The author of “The Dagger” three-point shot that clinched Panathinaikos’s championship game victory talks about his childhood and the race to the crown this season under Coach Ataman
Konstantinos Mitoglou speaks in championship edition of The Crossover
Podcast
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Konstantinos Mitoglou’s first season of his second stint with Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens was a year he will never forget. From the confidence coach Ergin Ataman boasted in their first practice together to the three-pointer he sank to help seal the championship game victory over Real Madrid, it was a wild ride for Mitoglou with the Greens. And he shared what it meant to him with Joe Arlauckas on the championship edition of The Crossover.
After some small talk where they chat about Mitoglou’s college teammate Codi Miller-McIntyre and the host and guest's connection to Aris Thessaloniki, Arlauckas asks Mitoglou about his famous family. With a father and brother who played professional football, how did Konstantinos wind up in basketball?
Aside from his height, Mitoglou relayed the following story:
(7:40) “When I was 11-12 years old, we had a tournament in the Netherlands and we played Ajax. And you know, Ajax the 11-12 years old were very big, strong, fast, especially compared to Greek kids,” Mitoglou shared. “And Coach benched me. And we came back and I said, ‘Dad, I’m not playing football again.’ And he said, ‘Why? I will make you a goalkeeper. I will make you a football player. We’ll find something else.’ I said I’m done with football. I don’t want to play football anymore. And that’s how I started playing basketball.”
Basketball has worked out pretty nicely for Mitoglou. He came through the Aris system to reach their first team and became a regular on the Greek junior national teams. At age 18, he traveled overseas to play college basketball at Wake Forest University. Upon his return, both of the giants of Greek basketball, Panathinaikos and Olympiacos, were interested in his services. Mitoglou chose green.
His first stint in Athens went well as he helped the Greens to four Greek championships, two Greek cups and a host of individual honors. At age 25, he was recruited to play for Ettore Messina at EA7 Emporio Armani Milan. Last summer, Mitoglou returned to Greece for a second time and this time with a new head coach in charge, Ergin Ataman. And the standards were set high from Day 1.
(20:50) “From the first time, the first day, in the preseason, in the preparation. We were gathering altogether. Half the team was with their national teams,” Mitoglou recalled. “Coach gathers us all around and says, ‘Listen, we are not here to play. We are here to win EuroLeague and the championship. I am not here to play games and we will win.’”
Ataman’s leadership and a star-studded roster saw Panathinaikos overcome a rough start to the regular season to finish second in the standings. After overcoming a stiff challenge from Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in the playoffs and overcoming Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in the semifinals, the Greens allowed 36 points and fell behind early in the championship game against Real Madrid.
(33:45) “We went into the game with specific tactics, how were we going to defend, how we were going to make the offense. And what did we do? Exactly the opposite happened!” Mitoglou said. “So Coach needed to adjust the game. He did amazing. He made the right subs. They went in. We changed the whole game. Especially the second half is something I will never forget.”
Mitoglou will go down in history as the man who made the decisive shot in that game, a three-pointer that made it 76-86 with 2:29 remaining, which Arlauckas called “The Dagger.”
(38:40) “When I took the ball and I faked (the pass), as you said very correctly, you have 3-4 seconds before you shoot it, look good at the rim for 1-2 seconds. And then after I made it, everything went black,” Mitoglou said.
With a one-hour format of exclusive one-on-one interviews, The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas goes well beyond the playing court with each podcast to delve into the life experiences that have made his guests protagonists and legends of the EuroLeague. The Crossover debuted in 2018 and has featured such current stars as Mike James, Lorenzo Brown and Mario Hezonja; coaching greats such as Georgios Bartzokas, Dimitris Itoudis, and Zeljko Obradovic, and legends like Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic and Mike Batiste, among others. Mitoglou is the final guest of the season that previously featured Nigel Hayes-Davis, Kemba Walker, James Nunnally, Chima Moneke and Serge Ibaka.
The Crossover with Joe Arlauckas is available on YouTube, iTunes, Audioboom, Spotify, Deezer, RadioPublic, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, CastBox, iVoox and other platforms.