Iraklio OAA
Leagues	Cretan Basket League
Founded	1968
History	1968–present
Arena	Heraklion Indoor Sports Arena
Capacity	5,500
Location	Heraklion,Crete,Greece
Team colors	Blue and White
President	Michalis Delakis
Head coach	Giorgos Makrakis
Championships	1Greek A2 Championship 1Greek B Championship 1Greek C Championship 4 Cretan Championships
Website	irakliooaa.gr
Home Away

Iraklio OAA B.C. (Greek: Ηράκλειο OAA KAE), also known simply asIraklio, orHeraklion, is aGreek professionalbasketball club that is based in the city ofHeraklion,on the island ofCrete, inGreece. It is a department of theHeraklion Tennis and Team Sports Club (Greek: Όμιλος Αντισφαιρίσεως και Αθλοπαιδιών - OAA - «Ηράκλειο»), a multi-sport club established inHeraklion in 1928. The club's basketball department was founded in 1968, and currently competes in the Cretan Basket League, hosting its home games at theHeraklion Indoor Sports Arena, a multi-purposeindoor arena with a capacity of 5,500 spectators. Irakleio is considered the most successful basketball club inHeraklion, being the sole club to have represented the city in thetop-tierGreek Basket League, as well as the most successful club on theisland ofCrete, at least until the rise of theRethymno Cretan Kings in the early 2010s. Iraklio OAA further administers competitive departments fortennis,table tennis andchess.

Iraklio OAA was established in 1928, primarily operating as atennis club. In 1968, under president Giorgos Deligiannakis, the club decided to expand its activities thus foundingteam sports departments forbasketball andvolleyball, reinstating its defuncttable tennis department, as well as establishing competitivechess andbridge departments.^[1] The first coach of the basketball department was Michalis Dardantakis, who was replaced by Kostas Rigas shortly thereafter.

In 1973, Iraklio was promoted to theGreek B Basket League, where it kept playing for 5 straight seasons, until 1978, when it was relegated to the local Cretan Championship.^[1] After a dormant period spanning almost nine years, in which the club played in local competitions, an organized effort was made by newly appointed General Manager Manolis Papakaliatis to return to national competitions. Within just seven years, Iraklio achieved multiple promotions. In the 1993–94 season, the club competed in theGreek A2 Basketball League for the first time in its history. The very next season, Iraklio finished 2nd in the league, thus managing promotion to theA1 Greek Basket League, the top tier of theGreek basketball league system, becoming the firstCretan club to achieve this feat.^[1]

Iraklio lived its glory days during the mid 90s, when the club was promoted to theA1 Greek Basket League. Despite being relegated in its inaugural season in the league, the club instantly returned to top-flight after winning the 1996–97A2 Championship. The next season saw the club finishing in 8th place during regular season, thus clinging to a spot in theGreek basketball playoffs. They beat traditionalGreekbasketball powerhouseAris in both games of their first round playoff series, thus finishing seventh overall in the league, which to this day still remains the best season performance in the history of the club. To accomplish this feat, Iraklio had one of the most impressive home records (13–2) at the end of the 1997–98 season, which propelled them towards their first everEuropean competition appearance. Iraklio consequently played in the1998–99 FIBA Korać Cup, where they managed to reach the Round of 32. The club upheld a competitive profile throughout its next seasons in theGreek Basket League by managing to sign formerNBA veterans into its rosters, most notablyOliver Miller (22nd overall pick in the1992 NBA draft ) for the 1998–99 season andWillie Burton (9th overall pick in the1990 NBA draft) in 1999–2000. Iraklio peaked its domestic performance during the 2002–03 season, notably managing to reach theGreek Basketball Cup Final Four (eventually placing in 4th place in the competition).

At the end of the 2003–04 season, Iraklio lost its place in theGreek Basket League finishing in 13th place, thus being relegated to theA2 Championship after seven consecutive seasons in top-flight.^[2] Throughout the season, Iraklio won only 7 games, six of which during the First Round, while going on a 13-game losing streak which spanned from 13 December 2003 to 2 May 2004.^[3] At the end of the season, the club tied in 12th place withIonikos Nea Filadelfeia, both having 33 points on the Table, yet Iraklio was eventually relegated in head-to-head ranking (having lost to Ionikos 94−87 inovertime).^[3]

Irakleio previously used the 1,500 seat Lido Indoor Hall as its home arena. It currently uses the 5,500 seatHeraklion Indoor Sports Arena as its home arena. The 2,400 seatTEI Indoor Sports Hall is also available for the club to use, if needed.

• Greek 2nd Division Champion (1):
  • 1997

Iraklio B.C. roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age PG Papadakis, Miron 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) G Tserkitsoglou, Prodromos 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) PG Maragakis, Pantelis 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) PF Panou, Spyros 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) 32 –(1992-06-07)7 June 1992 PF Lolas, Dimitris 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 38 –(1986-12-31)31 December 1986 F Lianos, Giannis 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 39 –(1985-07-08)8 July 1985 F Petrakis, Alexandros 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 37 –(1987-04-11)11 April 1987 F Pallis, Kostas 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) 45 –(1979-08-01)1 August 1979 C 12 Latović, Damir 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) 110 kg (243 lb) 44 –(1980-07-10)10 July 1980	Head coach Vassilis Rallis Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: 21/09/2016

• Vojislav Vezović
• Georgios Kalafatakis
• Vangelis Alexandris
• Georgios Bartzokas

• Official website(in Greek)
• Eurobasket.com Team Profile

• Basketball teams in Crete
• Basketball teams in Heraklion

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with Greek-language sources (el)