 followed by more of the same in 2013 as Olympiacos went back to back. Jump ahead two years to 2015 and who’s the man guiding the Reds past CSKA Moscow in the semi-finals? Kill Bill. Then he did it again, in Istanbul again, to CSKA again, in 2017.
There were two common threads to Vassilis Spanoulis and Final Fours. He broke the hearts of CSKA Moscow and his wife was pregnant at the same time. The latter is quirky but he has six children and it was only the sixth that broke the Final Four run, when Olympiacos missed the playoffs in 2018/19.
That odd coincidence aside, being the man that delivered the biggest drama on the biggest weekend of the season shaped his legend more than anything. Now, as a coach with Peristeri, he looks to do the same in the Basketball Champions League.
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The odds are against them
Given their route to the Final Four, it’s far from surprising that Peristeri are underdogs. Unicaja Malaga are perfect all season long and stand as clear favourites to life the Basketball Champions League crown.
Lenovo Tenerife, the opponents for Peristeri in Friday’s semi-final, have a deep and experienced roster. The talent disparity is plain for the eyes to see. Indeed, only UCAM Murcia might be considered underdogs in a straight head to head match-up with the Greek side.
That’s exactly what Spanoulis needs. Nobody expects anything from Peristeri in Belgrade but having a living legend, who kind of lives up to the legend, on the sideline can do wonders for confidence. Every warm body on the roster knows that they go into battle under the tutelage of a man who has laughed at such odds repeatedly and triumphed.
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My job is beach
Normally this is the part where I say you can ask any former teammate or any Greek basketball journalist about Spanoulis and they’ll tell you the same thing. They will but I don’t need to because Vassilis Spanoulis openly admits that his life is basketball.
He wasn’t put on this earth to play basketball nor was he sent to coach it. Kill Bill’s job is basketball. Whatever that entails, he does it. The results in his still emerging career as a head coach show as much. Spanoulis brought Peristeri to third place in the Greek League last year, matching their best ever performance, and a first ever Greek Cup final appearance in his debut season.
This year, Peristeri sit once again in third. Only Panathinaikos and Olympiacos, both with budgets that dwarf them, sit above them. A club with no top tier honours to its name now stands just two wins away from claiming the Basketball Champions League in just the second ever season of its head coach.
Peristeri know they are underdogs in Belgrade but they’ve got a living legend making them believe in the implausible.
Living for today
The status of Spanoulis might make him seem like a coach that won’t be around for the long-term with Peristeri. He’s already the Greek national team head coach and will surely be in demand from some top clubs on the continent. Yet his status is such that it almost makes him ideal for such a smash and grab opportunity like this.
Spanoulis is a competitor. Whether he’s out playing pick-up with his buddies or coaching in the Basketball Champions League, winning the game ahead of him matters more than life itself. That he has a roster with a mix of guys who know this may be the one best chance to win a big one doesn’t hurt.
Logic dictates that Tenerife win on Friday and meet Unicaja Malaga in the final. The head rarely conquers the heart however when there’s the potential for madness. Kill Bill is going into Belgrade with absolutely nothing to lose. That should have everyone on alert.
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