Early years

The basketball clubs' parent athletic union, the Panionios Gymnastic Club, was founded in 1890, in İzmir, Ottoman Empire (located today in the modern country of Turkey), making it one of the oldest sporting clubs in Europe. The sporting clubs' basketball department was founded in 1919. After the Greek military suffered defeat in the Greco-Turkish War in 1922, the club was transferred to the Athenian suburb of Nea Smyrni, in Greece.

The basketball department, Panionios B.C., began participation in the Greek Basket League starting in the 1928–29 season, and finished in second place in the league that year. Panionios B.C. finished in third place in the league the next year.

Rise of the club to prominence in Greek basketball

Panionios B.C. competed in the top-tier Greek basketball league, in consecutive years, from the 1981–82 season until the 2014–15 season. In the 1986–87 season, Panionios played in the championship finals series of the Greek League, losing out to Aris, and their two Greek basketball legends Nikos Galis and Panagiotis Giannakis (Giannakis would later go on to play for Panionios). In 1991, led by Fanis Christodoulou, the team won the Greek Cup title, by defeating PAOK by a score of 73–70. Panionios also played in the finals game of the Greek Cup in both 1977 and 1995. Ιn the 1993–94 season, after an exciting run in the European 3rd-tier level FIBA Korać Cup, and after scoring a couple of wins against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the quarterfinals, Panionios reached the semifinals, and played against PAOK Bravo. This marked the first civil conflict between Greek basketball clubs in European-wide competitions, ever.

The club finished in 3rd place in the Greek League in the 1995–96 season, under their head coach at the time, Dušan Ivković, and thus qualified to the EuroLeague for the 1996–97 season. In the FIBA EuroLeague 1996–97 season, the team was coached by Efthimis Kioumourtzoglou. Two years later, in 1999, Panionios once again reached the semifinals of the FIBA Korać Cup, where they were again eliminated, this time from the super favorites of the tournament, FC Barcelona, which featured Sasha Djordjević.

In the Greek League 2007–08 season, under the ownership of Elias Lianos, the founder of Proton Bank, Panionios, led by Ivan Zoroski, Giannis Kalampokis, and charismatic head coach Nenad Marković, finished in 3rd place in the Greek League. They came back from an 0–2 series deficit in the deciding best-of-five league third-place series against Maroussi, and won the series 3–2. That secured the team a place in the EuroLeague competition for the EuroLeague 2008–09 season. This marked the club's first EuroLeague appearance in more than a decade.^[2]

Decline of the club

After the 2014–15 season, Panionios was relegated to the Greek 2nd Division, after 33 consecutive seasons with a presence in the top-tier level Greek Basket League.^[3] For the 2015–16 season, Panionios preferred to play in the third-tier of Greece, the semi-pro level Greek B Basket League, due to financial difficulties.^[4] They were promoted up to the Greek 2nd Division for the 2016–17 season.

They won the Greek 2nd Division title of the 2016–17 season, and were promoted back up to the top-tier level league, for the 2017–18 season. Due to financial difficulties, Panionios was demoted down to the Greek 3rd Division, prior to the 2020–21 season.

Panionios in international competitions

Current roster

More information Players, Coaches ...

Panionios roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age G/F 0 Berrick, Jean Louis 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) 90 kg (198 lb) 24 – (1999-07-07)7 July 1999 PG 1 Skandalos, Christos 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 29 – (1995-01-12)12 January 1995 PG 2 Christou, Nikos 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) 18 – (2006-02-12)12 February 2006 PG 3 Milentigievits, Iakovos 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 82 kg (181 lb) 27 – (1997-01-11)11 January 1997 PG 5 Dimitrakopoulos, Iasonas 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 26 – (1997-06-11)11 June 1997 G/F 6 Papadionisiou, Stathis 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) 31 – (1992-09-15)15 September 1992 F/C 7 Antonakis, Tasos 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 113 kg (249 lb) 32 – (1992-02-09)9 February 1992 F 13 Chalaris, Stelios 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 31 – (1992-05-22)22 May 1992 C 14 Kaklamanakis, Dimitris 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 95 kg (209 lb) 30 – (1994-01-25)25 January 1994 C 15 Vougioukas, Ian 2.11 m (6 ft 11 in) 127 kg (280 lb) 38 – (1985-05-31)31 May 1985 G 17 Afentoulidis, Vasilis 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) 88 kg (194 lb) 20 – (2004-01-17)17 January 2004 PG 28 Verginis, Dimitris (C) 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) 93 kg (205 lb) 36 – (1987-05-15)15 May 1987 G 33 Vafeiadis, Manos 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) 26 – (1997-11-21)21 November 1997 C 34 Virlas, Panagiotis 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) 25 – (1999-03-30)30 March 1999 F 44 Sergienko, Yevhen 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 30 – (1994-01-01)1 January 1994 PG 88 Gikas, Nikos 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) 81 kg (179 lb) 33 – (1990-11-22)22 November 1990	Head coach Aris Lykogiannis Assistant coach(es) Spyros Karadimas Konstantinos Limnaios Athletic trainer(s) Stratos Tsampis Team Manager Giannis Dalles Team Captain Dimitris Verginis Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: 7 October 2023

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Domestic competitions

• Greek League

Runners-up (1): 1986–87

• Greek Cup

Winners (1): 1990–91

Runners-up (2): 1976–77, 1994–95

• Greek 2nd Division (1961–1986) / Greek 2nd Division (1986–present)

Winners (3): 1973–74, 1980–81, 2016–17

• Greek 3rd Division

Winners (1): 2015–16

• Greek UNICEF Basketball Cup

Winners (2): 2022–23, 2023-24

European competitions

• FIBA Korać Cup

Semifinalist (2): 1993–94, 1998–99

Other competitions

• Athens, Greece Tournament

Winners (1): 2011