Tribute to the Champs: Panagiotis Kalaitzakis

The Greek guard had an important role for the Greens in 2023-24

One would be hard-pressed to find a player who has done more in fewer minutes for his team than what Panagiotis Kalaitzakis did for Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens on the way to becoming the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champion.

Kalaitzakis played 178 minutes this season, which came in just under 6 minutes per game, but his contributions in his role – especially in some of the season's biggest moments – were key in Panathinaikos ending up with the trophy.

During the playoffs, the Panathinaikos guard had several big plays at the end of a road win in a do-or-die Game 4 against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. He then followed that up with 13 minutes of action in Game 5, in which he had 2 points and 2 steals and kept making defensive pressure on the perimeter. He continued finding ways to help the team in Berlin, too.

Kalaitzakis might have hit just 5 three-pointers this entire season, but one came in one of the crucial moments at the Final Four: a catch-and-shoot triple with 50 seconds left in the third quarter in the semifinals against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul. It came as a part of a 9-0 run, just like his two free throws after 54 seconds of play in the fourth quarter, which the Greens used to pull away to a double-digit margin.

In addition to those 5 points, Kalaitzakis also had 4 rebounds, 2 drawn fouls, and was one of five Panathinaikos players who recorded a double-digit PIR, finishing with 11. The 25-year-old played almost 6 minutes in the fourth quarter of the semifinals, and more than 6 minutes in the championship game, the majority of it late in the third and early in the fourth quarter. With the trophy on the line, the Greens' defense held Real Madrid to just 26 second-half points, including a club record-low 7 points in the third quarter.

It all helped Panathinaikos win its seventh continental title and made Kalaitzakis a worthy EuroLeague champion.