User:Diamants/Sandbox

Dimitris Diamantidis(born May 6, 1980 in Kastoria, Greece) is a Greek professional basketball player. Standing at 1.98 m (6'6")Diamantidis mainly plays at the point guard position, but he also has the ability to play as a shooting guard, as well as to assume the small forward position, being utilized as a point forward. At the age of fourteen, he started his youth career with his home team in Kastoria, and he stayed there for five years, before being transferred to Iraklis in 1999. Since the summer of 2004, he plays for the Greek League and Euroleague team Panathinaikos Athens . Diamantidis led Panathinaikos to three Euroleague championships in 2007, 2009 and 2011, thus earning the Final Four MVP Award twice and being named Euroleague MVP in 2011. He also won seven consecutive Greek League (2005 to 2011) and five consecutive Greek Cup titles (2005 to 2009). He is the first recipient of the Euroleague Best Defender Award, which he won five times in a row from 2005 to 2009, and an additional one in 2011. Moreover, Diamantidis was voted to the Euroleague 2001-10 All-Decade Team. As a member of the Greek national team, he earned a EuroBasket title in 2005, as well as a FIBA World Championship silver medal in 2006, with Greece stunning the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, and Carmelo Anthony in the tournament's semifinal. On the basis of his achievements in Greek and European basketball, his pivotal role in the success of the Greek national team at the world stage, and his remarkable all-around skills, Diamantidis was named the Mister Europa European Player of the Year by the Italian sports magazine Superbasket in 2007 and is widely considered to be one of the most charismatic point guards the FIBA game has ever known, as well as one of its best defensive players. Kastoria's main indoor basketball arena was renamed "Dimitris Diamantidis" in his honor.

Diamantidis moved a big step up in his career with his move to Panathinaikos of Athens in 2004; a basketball powerhouse of the Greek League and also of the Euroleague. With Panathinaikos, he has won the Greek Championship 7 times (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011), the Greek Cup 5 times (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) and the Euroleague Championship 3 times (2007, 2009, 2011). Diamantidis has won several individual trophies since joining Panathinaikos, such as the Euroleague Defensive Player of The Year 6 times (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011), the Greek League MVP five times (2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011) and the Euroleague Final Four MVP twice (2007, 2011). Diamantidis was also named the 2007 European Player of the Year Mister Europa, the 2007 Greek Athlete of the Year, and the MVP of the Greek Cup in 2009. He was named the Euroleague MVP in 2011. Due to these great individual and team successes, the president of Panathinaikos, pharmaceutical magnate Pavlos Giannakopoulos, signed Diamantidis in 2008, to a 3 year €5.7 million euros net income contract. In 2010, he renewed his contract with Panathinaikos for another 3 years, at €10.8 million euros gross income.

Diamantidis was a member of the senior Greek national basketball team. With the senior national team of Greece he won the gold medal at the EuroBasket 2005. During the European Championship that year, he led the tournament in assists and he was selected to the all-tournament team. In the tournament semifinals against the French national basketball team, Diamantidis hit a game-winning 3 point shot with Greece trailing by a score of 66-64 at the end of the game to give Greece the 67-66 victory and send them to the European Championship's final game. He was also a member of the Greek national team that went on to win the silver medal the next year at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan. He was a key factor in Greece's historic 101-95 victory against Team USA in the semifinals. Diamantidis was also a member of Greece's national team that competed at the 2004 Olympic Basketball Tournament, which was held in Athens, Greece. He was also been selected to play on Greece's national team for the 2008 Olympic Basketball Tournament in Beijing, China. Diamantidis was also on the Greek teams that participated at the EuroBasket 2003 and the EuroBasket 2007. With his national team he has also won the silver medal at the 2001 Mediterranean Games and the gold medal at the 2006 Stanković Continental Champions’ Cup. He has also won 7 Acropolis Tournaments with his national squad, being the tournament's MVP twice, in 2005 and 2006. On September 4, 2010, after Greece's elimination in the Eight-Finals of the 2010 FIBA World Championship at the hands of Spain, he announced his immediate retirement from the National Team.