Tonight, we will be establishing a new category, the “History corner”. Whatever interesting form the past we stumble upon we will share it with you. So we will start from 1989 when AEK’s president claims to being very close to signing legendary Arvydas Sabonis.
At that time, AEK’s president was Makis Psomiadis, a well known cult figure in Greece notorious for his cigars, ruthlessness, violent acts against athletes of his own teams (he owned several teams in several sports) and various troubles with the law.
Unhappy that the club’s fans don’t attend the basketball department games and instead prefer football he wants to sign a star to attract fans.
And who better than the best European player of that time, and probably of all times, Arvydas Sabonis. He appears so confident that he dismisses the possibility of Sabonis signing for Portland Trail Blazers.
Apparently the video was shot right after AEK beat Zalgiris 109-95 in SEF Arena in 1989 for Cup Winners Cup.
Seems that Sabonis was the holy grail of Greek basketball, as there are various urban legends that Panathinaikos had agreed terms with the player himself but the coach Kostas Politis didn’t want him because he wouldn’t fit well with the team’s current center at that time, Stojan Vrankovic.
At least he got a handshake…
Picture courtesy of Double Team
