Giannis Sfairopoulos

Representative of the new “golden generation” of Greek coaches, Giannis Sfairopoulos made his debut as a head coach in 2008 with Kolossos Rodou. However, he had already received his “baptism of fire” at the end of the 2000-01 season, when he was promoted from assistant coach to head coach of PAOK.

Born in 1967, Sfairopoulos began his coaching career in 1986 and has worked continuously in basketball for 33 consecutive seasons. Growing up in the Thessaloniki district of Kalamaria, he started his coaching path with Apollon Kalamarias, where he initially took charge of the club’s youth academies. After eight years, at the age of 27, he became head coach of the men’s team, which competed in the second and third divisions of Greek basketball.

Following his time with Apollon Kalamarias (1994–97), Sfairopoulos became an assistant coach at PAOK, where he remained for eight consecutive seasons. During that same period, from 2001 to 2004, and again during the 2009–10 season, he also served as an assistant coach for the Greece men's national basketball team.

In 2005, he joined Olympiacos B.C., where he spent three seasons working alongside head coaches Jonas Kazlauskas, Pini Gershon, and Panagiotis Giannakis. Six years later, after successfully proving himself as a head coach with Kolossos Rhodes, he returned to Olympiacos in the top role. During the interim, he also worked as an assistant coach under Jonas Kazlauskas at PBC CSKA Moscow.

In 2014, following his tenure with Panionios B.C., Olympiacos entrusted Sfairopoulos with leading the team. He guided the Reds to two EuroLeague Final appearances (2015 and 2017) and won two Greek championships (2015 and 2016).

In the summer of 2018, Sfairopoulos took over Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C., revitalizing the club and leading it to the Israeli Championship title in 2019. On December 15, 2019, Maccabi announced a three-year contract extension with Sfairopoulos.