Someone once said that if people remember you by their first name, it means you were good. There are examples of people who confirm this view, there are those who refute it. Those who are in the second category do not concern us in this case. Those who are in the first, yes. And specifically, one of them. The Fan of Greek basketball.
He who for a season, which lasted for many years, was the protagonist every summer in various transfer scenarios and in everyone's question: "Where will Fanis go?". And in the end he did not go anywhere, he stayed in Panionios. Others stood for the romantic thing, others talked about basketball crime. The reason; His talent, which went beyond the Greek borders, maybe even the European ones.
With the ability to lower the ball as a play maker, to execute as a 2-pointer, to assist the tall as a power forward or with the physical strength to play as a center if necessary, the Christodoulou he was indeed a player who could do everything on the floor and the Americans saw that too. He was, after all, the third Greek to be drafted in NBA, with Atlanta Hawks to elect him to No. 90 in 1987.
He never made the leap to the other side of the Atlantic though. Here with great difficulty and at the end of his career he did this from Nea Smyrni to OAKA… "I will not leave the team", he said excitedly after winning the cup with Panionios in 1991 but in the following years he will flirt with the transfer , which he will finally get in 1997 for Panathinaikos. He will play for a year, win the championship and announce the end of his career, having suffered from injuries.
These may have come, at least in part, from his way of life. His love for cigarettes is well known, but also his lack of love for morning training, according to the then coach of Panionios, Vlado Djurovic. Christodoulou did not live a 100% professional life and this is the "damn thing" with his case, since no one can know where he would end up and what career he would have had if he had worked otherwise.
"The one year I played basketball with him was the easiest of my career," he once said. Dino Raja for their coexistence in Panathinaikos, who was the last team of Fanis. And the last time, the last year, in which he was in the spotlight, after he then decided to disappear, move away and live as he wants.
And what he wanted and did, was to retire to Paros. He has lived there for years, having opened a PRO-PO agency in Naoussa. It is said that he thought of playing basketball on the island but in the end there was nothing, with him completely disappearing from the news after avoiding interviews, tributes, interventions, in general the "lights".
Relaxed on the island, he took care of his family, PRO-PO and Champions League, which he likes to always watch. He had never hidden, after all, that he liked football. The strange thing is that after his departure he does not seem to like basketball as much or at least what we see in the Greek championship.
"It does not fill me and it does not have anything to see τ Firstly it is not Greek and secondly it does not have the competition it had in the old days. You have known for 20 years that two teams will play in the final, so what to see? "Especially this year, when Olympiakos did not exist, the bad happened because we lost at least 7-8 derbies that took place every year, which, at least a little, kept the interest at a level…", he said recently in one of his rare interviews, in website gazzetta.gr.
Where he confirmed what had been released as a rumor in the past. That he is positive, that is, in being active to help him Panagiotis Fasoula, who will claim the presidency of the EEC from George Vasilakopoulos, the πρό eternal president, who is now in the sights of everyone.
But not Fanis, who may not have been a role model, may not have made the career he really could, but he has never been ungrateful and ignorant.
"With George Vasilakopoulos I can not be objective, because I have him as my father and he has helped me many, many times in difficult times. However, I do not think that many doubt that he has offered the maximum in Greek basketball and it would be a good idea to stay next to the new administration, having a very useful advisory role. "His knowledge is very much and welcome… Commonly, respect for the old, space for the younger!", He said.
Especially when among the younger ones there is someone who is remembered by everyone by his first name. And that, as someone once said, is proof that he was good…