Olympiacos sports director Christos Bafes discussed the club's title-winning season, its transfer business, ongoing renovation work at the SEF arena and the commitment of owners Panagiotis and Giorgos Angelopoulos in an interview with EOK WebRadio.
Olympiacos won both the Euroleague and the Greek championship last season, completing a domestic and European double. Bafes said the club wants to keep up the same pace this season.
Asked whether last season's success creates extra pressure, Bafes joked that if winning brought more pressure, it would be better not to win at all. He said the pace of daily life does not leave time to dwell on past achievements, adding that he and general manager Antonis Katsikis were already sitting in the office planning flights and logistics for the season ahead. He said the schedule looks daunting at first glance but becomes more manageable once broken down. Olympiacos, he said, has always placed heavy emphasis on logistics, facilities and player comfort, and preparation for the new season began the day after the championship was won, since renovation work at the SEF started immediately afterward.
SEF arena renovation continues
Bafes said building work at the SEF is continuing without pause and that the club could not yet say exactly when it would be completed, though he was certain it would not be finished within 2026. He said everything is proceeding as planned, with new ideas emerging along the way.
The training facility is currently at around 80 percent of the level the club wants, according to Bafes. He said the most important outstanding item is an acoustic treatment based on a specialist study, designed to create the best possible conditions for the coach to communicate with players. New locker rooms are planned for next summer, a project he described as significant on its own. The club is also building training facilities for its academies so young players can train in proper conditions, alongside new offices, with several projects running in parallel while the team itself must stay ready to compete.
Roster changes larger than expected
On the departure of several long-serving players, Bafes said the scale of the roster renewal was larger than the club had anticipated. He said teams that stay at the top for years must refresh their rosters to keep ambitions high, noting that players can naturally feel undervalued, whether or not that feeling is justified, making periodic renewal necessary.
He said the team had completed a remarkable cycle, reaching five consecutive Final Fours, and that some players grew older while others had different priorities in mind. He called it a natural progression, even if larger than expected, and said Olympiacos now faces a new challenge to rebuild the team it had grown accustomed to being in recent years.
Transfer timing and Angelopoulos investment
Bafes said the timing of signings made during last season, while the campaign was under way, depended heavily on market conditions and circumstance. He cited the arrival of Jones at Christmas and Joseph later in the season, along with an injury to Morris that pushed the club into the market for a guard. He said luck plays a role, and that a player may become available at a moment when Olympiacos does not need him or considers the move a luxury.
He said the Angelopoulos brothers have "bled" for the club for years, spending hundreds of millions of euros on Olympiacos and continuing to do so because they are, in his words, obsessed with the team. He said they always stand by the team and the coaching staff when needed, and that no other club officials devote as many hours to the team, adding that the staff must remain alert around the clock.
Why players choose Olympiacos
Bafes said the club works to build a strong environment for its athletes, noting that while some players prioritize money, others value environment and conditions above all. He said Olympiacos' reputation across Europe and the wider world helps attract talent, pointing to players such as Jean Montero and Cody Miller-McIntyre, and above all Evan Fournier, as examples of players who chose Olympiacos while placing factors other than money first.
Two titles on the line this month
Bafes noted that the season's first two trophies are up for grabs soon, the Euroleague Super Cup on September 18-19 and the Greek Super Cup on September 26-27. He said Olympiacos must go into both competitions aiming to win, starting with the Euroleague Super Cup, followed by the Euroleague season opener and then the Greek Super Cup, adding that the club wants both titles.
Thessaloniki's basketball revival
Bafes welcomed the resurgence of basketball in Thessaloniki, saying he wants PAOK, Aris and AEK, along with the rest of the league, to be strong given the serious moves they have made. He predicted the strongest Greek championship in many years, saying that in 25 years at Olympiacos he expects to experience the toughest league of his tenure. He said the most significant part is not simply that Thessaloniki's clubs are building strong rosters, but that they are investing in facilities, personnel, coaches and logistics.
He said this will benefit Greek basketball as a whole, alongside the senior men's national team's return to the medals after many years. He added that more investment is needed in young players, saying two or three generations of prospects are coming through the academies and need playing time, while stressing that young players themselves must be willing to work rather than expect success handed to them. Bafes said everyone involved in the sport shares responsibility for creating the best possible conditions for Greek basketball.
