G.S. Iraklis Thessaloniki (men's basketball)

For the parent Greek multisports club, see G.S. Iraklis Thessaloniki.

Iraklis B.C. is a Greek professional basketball club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. Created in 1921, it serves as the professional men's basketball department of the multisports club of G.S. Iraklis Thessalonikis.^[1] The club's colors are blue and white, inspired by the flag of Greece. They play their home matches at Ivanofeio Sports Arena. As of 2025, the club competes in the first–tier level Greek Basketball League.

Iraklis
Nickname	Γηραιός (Elder) Ημίθεος (Demigod)
Leagues	Stoiximan G.B.L. Greek Cup E.N.B.L.
Founded	1921; 104 years ago (1921)
Arena	Ivanofeio Sports Arena
Capacity	2,400
Location	Thessaloniki, Greece
Team colors	Blue   White
CEO	Anastasios Digas
President	Anastasios Digas
Vice-president(s)	Pavlos Tsakiris
Head coach	Giorgos Sigalas
Assistant(s)	Sotirios Karapostolou Stavros Evgeniadis
Team captain	Nikos Paparegkas
Ownership	Anastasios Digas Panteleimon Gianniris Pavlos Tsakiris Konstantinos Moraitis Christos Goulios
Championships	2 Greek Championships
Website	iraklis-bc.gr

Iraklis Thessaloniki won the Greek National Championship in 1928 and 1935, and also reached the Greek Cup final three times. Some of the greatest players in Greek, European and worldwide basketball have played for Iraklis Thessaloniki over the years including: Lefteris Kakiousis, Jure Zdovc, James Donaldson, David Ancrum, Walter Berry, Xavier McDaniel, Roy Tarpley, Nikos Chatzivrettas, Vasily Karasev, Lazaros Papadopoulos, Dimitris Diamantidis and Sofoklis Schortsanitis.

History

Main article: Iraklis B.C. in international competitions

The parent sporting club of G.S. Iraklis Thessalonikis was founded on 29 November 1908, and initially featured football. The club was named after Heracles (or Hercules), the mythical Greek demigod. The basketball team of Iraklis was established in 1921.^[2]

Iraklis won the inaugural Greek League championship in 1928.^[3][4] To win the championship, Iraklis had to eliminate A.E.K. and Near East, before beating V.A.O. in the championship game. The team won its second Greek championship in 1935.^[3] Also in the team's history, Iraklis has thrice finished in second place in the Greek Championship (1936, 1962, and 1964), twice been a Greek Cup finalist (1981, 1994, and 1996), and twice made it to the semifinals of the European 2nd-tier level league Cup Winners Cup.^[5]

Iraklis reached the semifinals of the 1994–95 FIBA European Cup, where they competed against Taugrés. Iraklis won the first game 79–78, but lost the next two games, to be eliminated 2–1 in a best of three series.^[6] In 1996, an Iraklis team led by former N.B.A. players Xavier McDaniel and Roy Tarpley, reached the Greek Cup Final Four.^[7] By beating Apollon Patra in the semifinal, Iraklis reached the final, where it then lost 85–74 to Panathinaikos.^[7] Iraklis has also twice competed in the top European continental competitions. The club played in the European top-tier level European Champions Cup in the 1995–96 season, and also competed in the FIBA SuproLeague during the 2000–01 season.

In 2006, Iraklis was relegated to the Greek A2 Basket League, after finishing 13th in the first-tier Greek League.^[8] In 2010, after four seasons in the second-tier level A2 National Division, the team was promoted back up to the top-tier Greek League.^[9] After one season in the Greek top-tier level, Iraklis was again relegated down to the A2 National Division, with two matches left in the season.^[10] At the end of the season, Iraklis chose to play in the third-tier level of Greek basketball, the B National Division, in order to clear its debts.^[11][12][13] The club was promoted to the A2 National Division in 2013, after finishing 2nd in its group, and after Peristeri failed to receive financial clearance to participate in the league.^[14]

In the 2018–19 season, Iraklis won the promotion playoffs of the Greek A2 League, and was promoted up to the top level Greek League, for the first time in 8 years.^[15] During the 2019–20 season, Iraklis is taking part in the Greek League organized by the Hellenic Basketball Federation. The season started in October 2019 and was scheduled to end in June 2020. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the championship was terminated earlier. Iraklis took the 7th place with 29 points, having 9 wins and 11 losses in a total of 20 games. In the 2020–21 season, Iraklis returned to European competitions, taking part in the qualifying round of the Basketball Champions League and later on in the 2020–21 FIBA Europe Cup where the club reached the Top16 round having 3 wins and 1 loss. In the 2020–21 season Iraklis took the 10th place with 29 points, having 7 wins and 15 losses in a total of 22 games.

