We Got The Best Greek Welcoming In Athens!

Indexed: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]This video is brought to you by Surf Shark.

[00:00:04]Do something. Where's the red?

[00:00:08]We'll see where Jiannis grew up.

[00:00:14]We'll probably have one of the better introductions to the final four games.

[00:00:24]Since we came to Athens a little bit earlier than all the teams, we have some time to explore the historic city of Athens. Me and Donadas were just trying to see what this city is about.

[00:00:38]Your first interaction in Greece is a Pontan approaching and saying, "Guys, be careful. It's Athens. It's tense right now here."

[00:00:46]>> Why you're making things spicy? for the 95% of the conversation he was uh sharing his thoughts how Pano should rebuild what they should do. He gave us appreciation for the work that we do. I mean come on.

[00:00:58]>> This is why why we love Greeks.

[00:01:00]>> We need some clickbait. You know that >> we're making our way to Sapoleia where there is a Janis court uh street basketball court that uh got built there because Jiannis grew up in Sapoleia. And we want to check out what's the culture over there. What where what what is the mural like and just generally check out what's that about and notice you've heard about this court or what?

[00:01:26]>> Uh I read a book about Jiannis and his life in Athens streets and stuff.

[00:01:31]So it's kind of an inspiring story from selling stuff on streets. So becoming one of the greatest.

[00:01:37]>> We'll see where Jiannis grew up.

[00:01:47]Hey donatas, we reached the destination.

[00:01:49]>> Feels like >> it feels like my hat and experience like >> a lot of skyscrapers and randomly some nice kazzy basketball for a court.

[00:02:02]>> What's up guys?

[00:02:03]>> It's you Chris.

[00:02:04]>> How you doing?

[00:02:10]Uhoh.

[00:02:15]>> Uhoh.

[00:02:35]One, two, three.

[00:02:45]>> Also, apparently right next to the court, there's a cafe that Jiannis, as a child, used to visit and get some free sandwiches and juice and stuff like that. So, let's see. How does that look as well?

[00:02:58]>> Donatus, I think, is the one with a lot of Janice pictures and jerseys, right?

[00:03:02]>> I think this is this one.

[00:03:04]>> Yep.

[00:03:04]>> Why? So, >> well, maybe there's a Janice jersey on the on the wall.

[00:03:18]You are famous, right? I I saw that uh your name uh because uh Jiannis used to come here, right?

[00:03:29]>> He was coming here just to to drink >> just Alex Costas. Of course, all >> Gree USA.

[00:03:47]>> Oh, you even remember the score? Nice.

[00:03:51]>> Yes. Please tell me.

[00:03:54]>> Uhhuh.

[00:03:56]>> It's you.

[00:03:57]>> Yes.

[00:03:58]>> Brah.

[00:04:00]Okay. You were the ultra of of Ellis.

[00:04:04]>> Do you support Olympia or Palatos?

[00:04:08]>> Sorry.

[00:04:09]>> Okay. Or come on. Come on.

[00:04:15]Uh, it is your car. Yes.

[00:04:18]Okay.

[00:04:22]>> Ah, here.

[00:04:26]>> Thank you.

[00:04:26]>> Thank you.

[00:04:28]>> Shout out to Mr. Jiannis. This is awesome place. Very humble, very nice gentleman running this coffee shop. Must visit place if you're at in Athens and if you're a basketball fan.

[00:04:42]>> Lucas's bus is here.

[00:04:44]>> Yeah. Oh, boat.

[00:04:50]Basket.

[00:04:51]>> Yes. Yes. Yes. Basket. Of course.

[00:05:06]So out about the noises.

[00:05:26]So who else if nothing?

[00:05:32]>> Okay. Just give me choose.

[00:05:46]>> Okay.

[00:05:54]Okay.

[00:05:57]Mangas.

[00:05:59]>> So, snow magnes.

[00:06:06]Yes.

[00:06:07]>> Andino.

[00:06:09]Yes. As well.

[00:06:11]>> Since it's Wednesday, we still have time. We're going early to the team hotel and we're going to see how teams arrive to the hotel.

[00:06:25]We came to the team hotels, but it's hard to say that the final four is happening here. I'm not sure I've seen a final four hotel of the teams without any Euro League banners or anything like that.

[00:06:38]>> You don't need any banners in Greece, Athens to say that, oh, it's the final four. Everyone knows that. It's all clear.

[00:06:48]I think it's just lack of preparation.

