Former player Vassilis Kikilias guides Greece through pandemic as Minister of Health

ATHENS (Greece) - In basketball circles, Vassilis Kikilias will always be best remembered for his effort on the defensive end of the court.

In one of the most famous basketball games that he played in, the 2001 Greek Cup between his AEK team and Panathinaikos, his renowned defense all but sealed victory for the Yellow-Blacks. 

Yugoslavia legend and Panathinaikos star Dejan Bodiroga, whose team trailed 66-64 after a free-throw by AEK's Michalis Kakiouzis, had 10 seconds to get the ball up the floor but the unrelenting, unyielding Kikilias guarded him closely.

When Bodiroga eventually got into the lane just as time was about to expire, he fell and was called for traveling.

Game over.

Kikilias, his teammates and the AEK fans went into raptures. They celebrated one of the club's most memorable triumphs.

The Greeks still talk about Kikilias and his defense on that last play. For him, all that mattered was doing a job. It wasn't glamorous, yet it helped the team win.

Kikilias is now in a different battle, yet drawing lessons learned from years of playing basketball, the importance of teamwork, preparation, resilience and being courageous, as he helps in the fight against COVID-19 as Greece's Minister of Health.

"I REALLY HOPE THAT WHEN WE GET OVER THIS CRISIS, THAT PEOPLE WILL BE ABLE TO GO OUT, JAM-PACK THE PLAYGROUNDS, JUST TO SHOOT THE BALL."- Kikilias

That's right, the basketball player that learned many of life's lessons on the hardwood now holds one of the most important positions in his country, at a grave moment in its history, and that of the entire world, with a coronavirus pandemic having infected millions of people and claimed the lives of more than 270,000 worldwide.

"Basketball and administration, it is different, but not so much as you may think," Kikilias said. "While we were kids, we were blessed to carry big expectations and responsibilities. From a very young age, you had to go out and play in front of 20,000 people and help your team win. That created a character. You were raised and taught to be a champion. To win every single game.

"This is the mentality of every athlete. You never give up. And when we are talking about people's lives, you have to always think that you can't stop. You can never stop doing the best you can, because nowadays, every day is a big fight in order to do what we need to in order to save lives."

Despite the need to have a cool head in very difficult circumstances, Kikilias says it's impossible not to get emotional at times.

It has happened when he's listened to former teammates or basketball colleagues be interviewed during the pandemic because they are often asked about him and his role as the Minister of Health.

"Basketball bonds are eternal," he said. "Honestly, it was very emotional for me to listen to (former Italy international) Claudio Coldebella, whose country is suffering from COVID-19, talking about me and what Greece did as an example right now in such a honorable way in some radio interview he gave; or to listen to Nikos Zisis do the same, or Dimitris Itoudis.

"It's really very emotional, and you know what, when you listen to these words from former teammates, or opponents, it doubles up the emotion you feel. That's why basketball bonds are forever."

Kikilias studied, from 1996 to 2002, at the Medical School of the University of Athens, while he was still a professional player.

He entered politics in 2006, when elected Municipal Councillor of the City of Athens and has gone on to be elected to Parliament at every election since 2012.

Greece Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis appointed Kikilias, who was awarded a PhD from the Medical School of the University of Athens in 2011, as the Minister for Health on July 9 last year. It's not his first ministerial position. Kikilias also served from June 2014 until late January 2015 as Minister for Public Order and Citizen Protection.

All of this came after his basketball career.

"I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE 10 PLAYERS LIKE HIM IN MY TEAM." - Dusan Ivkovic on Kikilias

In the sport, Kikilias got his start at Panionios, a club known for having one of the finest basketball academies in Europe, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. He fell in love with the game there, where his hero was Panionios star, Fanis Christodoulou.

Panionios club officials once gave cadet team members jerseys of players of the main team and Kikilias luckily got one of Christodoulou's. That same night, he went home and slept in it.

In addition to Panionios and AEK, Kikilias played for A1 club Apolllon Patras, and he also spent a season with A2 division team, Ionikos Nikeas.

One has an idea of what sort of player, and person Kikilias was when reading an old quote from one of his former coaches, Dusan Ivkovic.

"I would like to have 10 players like him in my team," Ivkovic once said.

With Greece, Kikilias helped his national team to a runners-up finish when his country hosted the 1991 European Championship for Cadets. He played for other youth Greece teams and eventually made several appearances for the senior national side.

While he now wears a suit and not a uniform, Kikilias still has a love for basketball and will, if time allows, go online and watch a highlights video. One of his favorites players is USA international and NBA star Stephen Curry.

"Our nature as athletes is to run," he said. "To run, to be ready, to be able to face all the challenges. Honestly, it is a huge responsibility to have a role of making decisions that save lives. We are living in a unique, rare situation, no one could even think that our generation would have to face a pandemic like this. So, I am there, I am running and if sometimes I manage to find some minutes of relaxation, I do it by thinking about basketball, and pretending that I am shooting some baskets. Just to relax the big tension I have inside."

He finds it hard to believe that the world is in crisis.

"I never expected that I would be the one to face such a pandemic," he said. "Who could think about it? What were the chances, we could have been brought to a situation like this? Almost zero. But life is always unpredictable. This crisis makes every human being reevaluate his or her principles, values. The priority list is getting different. Human life is in the foreground."

Even if the numbers of infected and dying have dropped in some countries, the threat remains very real everywhere.

"Ι really hope that when we get over this crisis, that people will be able to go out, jam-pack the playgrounds, just to shoot the ball," Kikilias said. "It's something they haven't done for many weeks, and now we all understand how very important is for us all to be free, and safe, just to be able to go somewhere and shoot some baskets. It's incredible to live in a state of self-restraint, but at the same time, I respect all the people that show solidarity, that don't go out and they show self restraint to protect the health of older people, or people belonging to the higher risk categories."

FIBA