Honours and titles

European competitions

• FIBA Saporta Cup

Semifinalists (2): 1994–95, 1996–97

Domestic competitions

Iraklis won the inaugural Greek Championship in 1928, and won it again, in 1935.

• Greek Championship

Champions (2): 1927–28, 1934–35

Runners-up (3): 1935–36, 1961–62, 1963–64

• Greek Cup

Runners-up (3): 1980–81, 1993–94, 1995–96

• Greek Second Division

Champions (2): 1974–75, 1977–78

Home arena

Main article: Ivanofeio Sports Arena

Ivanofeio Sports Arena.

In earlier times, Iraklis played its home games at the Thessaloniki Forum. Iraklis currently plays its home games in the Ivanofeio Sports Arena, an arena with a seating capacity of 2,400. The arena opened in 1987, and it was expanded to its current capacity in 1991. Ivanofeio is situated in the Thessaloniki city center, and it is owned by the G.S. Iraklis Thessaloniki multi-sport club.^[16]

Supporters

The most prominent supporters' club of the team is Aftonomi Thira 10 (meaning Autonomous Gate 10), a fan club with a total of 15 branches in Northern Greece.^[17] The fan club is known for holding an antiracist stance, as it participates in the Ultras Antiracist Festival.^[18] Other activities of the fan club include the publication of a magazine, and the conducting of an annual festival.^[19][20] Other minor supporters' clubs are SFISE, Blue Boys, A.P.A.T.S.I., and Iraklis Fan Club of Athens.^[21] In a 2013 opinion poll, Iraklis was ranked as the 6th most popular basketball club in Greece, gathering 2.8% of the participating supporters' votes.^[22]

Players

Current roster

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Iraklis B.C. roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age SF 3 Paparegkas, Nikos (C) 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) 91 kg (201 lb) 31 – (1994-07-31)31 July 1994 PG 6 Tsiakmas, Nikos 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 88 kg (194 lb) 25 – (1999-10-29)29 October 1999 PF 12 Kampouridis, Kostas 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) 102 kg (225 lb) 26 – (1999-06-24)24 June 1999 C Christidis, Vassilis 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) 109 kg (240 lb) 27 – (1998-07-10)10 July 1998 SF Darko-Kelly, Zaccheus 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 93 kg (205 lb) 28 – (1997-05-03)3 May 1997 SG Foster, Kyle 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) 78 kg (172 lb) 28 – (1997-05-27)27 May 1997 C Funderburk, D. J. 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 102 kg (225 lb) 28 – (1997-04-12)12 April 1997 SF Giannikos, Marios 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 18 – (2007-02-20)20 February 2007 PG Komnianidis, Alexandros 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) 17 – (2007-10-19)19 October 2007 SG Moraitis, Dimitrios 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) 86 kg (190 lb) 26 – (1999-02-03)3 February 1999 PF Smith, Chris 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 98 kg (216 lb) 25 – (1999-12-24)24 December 1999 SG Syllas, Cole 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 95 kg (209 lb) 25 – (2000-08-01)1 August 2000 PF Vlachos, Thanos 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 18 – (2007-01-08)8 January 2007 C Ware, Lance 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 100 kg (220 lb) 24 – (2001-02-08)8 February 2001 PG Wright-Foreman, Justin 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 86 kg (190 lb) 27 – (1997-10-27)27 October 1997	Head coach Giorgos Sigalas Assistant coach(es) Sotirios Karapostolou Stavros Evgeniadis Athletic trainer(s) Dimitris Doxakis Physician(s) Dimitris Giannakovitis Physiotherapist(s) Ioakeim Chatziignatiadis Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: August 5, 2025

Depth chart

Pos.	Starting 5	Bench 1	Bench 2
C	Derek Funderburk Jr. ‡	Lance Ware ‡	Vassilis Christidis
PF	Sean–Christian Smith ‡	Kostas Kampouridis	Thanos Vlachos
SF	Zaccheus Darko–Kelly ‡	Nikos Paparegkas	Marios Giannikos
SG	Dimitris Moraitis	Kyle Foster ‡	Cole–John Syllas
PG	Justin Wright–Foreman ‡	Nikos Tsiakmas	Alexandros Komnianidis

Notes: Blue ‡ – foreign player^[a]

Notable players

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Criteria
To appear in this section a player must have either: Set a club record or won an individual award while at the club Played at least one official international match for their national team at any time Played at least one official NBA match at any time.

