Good week for the Motherland

After five years of an historic economic crisis coupled with an ill-conceived austerity program there is actually some good news from the Greece, news good enough for even the paper of record to notice.

For me, some of the best news was featured in Thursday's The New York Times, under the headline "In Greece, Elites Are Starting to Feel the Pain."  The article contains multiple rays of sunlight for the motherland.  

The economic elites who borrowed and bribed their way to the top of Greece's food chain are actually being charged, arrested and prosecuted.  Greece has always been burdened by cronyism and corruption but the perpetrators have usually been protected by the country's political elites.  That's where the bribes usually came in.  The article documents that that may finally be changing.

But that's not all!  These guys - literally - are being prosecuted by law enforcement officials whose investigations are not being halted by those same political elites.  That kind of political intervention has crippled Greece's institutions, and fostered and furthered the public's cynicism about the state and the notion of justice, fairness and democracy itself. Holding these corrupt economic elites accountable is both fostering a sense of justice among the average Greek citizen AND strengthening the kinds of institutions that a modern democratic state needs to function (institutions like a justice system, public schools, media, civil society to name a few that Americans often take for granted).

But wait - there's more!  The chief prosecutors for the state are women - Eleni Raikou and Popi "The Terminator" Papandreou.  The more women involved with the Greek state, the better.  Men dominate the (corrupt) Greek political class as well as Greece's (crony-capitalism) economy, and the glass ceiling for women is very low.  One way to solve both problems - to throw the bums out and clean house, and empower half the nation's population - is to elect more women to political office and hire and promote more women in the private sector, the media and all walks of Greek like. 

Another piece of good news appeared in last Sunday's The New York Times Travel Section which named Athens as one of 52 places to visit in 2014.  A new contemporary art museum is opening in Greece's - and civilization's - capital and the upbeat taverna and cafe culture has apparently rebounded.  
   
And speaking of rebounds, the third piece of good news came from the NBA.  Also on Thursday the Milwaukee Bucks, featuring Greece's Giannis Antetokounmpo, sponsored "Greek Night" as they played the Memphis Grizzlies, featuring Greek-Americans Kostas Koufos and Nick Calathes.* In an ironic twist, Antetokounmpo was born in Greece but has 
yet to play on the national team but American-born Koufos and Calathes have (Calathes and Antetokounmpo both played professionally in Greece; Koufos replaced Greg Oden at Ohio State; Calathes also played at Florida). The 19-year old Antetokounmpo even starts, but that's mainly due to the woeful nature of Milwaukee's team.  

Unfortunately, not every Greek is proud of his accomplishment - or his Hellenism; even though he has the requisite crazy-long Hellenic last name Giannis is a Nigerian-Greek and the son of immigrants.

That fact has prompted the kooks at Golden Dawn (Χριση Αυγή) to denounce a Greek-born, Greek-speaking, Greek flag-waving son of Ellas.  They claim that genetics matter more than identity.  Of course, the American experience is the best refutation of that dubious claim.

Greece's Antetokounmpo on draft night

  For a video on Antetokounmpo's impact on Greece click here.

As it is with being an American, being Greek or Hellenism itself is NOT about genetics. There is no American gene but we are united by our values, our institutions, and an identity we choose. 

Hellenism evolved the same way. Three thousand years ago perhaps there was a purely Greek gene, but from the times of Homer to Alexander the Great to the Byzantine empire to today millions of people CHOSE to become Greek, to speak and read and write and learn in Greek, to identify as Greek. Everyone from St. Paul to Giannis Antetokounmpo have done it. From 2,500 BC to 1453, to today, millions 'became' Greek for the same reason my parents and millions of others moved to the United States - because it's awesome (or the peak of civilization, same thing really).

And now, by being a Greek in America, Antetokounmpo has hit the jackpot!
 
Zito o Antetokounmpo! Zito H Ellas!  Zito H Americi!


* Of course, as one of America's foremost historians on Greeks on the NBA, I have to point out that we have already HAD a Greek night in the association, one that coincidentally also included Memphis (makes sense since "it's the home of Elvis and the ancient Greeks").  In the 2001-20002 season, Greek hoopster Antonis Fotsis started one game in his one year in the league, and it was against the Phoenix Suns.  Their starting center was his fellow Hellene Jake Tsakalidis (who played in the NBA for seven years and averaged 5 points a game).  

And as a public service, or if you do not believe me, here's the box score.  If you click on the link you will see that Fotsis and Tsakalidis each finished with 2 points on 1 for 3 shooting. Tsakalidis played 22 minutes to Antonis' 9, and finished with 4 boards. 
   
