The day Greece learned about the Mamba Mentality

AGONAsport’s Peter Katsiris takes a look back at Greece’s meeting with the United States at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the lasting impact Kobe Bryant had on Greek stars like Nikos Zisis, Dimitris Diamantidis, and Theodoros Papaloukas.

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Two years after Greece pulled-off a stunning upset over the United States at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan, the two sides met once again during the preliminary round of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

With a much different roster than the one that faced Greece in Saitama, the United States were out for revenge in China after being forced to settle for a bronze medal in Japan after losing to Greece in the semifinals.

With the United States coming off their lowest of lows over the previous four years with back-to-back bronze medal finishes in 2004 and 2006, the United States basketball program went under a transformation in the summer of 2008.

One of the new additions to the United States roster was Kobe Bryant, who was participating in his first Olympics having already established his legend in the NBA with three championships with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Bryant didn’t disappoint that summer in China as he steered the United States to the gold medal, with a 92-69 thumping of Greece along the way. In fact, it was Bryant’s 18 points that led the United States on their revenge mission over the Ethniki.

While Greece fell just short of setting up another meeting between the two sides in the semifinals later that summer, the impact Bryant had on the Greece players is something Nikos Zisis will never forget.

Zisis recalled the time he met Bryant during the 2008 Olympics in China on the Sport24.gr podcast I Pod This Game and how that encounter is one of the stories that stands out over the course of his career.

“There are countless stories, but the story of 2008 stands out. We were in the Olympic Village. I will never forget that,” Zisis explains.

“It was me, [Panagiotis] Vassiliopoulos, and [Dimitris] Diamantidis, we were sitting, playing backgammon and cards. All of a sudden, Kobe Bryant walks towards us. He leans to Diamantidis and says ‘We know about you all now. You are a terrific defender.’ We all looked at him with wide-open, gleeful eyes but didn’t say anything. Two days later, at the same restaurant, Kobe was sitting with Dwight Howard. He leaned towards [Theodoros] Papaloukas and said ‘We know you’re a terrific creator. This time we will stop you!’” Zisis recalls.

“For us, it was one of the biggest moments to have this sort of recognition. Even two years later they hadn’t forgot it, and they were ready to kill us… and they did.”

“We went to the locker rooms at halftime during the game, Lebron [James] said ‘No mercy to these guys.’ We lost by 25-30 points and we could have lost by more. This story with Kobe is one of the best moments for us, because it was recognition of what we accomplished over those five-and-half years,” Zisis concludes.

KOBE: I WISH I HAD DIAMANTIDIS ON MY TEAM

While Zisis will forever remember the impact Bryant had on him and his Greece teammates, in an interview with FIBA last summer, Bryant highlighted how that meeting with Greece in 2008 made an impact on him.

As an ambassador for last summer’s FIBA World Cup in China, Bryant spoke about teammates he wished he had on his legendary Lakers teams. At the top of Bryant’s list was Dimitris Diamantidis.

“Well there's a player from back in the day that I played against who I wish I had on my team. His name is (Dimitris) Diamantidis from Greece,” Bryant said.

“I love and wish I had him. His length and his size, and what he could do defensively, I would have loved to have another player on the wing who could harass little point guards,” Bryant explained.

Diamantidis was one of the star players to guide Greece to that memorable win over the United States in 2006, and while Bryant didn’t faceoff against Diamantidis until 2008, the encounter between the two certainly left a lasting impact on one of the best to ever play the game of basketball.

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