Legendary Greek basketball coach Yiannis Ioannidis, who coached the teams of Nikos Galis and Panagiotis Yiannakis and helped make basketball popular in the 80s, died on Wednesday aged 78.
Ioannidis was associated with Aris of Thessaloniki, his home town, both as a player (as of 1959, and for nearly two decades) and coach, and coached legendary players Galis and Yiannakis in the seasons 1978-1979 and 1982-1990.
As a coach, collectively, he achieved 12 Greek Championships (8 with Aris, 4 with Olympiacos), 6 Greek Cups (5 with Aris, 1 with Olympiacos), and he was also twice a finalist for the Greek Cup (Aris in 1984, AEK in 1998). He also coached the Larissa Club in 1979-1981. Although he did not achieve a European title, he made it to the final four of the Euroleague 6 times (3 with Aris in consecutive years, 1988-1990, and 3 times with Olympiacos and Aris).
In the 2003 Eurobasket games in Sweden, he led the Greek national team that reached 5th place.
He served as deputy of New Democracy for Thessaloniki I district from 2004 to 2015, and was appointed deputy culture minister for sports from 2007 to October 2009. He was reappointed to the position in June 2013 by a coalition government following the June 2012 elections (New Democracy, PASOK, and Dimar).
He was also a member of several parliamentary committees, and was awarded distinctions by several Greek universities, legal entities, and other agencies. Among them, was a University of Athens distinction carrying the title 'Homo hellenicus'.
Messages of condolences were released by the teams of AEK, Aris, Olympiacos, and Panathinaikos, athletic organizations, Nikos Galis, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Alternate Sports Minister Giannis Vroutsis, main opposition SYRIZA party leader Stephanos Kasselakis, and others.
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