• David Ancrum (1987–92)
• Vangelis Angelou (1995–96)
• Walter Berry (1994–95)
• Roderick Blakney (2001–02)
• Steve Burtt Sr. (1995)
• Steve Bucknall (1996–98, 2002–04)
• Nikos Chatzivrettas (1997–02)
• Dimitris Diamantidis (1999–04)
• Byron Dinkins (1998–00)
• Mike DiNunno (2015–16)
• James Donaldson (1993–94)
• Toney Douglas (2021–22)
• Justin Hamilton (2004–05)
• Olivier Hanlan (2019–21)
• Savvas Iliadis (2002–05, 2011)
• Buck Johnson (1998–00)
• Lefteris Kakiousis
  (1987–97)
• Dimitris Kalaitzidis (2002–05, 2016–20)
• Georgios Karagkoutis (2000–02)
• Vasily Karasev (2000–01)
• Takis Karatzoulidis (1971–85)
• Manthos Katsoulis (1990–93)
• Vassilis Kavvadas (2019–21)
• Mike King (2006)
• Xavier McDaniel (1995–96)
• Erik Meek (1996–97, 2001–02)
• Igor Milošević (2003–05)
• Aristeidis Moumoglou (1960–67, 1970–72)
• Dimitris Papadopoulos (1985–94, 1996–97)
• Lazaros Papadopoulos (1996–01, 2003–04)
• Smush Parker (2011)
• Michalis Polytarchou (2018–19)
• Vladimir Petrović-Stergiou (2009–11)
• Sotiris Sakellariou (1971–84)
• Sofoklis Schortsanitis (2000–03)
• Charles Smith (1997)
• Nikos Stavropoulos (1992–94)
• Roy Tarpley (1996)
• Brooks Thompson (1997)
• Christos Tsekos (1986–92)
• Jure Zdovc (1993–96)

• Greek internationals of Iraklis
• 
  Lazaros Papadopoulos played a total of six seasons with Iraklis, in 1996–2001 and 2003–04.
• 
  Sofoklis Schortsanitis played with Iraklis, in 2000–03.
• 
  Dimitris Diamantidis played with Iraklis, in 1999–2004.

Head coaches

Jure Zdovc played with Iraklis in 1993–96, and coached the team in the 2005–06 season.

Nationality	Head Coach	From	To	Titles & Honors
	Soulis Markopoulos	1987	1990
	Steve Giatzoglou	1990 1996	1992 1996	Greek Cup Finalist 1996
	Theodoros Rodopoulos	1992	1992
	Chico Averbuck	1992	1992
	Johnny Neumann	1992	1993
	Dragan Šakota	1993 1998	1994 2000	Greek Cup Finalist 1994
	Slobodan Subotić	1994	1996
	Tom Newell	1996	1996
	Zoran Slavnić	1997	1997
	Vangelis Alexandris	1997 Oct 2015	1998 Jan 2018
	Makis Dendrinos	2000	2000
	Lefteris Kakiousis	2002 2009	2005 2010	Greek A2 League Runner–up 2010
	Jure Zdovc	2005	2006
	Kostas Mexas	2010 Oct 2018 Nov 2021	2010 Jul 2019 May 2022	Greek A2 League Runner–up 2019
	Darko Ruso	Nov 2010	Jan 2011
	Georgios Kalafatakis	Jan 2011	Feb 2011
	Chris Chougkaz	Feb 2011	Sep 2011
	Makis Kalantaridis	Sep 2011	Oct 2011
	Thodoris Albanis	Oct 2011	Mar 2012
	Dimitris Vatos	Mar 2012	Jul 2012
	Thomas Kostopoulos	Jul 2012	Jul 2013
	Dimitris Tsolakis	Jul 2013	Sep 2013
	Stefanos Perkos	Sep 2013	Apr 2014
	Giorgos Kyroudis	Apr 2014	Nov 2014
	Giannis Damalis	Nov 2014	Mar 2015
	Stefanos Perkos	Mar 2015	Oct 2015
	Lefteris Chatzikyriakidis	Jan 2018	Oct 2018
	Ioannis Kastritis	Jul 2019	Jan 2020
	Ilias Kantzouris	Jan 2020	Jul 2020
	Vangelis Ziagkos	Jul 2020	Dec 2020
	Stergios Kalyvas	Dec 2020	Feb 2021
	Thanasis Skourtopoulos	Feb 2021	Oct 2021
	Pantelis Boutskos	Oct 2021	Oct 2021
	Stergios Koufos	Oct 2021	Nov 2021

Notes

1. Greek Basketball League requires a maximum of 8 active foreigners in a team's roster, while 6 of them can be on a 12-men game sheet.^[23]