Michalis Kakiouzis


Michalis "Mika" Kakiouzis is a Greek former professional basketball player. At a height of 2.07 m tall, he was able to play at both the small forward and power forward positions.

Early years

Kakiouzis began playing basketball at the age of 8, with the youth academies of Ionikos NF, in Greece.

Professional career

Kakiouzis made his debut with the Ionikos N.F. senior club in the 1992–93 season. He played three seasons in the Greek 2nd Division. At the age of 18, he became the 2nd scorer and rebounder of the Greek 2nd Division.
He was in the squad that brought Greece the gold medal in 1995, at the FIBA Under-19 World Cup for junior men. This was a stepping stone for his journey toward AEK Athens, as his performance at the 1995 Junior World Cup with Greece got him a contract with AEK, one of the powers of the top Greek League.
Kakiouzis had a fruitful stay at AEK Athens. While with the club, he won a Greek League championship in the 2001–02 season, and he also won two Greek Cups, in the years 2000 and 2001. He also won the Saporta Cup with AEK, in the year 2000.
After leaving AEK Athens in the year 2002, Kakiouzis went on to play for Montepaschi Siena in Italy. With Siena, he won both the Italian League championship and the Italian Supercup in the 2003–04 season. He was also named to the All-Italian League Team for the season by the Eurobasket.com website.
In 2005, Kakiouzis left Siena and joined Barcelona Basquet of the Spanish League. He stayed with Barcelona until his contract expired in 2007. He then joined the Spanish League club Sevilla.
Kakiouzis signed with the Turkish League club Efes in 2008. On August 27, 2009, he returned to the Greek League and signed with Aris Thessaloniki. In 2011, he signed with Vanoli Basket to help the team to avoid relegation.
In January 2012, he signed with the Italian League club Virtus Roma. In October 2012, he signed with SAV Vacallo Basket of the Swiss League. In 2013, he played for the Cypriot League club AEK Larnaca. In the summer of 2013, he participated in the training camp of Olympiacos. He then joined the Greek club AENK in 2013. On 19 January 2015, after averaging 9 points and 6 rebounds, he left AENK.
On 23 January 2015, Kakiouzis moved to Cyprus and signed a contract with APOEL. He joined the Greek 2nd Division club, Faros Keratsiniou, for the 2015–16 season.
On 4 January 2016, he announced that his retirement as a player would come at the end of the 2015–16 season.

National team career

Greek junior national team

At the age of 15, Kakiouzis became a player of the national junior teams of Greece. With the Greek junior national team, he won the gold medal at the 1993 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship. He was also on the Greek national junior squad that brought Greece the gold medal in 1995, at the FIBA Under-19 World Cup for junior men. He would later go on to be a key member on Greece's senior national team as well.

Greek senior national team

Kakiouzis was the captain of the senior men's Greek national basketball team. He was a member of the Greek team that won the gold medal at the EuroBasket 2005, and was also a member of Greece's silver medal winning team at the 2006 FIBA World Championship. Kakiouzis was on Greece's team that competed at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, which was held in Athens. He also competed with Greece's senior team at the EuroBasket 1999, EuroBasket 2001, EuroBasket 2003, and EuroBasket 2007.

Post-playing career

After he retired from playing professional basketball, Kakiouzis became the lead scout of AEK Athens.

Awards and achievements

Professional career