Vassilis Goumas

Vassilis Goumas (alternate spellings: Vasilis, Vasillos, Gkoumas) (Greek: Βασίλης Γκούμας; born 15 November 1946) is a retired Greek professional basketball player. During his playing career, he was nicknamed "The Emperor".

Early life and career
Goumas began playing youth system basketball in Volos, Greece, with the youth clubs of Olympiacos Volos.

Professional career
At the age of 15, Goumas moved to Athens, Greece, where he began his senior level Greek club career in 1961, with Panellinios Athens. He played with Panellinios through 1963. He then spent the 1963–64 season in South Africa. After that, Goumas played in Ethiopia, with Olympiacos Addis Ababa, from 1964 to 1966. He then returned to Panellinios, in 1966.

Goumas then moved from Panellinios, to Sporting Clube de Lourenço Marques, with whom he won the Mozambican League championship in 1970. After that, Goumas once again returned to Panellinios, where he stayed from 1970 to 1979. During that time, he was the long-time star of the Greek club. In the 1970–71 season, in a game against Amyntas, he scored 61 points in a single game. He was a member of the FIBA European Selection team, in the year 1974.

Following that, Goumas moved to the Greek club AEK Athens, in 1979. With AEK, he was the Greek Cup Finals Top Scorer in 1981. On 9 December 1983, while playing with AEK Athens, in a Greek Basketball Championship game against VAO, Goumas became the first player to ever reach 10,000 career points scored in the top-tier level Greek Championship. In 1985, Goumas moved to the Greek club Ilysiakos Athens. With Ilysiakos, he won the Greek 2nd Division championship in 1986. On 19 June 1987, before the last season of his playing career, there was a FIBA All-Star Game that was played in Goumas' honor. Goumas played with Ilysiakos until 1988, when he retired from pro club basketball.

When he retired in 1988, Goumas was the Greek Basketball Championship's all-time top scorer. His career scoring record was eventually broken by Nikos Galis, on 29 February 1992. Goumas ultimately ended up as the unofficial second all-time top scorer, in the history of the Greek Championship's amateur era, which lasted from 1963 to 1992, with 11,030 career points scored. The league's amateur era stats are unofficial, because only the stats since the league turned fully professional (1992–present), are officially recognized. Goumas is second only on the career scoring list to the legendary Galis, who scored a total of 12,714 points.

In his pro club career, Goumas took part in a total of 412 games in the Greek Championship, while playing with Panellinios Athens, AEK Athens, and Ilysiakos Athens. His career scoring average in the Greek Championship was 26.8 points per game. Goumas was the Greek League Top Scorer four times during his career, in the 1969–70, 1973–74, 1974–75, and 1976–77 seasons.

National team career
Goumas played with the junior national teams of Greece in four games. He also had a total of 114 caps with the senior men's Greek national team, in which he scored a total of 1,641 points, for a scoring average of 14.4 points per game. His personal best scoring game with Greece's senior national team was 41 points, which he scored against the German national team, in 1971.

With Greece, Goumas played at the: 1967 FIBA EuroBasket, the 1969 FIBA EuroBasket, the 1972 FIBA Pre-Olympic Tournament, the 1973 FIBA EuroBasket, and the 1975 FIBA EuroBasket.

"The Serenade on the Danube"
Goumas' last appearance with the senior men's Greek national team came on 16 June, 1975, in Greece's 74–64 loss to Turkey, at the 1975 FIBA EuroBasket. At that 1975 EuroBasket, which took place in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, the famous "The Serenade on the Danube" incident occurred. The Hellenic Basketball Federation had given the Greek national team's caretaker, Panos Metaxas, some bottles of ouzo, brandy, cognac, nuts, and miniature tcholiadaki, that were supposed to then be given as gifts to FIBA's head officials and refs. However, Goumas, and his fellow Greek national teammates Apostolos Kontos and Aris Roftopoulos, were upset with how the Greek federation and Greek national team were being run at the time, and also with how FIBA's refs were calling Greece's games, and in a sign of protest, they took the gifts and then threw them off of the roof of the Hotel Jugoslavija, that the Greek national team mission was staying in, and into the Danube river. As a result, all three of the Greek players were given lifetime bans from the Greek national team. However, the lifetime bans were later reduced to a period of three years.

Awards and accomplishments

 * Mozambican League Champion: (1970)
 * 4× Greek League Top Scorer: (1970, 1974, 1975, 1977)
 * FIBA European Selection: (1974)
 * Greek Cup Winner: (1981)
 * Greek Cup Finals Top Scorer: (1981)
 * Greek 2nd Division Champion: (1986)