Galis (age 37) vs Limoges | 30 PTS vs TOP defensive team in the 90s - Euroleague Quarter Finals
Game: Panathinaikos - CSP Limoges
Stage: Euroleague quarter finals - game three (1993 - 94 season)
Place: Glyfada Gym
Score: 87-73
MVP: Nikos Galis - 30 pts - 4 ast
Comments:
Lately, there has been a lot of discussion on whether legends like Galis, Petrovic and Oscar Schmidt, who all were super scorers in the 80s, would be able to play in the same level in todays game...
Well, Oscar had never had the chance to prove it, Drazen played in the NBA during the league's DEFENSIVE PRIME and he did well and Galis, who played until the mid 90s, was allready old enough in the 80s...
But the facts show some important aspects for 37 year old Galis...
1993 was named as the year that killed Basketball in Europe...The years 1993-94-95-96 were meant to be the ones where DEFENSE left its mark on. Great teams of that ERA, like Olympiacos and CSP Limoges, with star players like George Sigalas and Richard Dacoury, who are thought as the best european defenders ever (along with Diamantidis), and defensive minded coaches such as Yannis Ioannidis and Bozidar Maljkovic, dominated the Euroleague.
Still, 37 year old Galis was able to elevate his game.
In the 1993-94 season, the season that will allways be remembered as THE BEST YEAR of GREEK BASKETBALL EVER, he was the Euroleague's top scorer with almost 24 points per game, and the top passer, with about 5 per game...
This Game is game 3 of the Euroleague's Quarter Finals. Galis scored 30 points against the best defensive and also the most athletic team of that ERA. His fg percentage is stellar again.
About four very athletic opponents, including Dacoury, failed to guard him.
Galis led Panathinaikos in its first FINAL FOUR EVER (Vrankovic was absent in that game) and history had just begun for the team.
Watch Nick destroying every defensive effort of the French team, playing his usual isolation game, that may be predictable, but was never to be denied by anyone, not even when he was almost 40 years old...
Well, almost anyone...Only Sigalas was able to stop him. But after all, Sigalas was able to stop anyone. Maybe he was the best defender ever, and as Galis did with his offensive play, he could always be effective in the defensive part, even being old...
Anyway, too much talking, I know...Enjoy the video...
By the way, the final score was 87 - 73 for Panathinaikos...Galis had a 12/16 shooting game.