Panathinaikos Basketball Club (Greek name: Κ.Α.Ε. Παναθηναϊκός, transliterated into English: K.A.E. Panathinaikos) is the basketball team of the Athens-based Greek sport club Panathinaikos. It is owned by pharmaceutical magnates Pavlos and Thanassis Giannakopoulos. The parent athletic club was founded in 1908blank">http://www.paobc.gr/en/history.asp and the basketball team in 1922 and it has since developed into the most successful basketball team in Greece and among the best in Europe. They have won 28 national championships, 10 Greek Cups, 4 _ European Championships and 1 Inter-continental Cup.
Legends of world basketball have played with the club (Dominique Wilkins, Byron Scott, Dino Rađa, Dejan Bodiroga, Nikos Galis, Panagiotis Giannakis, Stojko Vranković, Žarko Paspalj, Fanis Christodoulou, Antonio Davis, Željko Rebrača among others). Those players, along with the successful management of Pavlos Giannakopoulos, have made Panathinaikos one of the most successful and well-known teams of the last decade and a half in the continent and the only one that has won four Euroleague titles after the Final Four format was established.
On April 1996 in Paris Final Four (F4), Panathinaikos was the first Greek team to win the European Championships (now Euroleague), beating FC Barcelona in a unique final tournament, by 67-66. In September of the same year the team also won the Inter-continental cup, prevailing by 2-1 wins over Olimpia Venado Tuerto of Argentina (83-89, 83-78, 101-76). In 2000 in Thessaloniki F4, Panathinaikos were the Champions of Europe for the second time, beating Maccabi Tel-Aviv 73-67 in the final. In 2002 in Bologna F4, Panathinaikos brought to Athens the most prestigious European trophy for the third time, beating hosts Kinder Bologna 89-83 in the final. In 2007 F4, which was held in its home court in Athens, Panathinaikos became European Champions for the fourth time, beating defending champions CSKA Moscow 93-91 in the final.
Panathinaikos has advanced to the F4 of the Euroleague or its predecessors another four times: Tel Aviv in 1994 (3rd), Zaragoza in 1995 (3rd), Paris in 2001 (2nd), Moscow in 2005 (3rd). Other significant successes are: the two participations in the semifinals of the Cup Winners Cup (1969, 1998), the course up to the semi-finals of the Champions Cup for the season 1971-72 (eliminated by Ignis Varese (78-70, 55-69). In the 1981-82 season, Panathinaikos participated in the finals of the Champions Cup of that time, eliminating consecutively CSKA Moscow and Levski Sofia teams.
The team, which is famous for it's fans passionate support, also holds the highest attendance record in the Euroleague, which is id=362&year_competition_id=37" target="_blank">20,000 fans, achieved in a home match in OAKA against _Benetton Treviso on March 29, 2006, for the second phase of the 2005-06 Euroleague. An attendance of 18,900 fans has also been achieved three times in home matches of the Greens, against Efes Pilsen in 2005 and TAU Ceramica (twice) in 2006.
