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They used to say that if the bell rings at dawn and you don’t see the milkman, it will definitely be the gendarme!
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The same, as angry as he gets, happens with phone calls when they are interrupted on Sunday mornings …
It’s never for the best!
I got one today from Nikos Filippou and it wasn’t for the best.
In fact, it was for something very bad!
A few hours earlier, he had died, in his sleep, in a hotel room in Dimitsana, where Costas Batis went to spend the three days.
Short weekend, short thread of his life. Almost everything, like the short shots I used to mention on TV when the ball was forced into the basket.
So we laughed and made fun of him, but Costas was absolutely right: these short shots existed and still exist, as the Americans call them on broadcasts of NBA games.
I met Batis forty years ago and we became friends, and neither I nor he then suspected that a few years later we would become colleagues.
I met him in my own journalistic debates, when I was a Panathinaikos player and in fact, together with Takis Efstathiou, I made the first journalistic trip of my career with them: in Sofia for the game of November 19, 1981 with Levski Spartak, on the way of the historic classification of the Greens in the final phase (of “6”) of the European Cup.
In that team, with Coach Costas Politis and Commissioner Tassos Valopetropoulos, they played Apostolos Kontos, Takis Koronaios, David Stergakos, Dimitris Kokolakis, Andreas Papantoniou, Kyriakos Vidas, Memos Ioannou Nikos Garos, Giannis Georganas, American Manolis Kalogeropoulos, Christofortoulos and Manolis Kalogeropoulos who were recruited only for Europe, Keith Wolfok and David Thompson.
Batis did not play much, but whenever necessary he did his job, as in the January 27, 1982 match with Den Boss when Andreas Papantoniou was charged very early with a foul that tried to stop the famous Kees Akerbum.
“Tsolias” then called him from the bench and Batis not only managed on defense, but also scored ten points and contributed to Panathinaikos’ only win in the group at 88-77.
Papantoniou recalled this story from his memory today. In fact, I remember being excited by his appearance and yelling at him from the bench “eat it alive Kostakis, eat it!”
At the end of that season, Costas left Panathinaikos and continued his career in Milonas and then in Esperos, while at the same time he graduated from the then EASA and obtained the title of teacher of physical education, in fact in the last years he practiced the profession in schools and also did non-profit training for refugee children!
In addition to the four championships and the two Greek Cups that he won as a Panathinaikos player, the “tall”, as we called him in the press, also had a silver medal in his children’s Eurobasket that was held in July 1975 at Sporting Stadium. in Patissia.
This team, led by Costas Anastasatos and Thodoros Rodopoulos, was made up of Costas, Giannakis, Andritsos, Ioannou, Agrafiotis, Tsoumis, Kalpakis, Chrysikakis, Plomaridis, Kakogeorgiou, Makogeorgiou. (Panagiotis) Alexandris.
In fact, Batis played a very important role in the victories against Spain in the first phase and against Yugoslavia in the semifinals, scoring 12 and 11 points, in addition to his bravery in battles with much taller players on the racket.
Then he was part of the National Youth Team in the 1976 European Championships (Rosetto, Teramo) and 1978 (Santiago de Compostela), while on a total of 43 occasions he wore the shirt with the shield and scored 347 points.
When he got out of action and after having gone through the coaching staff (at the Saturn academies, perhaps elsewhere) Batis suddenly and unexpectedly found himself – by Greek data – in the press.
He went through newspapers (Athletiki Echo, Prasini), through television channels (Mega, ANT1, SKAI), through magazines, through radio stations and left his strong mark.
Not because the deceased has justification, but because it is true, Batis was a soul: LORD in capital letters, colleague name and thing, respectful to everyone and a man who never showed jealousy, malice and complexion.
At the same time, he never pretended to be smart and knowledgeable, while having a rare urban politeness, and indeed, he generally addressed everyone in the plural!
At that time those of us who wrote in newspapers and magazines and those of us who made television and radio programs were self-taught and we tried to camouflage our weaknesses and fill our gaps.
Batis, having played at a high level, knew the scandals of basketball and this was evidenced in his accurate comments and statements, about the tactics of the coaches and the movements, the weaknesses and the strengths of the players.
He knew what he was seeing and what he was saying!
Precisely because he had played and knew basketball, his opinion was always accepted and respected by all those who criticized him during a game.
Besides that, he always tried to explain in the simplest possible way and popularize the systems, movements and tactics.
I feel like I hear your voice now on the PAOK-Ortez match broadcast.
Livingstone and see what nailing means!
With his bass voice and sharp phrases, he had his own style in broadcasts, avoided fanfare and, among other things, introduced innovations that, as I wrote before, at that time did not have much way to go.
The short shot, the angle of the pass, the distance of a pass and other basketball conversations like that, which may have sounded strange at the time, but on the one hand they were correct and on the other hand they were to be introduced later in the colloquial of retransmissions.
As a telecommuter in basketball he was on the front lines for several years, broadcasting matches for the Greek championship, the European Champions Cup, the NBA (including the 1994 All Star Game in Minneapolis) and so on.
Among other things, Costas connected his voice with two very special and memorable “moments” of Greek basketball, which marked him.
One is the series of A1 finals between Aris and PAOK in the 1990-91 season, when the 2-0 of the regular season became 2-2 and finally 4-2 with the winning baskets first by Panagiotis Giannakis and then by Brad Sellers.
The other is the Champions League match between Zadar and Olympiakos in the 1992-93 season, when to pretend to reach the “Dvorana Jazine” he traveled by plane, steam and taxi, in addition to the adventure that we all lived in the stadium then, due to to the civil war in Yugoslavia and the infernal atmosphere aggravated by the presence of Paspali, Tarlach and Tomic.
In recent years he had retired from the media and was facing a great difficulty: he suffered a lot and faced many problems in his life, but he tried to rethink it and in fact wanted to return to journalistic facts …
I met him a few months ago at a basketball event and we would talk every now and then about “Happy Birthday” and things like that.
Today when I learned that his (good) heart betrayed him, I didn’t just feel like I had lost a good colleague, basketball player, and friend.
I felt more that everyone who knew him, made friends, drank a whiskey and smoked a cigarette with him, lost a part of ourselves and our well-being.
Good luck, Kostaras, in paradise and may your children find comfort and strength.
And, as Giannis Paragios wrote on Facebook, “good trip oh low!
This is a story that has united them for 42 years: at the 1978 Junior Eurobasket in Italy, the National Team was no longer high and Costas and Giannis shared the top five position, as a conditional center. At the end of the event, Batis picked up an EEC banner and wrote on it “One bass from the team to the other lowAnd he gave it to Paragios who saw it today and snorted …
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