Nikos Galis is the Greek basketball legend who played ridiculous minutes and dropped 50 on Michael Jordan
Galis almost singlehandedly started the modern era of Greek basketball excellence. Now he’s a Hall of Famer.
Nikos Galis is one of 10 inductees in the 2017 Basketball Hall of Fame class, and I’ll admit I hadn’t heard of him before this honor. I’m glad I have heard of him now! And I’m waaaay deep in a rabbit hole. Join me.
I recommend reading Galis’ basketball story, which is glorious, complex, and threaded with myth. His is a classic foreign basketball legend’s tale: born to Greek immigrants in New Jersey, starred at Seton Hall in the late ‘70s, got drafted by the Celtics but never made the team, then moved to his parents’ native country to dominate for over a decade and ignite a basketball explosion. It is no exaggeration to say Galis is the patron saint of modern Hellenic basketball. Greece’s recent history as an international hoops giant can be traced back precisely to Galis’ performance at EuroBasket 1987.
Greece hosted that tournament and won it miraculously, stifling Drazen Petrovic and Yugoslavia in the semifinal, then unseating the dynastic (albeit Arvydas Sabonis-less) Soviet Union in an overtime final upset. This is a team that hadn’t even come close to winning the tournament in almost 40 years.
Here is that semifinal game in its entirety! It’s awesome!
And here is that final game in its entirety! It’s awesome!
Galis was MVP, averaging 37 points per game despite barely shooting any threes. As you can see above, dude got most of his buckets off feathery floaters and post-ups. But better yet, according to some stats turned up by Yarone Arbel, Galis averaged more minutes per game than there are minutes in a game. FIBA games are 40 minutes long, and Galis averaged 40:10 minutes per EuroBasket outing in ‘87. How? Well, he rested for a little under four minutes during Greece’s first game against Romania, and then for the remaining seven games — four group stage, three knockout stage — Galis did not rest. He played every single second of seven straight games, including an overtime in the final victory.
That’s fucking wild! Now, if you’re coming back at me saying stuff like, “OK but LeBron James averaged over 40 minutes per game in the 2017 playoffs” or “OK but Wilt Chamberlain played almost every single minute of every single game for a whole season,” I say: 1. Yes, players sometimes crack 40 minutes in the NBA playoffs, but that still means they’re resting for a significant chunk of a 48 minute game and 2. DON’T COMPARE PEOPLE TO WILT CHAMBERLAIN. HIS STATS ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD AND I’M STILL NOT TOTALLY CONVINCED HE EVER EXISTED. IF ANYTHING YOU’RE PROVING MY POINT BY INVITING THE COMPARISON.
Anyway, that’s why Galis got the nickname “The Ironman.” Shoutout to Nikos Galis, and congratulations on joining the Hall of Fame.
If you, like me, had never heard of the guy, I hope this has been educational and that you continue to learn about him. As a bonus, here is video of Galis’ club team facing Michael Jordan and UNC in 1983. Legend has it Galis dropped 50 in this game, but it’s hard to tell.