Ioannis Bourousis was born on the 17th of November 1983 and currently plays for Laboral Kutxa Baskonia of the Liga ACB. He is a 7 ft 0 in tall (2.15 m), weights 270 lb (122 kg) and plays as a center. Bourousis has been compared to FIBA Hall of Fame center Vlade Divac, by San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich. Bourousis originally began his athletic career training to be a professional swimmer, but he grew too tall for the sport and instead he took up playing basketball, at the age of 18. He began his professional career in the year 2001 with AEK Athens of the Greek Basket League. In 2006, he transferred to FC Barcelona of the Spanish ACB League. Later on the same year, he joined the Greek Euroleague club Olympiacos. In 2009, he was offered a 3-year $12 million contract by the NBA club San Antonio Spurs. However, he turned down San Antonio’s offer, and instead signed a 3-year contract extension with Olympiacos for \u20ac5.1 million euros net income. The contract contained a \u20ac1 million euros buyout amount, which could only be used to sign with an NBA team. After 5 years with Olympiacos, the club decided to terminate his contract. On July 6, 2011, Bourousis agreed to a two-year contract with the Italian A League club Olimpia Milano. In July 2013, Bourousis signed a contract with the Spanish League club Real Madrid. With Real Madrid, Bourousis won the Spanish Supercup in 2013 and the Spanish King’s Cup 2014. In the summer of 2014, Real Madrid picked team option to keep him in the club for one more season. In the 2014\u201315 season, Bourousis won the Euroleague 2014\u201315 season championship, after his team Real Madrid, defeated his former team, Olympiacos, by a score of 78\u201359 at the 2015 Euroleague Final Four. Real Madrid also eventually finished the season winning the 2014\u201315 Spanish League championship, after a 3\u20130 series score in the ACB Finals against Barcelona. With that trophy, they won the triple crown. In September 2015, Bourousis signed a contract with the Spanish team Laboral Kutxa Baskonia. On 30 December 2015, he was named Player of the Month after being three times MVP of the week in the first half of the 2015\u201316 ACB season. He repeated again as Player of the Month in January 2016, after averaging 18.5 points per game and 7 rebounds per game, including 24 points scored in the win against Real Madrid. Bourousis was a member of the junior Greek national basketball team that won the 2002 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship in Lithuania, and he was also on the senior men’s Greek national basketball team that won the EuroBasket 2005 at Serbia. He was also a member of the Greek national teams that finished in 4th place in the EuroBasket 2007 at Spain, and in 5th place in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games at China. He also won the bronze medal at the EuroBasket 2009. Bourousis was also a member of the Greek national teams that competed at the 2010 FIBA World Championship and the EuroBasket 2011. He also played at the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the EuroBasket 2013, the 2014 FIBA World Cup, and the EuroBasket 2015.
\nAwards and accomplishments
\nGreek League Champion: (2002)
\n6x Greek League All-Star: (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
\n3x Greek League Best Five Team: (2008, 2009, 2011)
\nGreek All-Star Game MVP: (2009)
\nAll-Euroleague First Team: (2009)
\n2x Greek Cup Champion: (2010, 2011)
\n2x Spanish Cup Champion: (2014, 2015)
\n2x Spanish Supercup Champion: (2013, 2014)
\nEuroleague Champion (2015) Spanish League Champion: (2015)
\nTriple Crown: Champion (2015)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"