Ioannis Boroussis Profile | 2008 Olympic Breakouts
Monday, September 1st, 2008
You don’t have to be an international basketball guru to know names like Yao Ming, Manu Ginobili, Pau Gasol, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Luis Scola, and Dirk Nowitzki and that these players are going to make waves in the tournament.
If you know names like Theo Papaloukas, Eduardo Mingas, Liu Wei, Ramunas Siskauskas, David Andersen, Carlos Delfino, and Felipe Reyes, congratulations, you are moderately-knowledgeable about basketball outside of your country.
However, every tournament always has a handful (or two) of little-known players that come in with much less star-power, or with little or no fanfare only to use that tournament as a springboard into national and international headlines.
About a week after the Olympics have officially ended, Interbasket will be profiling 10 of these players, over the next couple of week, that made names for themselves during the 2008 Olympics or furthered their reputation with their play. Ioannis Boroussis is the first player we’ll be profiling.
The 6-11 center Ioannis Boroussis (also spelled Bouroussis) is originally from Karditsa, Greece, and is the starting center for the Greek National Team. After playing for the Greek National Team in the 2005 and 2007 Eurobasket, Boroussis is playing in his first Olympics, trying to fill the shoes of Euroleague behemoth (and star) Lazaros Papadopolous. Papadololous was the national team center from the 2006 World Championship team that defeated the USA, but wasn’t on the final 2008 Olympic roster.
Boroussis also played in front of whipping boy, Sofoklis Schortsianitis, whom has had as many weight problems as he has talent.
In six Olympic games, the 240lb Boroussis averaged 11.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.0 steal and impressed the most cynical of Greek fans.
Ioannis was the second leading scorer on the Hellas team during the Olympics, trailing behind Vassilis Spanoulis’ 14.3 and ahead of bigger names such as Antonis Fotsis (11) and Theos Papaloukas (8.8). Boroussis was also second in rebounding after only Fotsis. Not bad stats for a player that received the least amount of minutes out of seven players that had played at least 100 
minutes in Greece’s six games.
The 24-year old center wasn’t only efficient in points and rebounds, but he also shot an amazing 71.4% from the field, leading the team in field goal percentage by a wide-margin. Boroussis’ percentages were buoyed by a two game stretch against the United States and Angola, when he shot 12-12 from the field. In Greece’s third game of pool play, Boroussis was 3-3 against the USA and went 9-9 against Angola in Greece’s fourth game.
In Greece’s fifth ann final pool game against China, Ioannis had his best overall game of the tournament. Against China’s superstar 7-6 center Yao Ming, Boroussis put up 19 points and 9 rebounds to Yao’s 16 points and 5 rebounds as Greece won handily 91-77.
Bouroussis was also key in Greece’s Olympic qualification. In Greece’s unbeaten run during the Pre-Olympic Tournament, Boroussis played only 15 minutes a game and averaged 10.5 points on 65.5% from the field, 2.75 rebounds, and 1 block a game.
Bouroussis is a two-time Greek All-star (2006 and 2007). After spending four seasons with AEK Athens, Ioannis has played for club Olympiakos of the Euroleague the last two seasons, 2006-07 and 2007-08 (Olympiakos is the team Josh Childress signed with this summer).
Links and Resources: Ioannis Bouroussis Profile (Euroleague.net), Greek National Team accumulated stats (Fiba),