It is also interesting to see who else played in that game.  Pau Gasol was the starting center for Memphis with Shane Battier at forward.  Tsakalidis's fellow Phoenix starters were a veritable Hoops Who's Who; the starting forwards were NC State's Tom Gugliotta and Shawn 'The Matrix" Marion with a back court made up of Penny Hardaway and Stephon Marbury, with Brooklyn's Joe Johnson coming off the bench with Thunder Dan Majerle.

Of course, just to keep things interesting, I will also point out that unlike Antetokounmpo, Tsakalidis was born in the old Soviet Georgia to ethnic Greek parents. 

One last Antetokounmpo note.  Giannis has been starting at small forward, often alongside Turkey's Ersan Ilyasova.  Ilyasova was born in Turkey, but his last name sounds that he could easily come from a family of one-time Greeks, Albanians or Slavs who eventually converted to Islam thus becoming Turkish.  Either way, in America a Greek and Turk can hoop it up together in harmony!

Back to Gary Williams

The retirement of Gary Williams was ALMOST as big a story in DC as was the killing of Osama bin Laden.  In fact, it may have been more bipartisan, since Williams was a fairly well known Republican and is friends with former Republican Maryland governor Bob Ehrlich, and Republicans hated giving the President credit for bringing bin Laden to justice.

Even if he is a Republican, one has to respect Gary Williams' career at Maryland.  It's easy to forget how bad Maryland basketball was when Williams took over his alma mater's basketball program.  Not only did Williams come back to a school that was on probation and was still haunted by the 1984 cocaine death of Len Bias, he gave up a choice job at a big time school, the Ohio State University.  

He loved Maryland enough to leave a school most coaches would dream of retiring from to take over a program in the toilet.  Have to respect that kind of loyalty and - though it's a cliche - school spirit.

And you have to respect - maybe not agree but respect - his stubborn refusal to recruit kids associated with AAU teams, posses, and hangers on.  Instead of pursuing local superstars like Kevin Durant, Rudy Gay and Ty Lawson (just 3 of the great local players who grew up within 20 minutes of College Park) Williams favored 'coaching up' non-blue chip players like Juan Dixon and Lonnie Baxter, guys who won him  and his school a national championship in 2002.  

In retrospect, Williams probably should have recruited more kids like Durant and Lawson, two generally modest kids (unlike Gay, who played for an almost notorious AAU team in high school) instead of relying on developing diamonds in the rough like Dixon.  After all, a reliance on those players resulted in Maryland falling on semi-hard times since 2002, missing the NCAA tournament more times than they made it since winning it all. 

But we're quibbling now.  Williams left a great job to rescue his alma mater's basketball program, and though he didn't turn College Park in the "UCLA of the East" he did win a national championship while doing it his way.  Not a bad summation of any career.

A few more hoops notes

One notable player Williams developed was Drew Nicholas, a reserve on the 2002 team and a second-team All-ACC player his senior year in College Park.  Over the weekend Nicholas helped lead Greek-favorite team Panathinaikos to the 2011 Euroleague championship over Maccabi of Israel.  It was Pana's sixth Euroleague title, signifying the best professional team on the Continent, and third in the last 5 years.

The 'Octopus Man,' Dimitri Diamantidis,  was named both the Euroleague AND Euroleague Final Four most valuable player.  Diamantidis had double-doubles in both of Panathinaikos' final four wins over the weekend.   He's now in his late 20s, but of all the modern Greek basketball players he would have been a good-to-great NBA player.  Diamantidis is a long, athletic player and can run the point and hit some threes, but who would have made his mark in the League as a defender, kind of a Hellenic Stacey Augman or James Posey or Luol Deng.

Nicholas scored 14 points and led an 11-3 run in the third quarter to give the Greens a lead they would not relinquish on their way to the title.   Panathinaikos was lead by Mike Batiste's 17 points; Batiste played at Arizona State and had a cup of coffee with the Memphis Grizzlies before landing in Greece.

Another former Grizzlies player, Antonis Fotsis, had a nice game including a nasty dunk during the Nicholas-led run in the third.  I wish Fotsis had staying in the League more than one year; athletically he could have stuck around but he has thrived in Athens with Panathinaikos - and has won three championships there.

Of course, who currently plays for the Grizzlies?  Greivis Vasquez, a gritty and under-talented high school player who went on to win ACC player of the year, a non-blue chip player currently earning a living hooping it up in the NBA playoffs, developed by Gary Williams.