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[00:07:54]A lot of security, a lot of police, not a lot of Euro League branding. Uh I heard that the hotel didn't want to do Euro League branding inside the venue.

[00:08:03]And it's just a bit weird cuz you look at the area, you couldn't tell that there's a final four happening. So, a little bit of a difference from all the other final fours I already attended.

[00:08:19]>> We got a little bit of a break between Olympia arrivals and the bakcha arrivals. The Olympia cost ones, well, not very eventful. Players just came in, went straight to their hotel rooms. We saw Fornia went out right away with the taxi. It >> was such a regular taxi. I was expecting your league stars are coming with some I don't know bring me some big car names whatever escalate escalate in Athens if you haven't been to Waka right next to the actual basketball arena there's an open air swimming pool also of course there's a football stadium water polo happens so it's a whole complex for many different sports there's still some constructions going on. But we have a little bit of time.

[00:09:06]We'll check out if we can actually see the arena from the inside.

[00:09:19]How >> not used to this seat because usually we're seated somewhere here >> and now it's it gets a better feeling of the arena itself. I guess >> across the cosmos, heroes emerged.

[00:09:33]Driven by spirit.

[00:09:35]>> First impressions from the arena. I really like that they are using the LED floor to its fullest. So, we'll probably have one of the better introductions to Final Four games. Otherwise, you can't really see yet much. So, we'll give you more sneak peeks in the next vlogs as well.

[00:09:53]Made our way back to the hotel. Fenar apparently landed about an hour and a half ago. So, now we're just waiting for them to show up in the bus. We'll see the team arriving. Greet them.

[00:10:30]Team arrivals halfway done, but unfortunately the Spanish teams are coming quite late and we're just going to instead actually go to a water polo match of Olympia and see what's that about because we've heard that there's some crazy fan bases in those games and we've never watched water polo. So maybe that's a new favorite sport of basket news. Maybe it will become water polo news. We'll see.

[00:10:57]We just came to the Champions League game between Olympia cost and Barcelonetta.

[00:11:04]The only issue is none of us know the rules of this game. Zonatas, how many quarters will they play in this game?

[00:11:12]Four quarters, 8 minutes. This is my wild guess. How many players has on the court?

[00:11:20]>> A lot of but I see a lot. No, I don't feel the game starts. But the atmosphere during the presentations a little weaker than expected. I'm not going to lie.

[00:11:49]I feel like I'm still watching on Japanese basketball game. Cannot feel any difference yet.

[00:11:53]>> Barca's ball movement. I can see some good ball movements. Bzenko.

[00:12:08]>> They say you're like super physical, but this game is brutal. They're trying to drown each other. Drown each other. Come on. It's technical or uninforcement like power. Come on, do something. Where's the referee? This is a good I I think I think Victor Manyama picked wrong sports. I think he would be the goat in water bowl. He wouldn't be even swimming. He would be walking on the moon.

[00:12:35]Nice touch goal and also nice celebration. He scores the goal and goes under the water.

[00:13:02]So overall a nice experience. Something different. Good experience. Quick sports, good crowds, no timeouts, familyfriendly, I would say. A lot of kids actually watching.

[00:13:14]>> Beer friendly. You can bring your drinks here. You can smoke if you want. You can uh we saw some guys from the other team, Barcelona, just changing exchanging their underwear for some reason in the middle of the game. That that was an unique experience. Also not not referee friendly, that's for sure.

[00:13:34]>> But overall, cool.

[00:13:39]>> Today is the opening final four press conference. That's where we are. Let's see what the coaches and players have to say and let's see the whole presentation.

[00:13:50]I'm not sure what that display of all these knives and other weapons were, but maybe that's the confiscated weapons of Greek fans. I wouldn't be surprised.

[00:14:01]As you would expect, a lot of media presence and also some of the Euro League legends, Greek Euro League legends like Princesses, like Dementidis, like Papal Lucas and also Dan Bodaga is there, Big Sofo is there.

[00:14:14]Everything you would expect from an opening press conference.

[00:14:22]>> I mean, everybody understands the situation.

[00:14:38]like this on four. Okay, >> nice light fun press conference as usual. Nothing too serious. Um, a lot of Spanish Greek questions understandably, but then you have to put in the little headset to actually understand the questions and the answers. Otherwise, nothing really surprised me. We get a similar type and format every single year. And that's a wrap for vlog number one. Make sure to stay tuned, subscribe to Basket News, put your notification bell on so you don't miss out on the future vlogs. We'll be covering the final four all throughout the weekend.

[00:15:14]And I'll see you in the next one.