The Aris big man played with crosstown rival PAOK last season
Jake Forrester values both sides of the Thessaloniki derby
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Ask European basketball fans about city derbies and many will mention the Belgrade battle between Partizan and Crvena Zvezda, the clashes between Greek giants Panathinaikos Athens and Olympiacos Piraeus, or even one of the showdowns in Istanbul. Ask Jake Forrester and there is no way he will not bring up the Thessaloniki derby.
That shouldn’t be surprising because the Aris Thessaloniki Betsson big man played for crosstown rival PAOK Thessaloniki last season and knows the magnitude quite well.
“It's wild. People might sleep on it, but I think it's one of the biggest in Europe for sure, that rivalry between these two. It's a big city, but just how close the teams are and how there's so many people that support different teams,” said Forrester of Thessaloniki, home to about 1 million people.
“One side of the city supports one team and the other side supports the other. The gyms are close and everything, and just to have the amount of people that can pick what side they want to be on.”
Panathinaikos and Olympiacos have collected 32 of the last 33 Greek League titles with AEK Athens breaking up the run in 2001-02. Aris’s 10th and final crown came in 1991 (ending a seven-year reign over the country) while PAOK’s second championship came in 1992.
That makes the meaning of the Thessaloniki derby even bigger.
“It's like a championship in itself. It's the bragging rights to beat one of the other teams,” he said.
Forrester has lost two of the three city derbies he has played in thus far. Both teams won their home games last season and PAOK beat Aris on the road 78-73 on November 1.
“They got us at our home gym, actually. But it was our second game with the new head coach (Igor Milicic). Still, you got to give them some respect when it comes to that. They got a win in our home court, which is really hard to do, especially in the rivalry.”
Forrester got a real taste of being on the hated side of the rivalry as he switched sides in the off-season.
“It was a bold move. Going from the FIBA Europe Cup to EuroCup and then coming to this team. I got a lot of backlash and everything from fans,” he admitted.
Forrester said he avoided his social media for a while after the announcement of going from PAOK to Aris. Still, he understands the rivalry and how the fans feel about the idea of him switching allegiances.
“But at the end of the day, it's a business and things got to be done,” he said.
I think the rivalry between Aris and PAOK is one of the biggest in Europe.
Forrester and the PAOK fans experienced a pretty big high last season. They reached the Finals of the FIBA Europe Cup, where they ultimately lost 154-149 in a two-game total-points to Bilbao Basket. PAOK fans had been waiting a long time for top play internationally. The Greek side reached the ULEB Cup Last 8 in 2004-05 after having previously finished runner-up in the European Cup in 1991-92 and 1995-96 and winning the Korac Cup in 1993-94.
The FIBA Europe Cup playoffs were pretty crazy and the atmosphere at the PAOK Sports Arena was amazing, Forrester remembered.
"The environment was crazy for the championship game. It's wild. Even if it was FIBA EuroCup, they treated it like it was the EuroLeague final there because that's how much they wanted to win. The people and the passion behind it were crazy,” he said.
Going through the experience of winning the final game of the FIBA Europe Cup but not claiming the trophy still hurts for the 26-year-old.
“That was an awful feeling. You never want to feel that feeling again,” he said. "So the next time I'm in a championship, I for sure have to get the win because that was an awful feeling. I still think about to this day. Just the feeling that you don't want to feel.”
Aris is poised to go deep in the EuroCup Playoffs and even challenge for the semifinals in the Greek League. But there is always the return leg of the Thessaloniki derby on March 14 at PAOK.