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There are not many Greeks who have had a chance to get along with Michael Jordan at some point.
Measured, but certainly chosen, lucky, privileged, etc.
One of them is Zisis Sarikopoulos, who even spoke to him and exchanged two conversations with him, ten or three years ago in New York, under my watchful eye!
So, in 2007, before starting to collect medals with national teams like … peanuts, the current center (then player Olympiacos) of PAOK had won the title in the World Championship of Schools, being the team leader of the 1st Lyceum Byron, who triumphed and even undefeated, in Po, France, with his teammates Nikos Pappas (Panhellenic) and Leonidas Kaselakis (Elysiakos)!
A few days later (April 18, 2007) we traveled with his mother, Mania and the representative of the NIKE sports company, Mantho Douzina, to New York and we even extended our bay in a limousine that the Americans had reserved for him.
Sarikopoulos was invited through NIKE to participate in the annual All American Jordan Basketball Classic, where he met and played with Costas Koufos, Nick Kalathis, Kevin Love and O’Jay Mayo.
On that unforgettable journey, Sarikopoulos shook Jordan’s hand, introduced himself to David Stern and, in the midst of all this, played 15 minutes in the foreign game with the Americans, scoring 8 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 locks and one very funny comment ..
“Madison is a great and legendary stadium, but it has short baskets”!
At that time, the left-handed zisis went to the 2nd Lyceum, played on the Olympiakos children’s team and, in fact, Pini Gerson had invited him to two training sessions of the “greats”.
On October 8, 2006, he stole the show at the Tournament with the participation of 29 young players, including Vladimir Jankovic, who was presented by NIKE in Kallithea and received the Best Player Award from David Stergakos.
Twenty days later, he attended the event at the Palalido in Milan, heard his name at Ricardo Pittis’ presentation and greeted Jordan for the first time, who shook hands with him and flattered him by renewing his appointment for April. .
See you in New York, big man!
And Zisis shook his hand as hard as he could, because one of his assistants had … rumored that Jordan hates those who shake hands gently, as if they were girls!
In Kallithea, Sarikopoulos had fooled the whole world with his son, his “slip” on the racket, the movements and the perception of the game, in fact Steve Giatzoglou, guessing the interest that the American (university) recruiters would show, he had told me. “With such qualifications, Americans will kidnap him and even find a job for his dog!”
I don’t know if Zisis has a dog, but he has sports genes from his father, who, in his teens, played basketball at Olympiakos and the mother of Mania Marinos, who was a swimmer and pole vaulter for Ethnikos Piraeus.
On the other hand? That Sunday (October 8, 2006) in Kallithea, inadvertently in place of Zisis, the organizers had taped him and constantly referred to him as Giannis and by this misguided name he passed on to most newspapers the next day. However, he was (and still is) so shy that he didn’t think about going to the secretary and asking them to correct the mistake and tell him his real name!
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