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| FIRST YEARS
Nick Galis was born the 23rd of July in 1957, in New Jersey, US. His real name was Nikos Georgalis, but Galis was much easier for the people in the States. His parents, George and Stella, were immigrants coming from the greek island Rhodes. In his childhood, young Nick wanted to become an astronaut, but his destiny was to become an athlete, since his father was a boxer and pushed him in that direction. Galis became indeed an ecxellent boxer himself, but his mother could not handle watching her son getting injured everyday in practice, so she asked him to pick another sport, a safer one. At the beggining, it was football, but lastly, it could only be basketball for Nick. Those years, Galis would play endlessly in Manhattan's playgrounds, where as he later admited, he could not recall losing a game, even playing against older guys. |
| Galis's idols were Jerry West and Walt Frazier. Growing up, he made his name in Union Hill High School, where he played astonishing well, and earned a basketball scholarship in the University of Seton Hall. There, in Bill Raftery's hands and playing for the Pirates, he became a superb point guard and a penetrating specialist. He ranked 3rd in scoring in the entire NCAA, averaging 27,5 ppg, just behind legendary Larry Bird. But he was not meant to play to the NBA.
A lot of NBA teams were highly interested for him, but just before NBA draft in 1979, he suffered a severe leg injury. And that was not all! His manager, Bill Manon, was rather indifferent for basketball (he was also managing Diana Ross at this early stage of her career) and left Galis fighting alone. Despite all those facts, the Boston Celtics chose Galis in no.68 (no.2 in the fourth round). But then one more injury came, and the dream was finaly over. In the same period of time, some greek team advisors discovered him through an italian magazine. It did not take a long time since the first call from Greece came. At first, it was Panathinaikos, then Olympiacos, but lastly, it was Aris the greek champion that year, that convinced Nick to come to his homeland. In the 29th of September in 1979, Galis arrived in Thessaloniki with George Tsiligaridis, Aris manager. In that moment, maybe no one could predict that this boy with the afro hairstyle, would change the history of sports in a whole country. |
| GALIS IN GREECE
Galis story in greek basketball begined in the 30th of October in 1979. The negotiations between him and Aris' officials, lasted 20 days. Meanwhile, the deadline for him to be included in the Euroleague was had already gone away. At last, he signed a contract in the 16th of October and played his first match against Iraklis, scoring 30 points. He seemed tight that day and turned the ball over a few times, but he promised to play good basketball in the future. And as it was proved, he kept his promise. |
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| To the left: Galis flying in a game against Esperos. |