George Dikeoulakos


George Dikeoulakos or Dikaioulakos, Γιώργος Δικαιουλάκος;
Born 26 January 1969 in Athens, Greece, is a professional Greek basketball coach.


As a professional player

He graduated from university of Physical Education of Prishtina and school of basketball coaches of Novi Sad of former Yugoslavia. As a player he played for A.C.Papagos in Greece and at the age of 19 he became the first foreigner in Yugoslavian history with the team of K.K.Kosovo Polje. He also played for K.K.Prishtina, Trepca and Famos Sarajevo. While he was in Yugoslavia he started his coaching career with young players and youth programs. In 1993 the war in Bosnia forced him to come back in Greece and continue playing there but a number of serious injuries forced him to stop playing and dedicate to coaching career.



Coaching career

Coming in Greece his first coaching job was in youth basketball and as the U15 and U18 teams of the A.O.P.Falirou and soon he promoted as the head coach of the men’s team of Akadimia Ilioupolis where at that time were playing in C division.
For two consecutive seasons he worked as an assistant coach for the A2 team of Milonas where they celebrated the 2nd place which was leading to the A1 division.
The next two years he worked at the A1 team of Dafni as the assistant coach of Kostas Missas and Dirk Bauermann.
One of his career's milestones was the job offered to him by Slobodan Subotic as his assistant to Euroleague team Olympiakos,for the season 2001-2002 where they celebrated the Greek cup and reached the finals of the Greek league and the 16 of the euroleague.
Next season he worked again with Kostas Missas at the team of Panionios.
At 2004 he was the head coach of the B league team of A.C.Papagos.
At 2006 he was the assistant coach of Kalafatakis at the A1 team of Panellinios. That season the team finished 5th and secured a place for the ULEB Cup.
But the biggest recognition of his job was in front of him during the seasons 2008-2010 where he accepted the offer of the head coaching position of the women’s club Athinaikos. With that team he became the Greek champion, finishing two seasons without lossing any game, putting the biggest base for breaking the Guinness world record of 105 wins in a row. The 2010 was a magnificent year for the club, achieving the unique triple crown, winning all three titles that team had as a goal, the Greek championship, the Greek cup and the Eurocup.
During that season he became also the head coach of Latvia women's basketball team.
From January 2011 Dikeoulakos accepted the offer from the Polish Euroleague team of Lotos Gdynia where they celebrated the Polish cup.
In March of the same season he was the head coach of the “Europe team” against the “Rest of the world” team at the F.I.B.A. Europe All Star Game.
In May 2011 he moved to Turkey and to Fenerbahçe Istanbul. Together they won the Turkish championship and they reached the Euroleague Final-4 for the first time in the history of the club. Although it was a successful season, at the end of the season he left and few days later in June 2012 he accepted the a two-year contract from the Romanian team CSM Târgovişte..But in January 2013 the club announced that fired the coach although the team was 1st in Romanian league and already secured the Euroleague playoffs, something extremely amazing for a Romanian team. The reason for that conflict was that the club was forcing the coach and the players to accept the reducing of the salaries for 50%. The case went to the FIBA BAT where the coach won the case.
In the meantime he was leading the Greek National team, when in November 2013 he accepted the offer of the Russian Euroleague club Nadezhda from Orenburg. Its remarkable that Nadezhda was the team that Dikeoulakos and Athinaikos beat at the final of the Eurocup at 2010. Under Dikeoulakos coaching, the Russian club reached the Euroleague Final-4 for the first time in their history, and finished two consecutive seasons in the second place, the best position they ever made. In the 1st final they beat UMMC Yekaterinburg on the road but they didn’t manage to take the championship. Few days after, in May 2015, the coach announced that he will leave from the club due personal reasons. But few hours later the Turkish team Fenerbahce announced the return of the coach to their team.
In Fenerbahce he stayed for two years and the results of this cooperation was one championship, one cup, one super cup and two participations at the Euroleague Final-4 where they reached the 3rd and the 2nd  position.
His return in Poland was ready when in June 2017 the Polish and Euroleague team CCC Polkowice announced the coach.
In May 2018 he moved to China and to the Shanxi Xing Rui club.
The season 2019-2020 found him back to his beloved team Nadezhda Orenburg. Together they were stabilized at the 3rd position of the Russian league and they finished 3rd at their group in Euroleague. For the play off games and the entry to the Euroleague Final-4 they played against Lyon in France on March 11, and they won 78-80. The road for the final-4 was open since the next game supposed to take place in Orenburg. But the COVID-19 measures blocked every game and the 2019-2020 season stopped.
Under coach Dikeoulakos shone great European talents and some of the best WNBA players, with the most known the USA team legends Cappie Pondexter, Ruth Riley, Angel McCoughtry, Candice Dupree, Allie Quigley, Candace Parker, Dewanna Bonner, Erica Wheeler, the Australians Penny Tailor, Liz Cambage,etc

Coaching National Teams

Since 2006 Dikeoulakos was working next to Costas Missas as an assistant coach to the Greek women’s national team. Together they achieved the 5th place in Eurobasket 2009 in Latvia securing the ticket for the world championship.
The same year, the same coaching duet won the Gold medal in men’s U20 Eurobasket.
The next two years he was the head coach of the Latvia women’s National team and in Eurobasket 2011 they finished 8th.
In 2013 the Greek basketball federation announced Dikeoulakos as the new head coach with the goal to pass the qualification games for the Eurobasket 2015. At the qualification round the team finished 1st and took the ticket for the Eurobasket 2015 where they finished 10th out of 20 countries.

Achievements


Personal info

Coach Dikeoulakos has taught in many clinics, as in the university of physical education and school of basketball coaches in Greece and abroad. Except his native language, he also speaks English, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish. He was writing in many basketball magazines and web pages and he has his own blog https://CoachGD.blogspot.com/ in Greek language and https://coachgd-english.blogspot.com/ for English speaking, where he writes general for basketball subjects. He has a son Nikos Dikeoulakos and a daughter Sylia Dikeoulakou. He loves the sea sports, scuba diving sailing skiing, reading, music, arts and cooking. His mother Kassiani Dikeoulakou is the owner of one of the best Greek traditional Folklore dances group “Orpheus”.