A year after the retirement of Vasilis Spanoulis’ basketball, Olympiacos parted ways last night (Friday) with the second player to symbolize the team’s two Euroleague wins in 2012 and 2013 – Yorgos Printzis. At 37, and after 20 seasons in two different terms on the team, the veteran forward announced the good news that many had expected during the season and announced his retirement from basketball.
For the first time in six years, during which she also spent time in the sub-league, Olympiacos was crowned Greek champions after defeating bitter rival Panathinaikos 74:93 and completing 0: 3 in the series. At the end of the game, when all the players went up for the trophy, the crowd in the Peace and Fraternity Hall in Piraeus cheered for the red symbol who said: “From next season we will watch the team together from the stands. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the moments we spent together.
An exciting farewell
An emotional Georgios Printezis retires from the game of basketball ???????? pic.twitter.com/LcXYcbbx6x
– Dionysis Aravantinos (AravantinosDA) June 17, 2022
The Greek joined the Reds’ senior team when he was a teenager in 2002 and in the 2006/07 season was loaned to local Larissa. After two years in Malaga between 2009 and 2011, Printzis returned to his youth club and in the first two seasons of this term won with the team in the Euroleague, when in the 2012 final against CSKA Moscow he scored the winning basket in the last second. In 2015 and 2017 Printzis reached the final with the team The Euroleague under the leadership of Yannis Sapropoulos, but lost to Real Madrid and Fenerbahce respectively.
In addition to the two European Cups, Printzis also won four Greek championships, two local trophies and a bronze medal with the Greek team at the 2009 European Championships. Personally, Printzis is one of ten players included in the Euroleague team of the decade and in 2017 a team for the first five seasons of the factory.