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He stole a peek to see if the others on the floor could see him, before leaving for the locker room in quick stride to do once again what seemed unthinkable to all who knew him. Once inside he went straight to a teammate's jacket, took the money he found and left quickly, as thieves do when they break into a house.
He was ashamed of what he did, say friends and acquaintances of the international and nationally known basketball player, but that wasn't enough to stop him from doing the act in recent months. Perhaps he didn't even think he would eventually get caught, since the constant theft of money from the locker room had upset his teammates and team. It hadn't been one, two or three times that this had happened. And what's more?
He didn't realize that the rest of the team had realized that whenever he was gone for a while, then their money was gone. The hidden camera that was unknowingly inserted without his knowledge did not take long to reveal the light-handed international player, who, addicted to his personal demons for years, always needed money. Even if it was someone else's.
The background
When the electronic eye of the tiny camera focused on the famous basketball player's face without him being aware of it, it was only a matter of hours before the truth was revealed. A shocking truth for the man who was confronted with the hardest moment of his life to date.
A life that has brought him triumphs, victories, victories, struggles, conflicts, but also the most painful deconstruction of his personality, now that he has entered the fourth decade of his life. After the revelations of his actions, what happened behind the scenes, according to people very familiar with the case, does no one any credit.
This is because a teammate allegedly leaked the camera footage to sports sites and newspapers, even though the other players and management wanted to settle the matter internally. It was only a matter of time before a media outlet was found that would publish the footage with appropriate headlines to sell the story accordingly.
Thus the headline "Well-known basketball player steals from teammates" had many people searching for his name, unaware that behind such an act sometimes lies personal tragedies. His has to do with both difficulties in his personal life and a gambling addiction in recent years, which proved to be the catalyst for his downfall.
He was ashamed of what he did, the international basketball player's friends and acquaintances say, but the demons of his passion always got in the way of any attempt to maintain his dignity
Some elders in the business remember him, in the early 1990s, as a kid in the south suburbs trying his best, being a big kid who looked like he was going places. Except that even then he couldn't have imagined that 30 years later he would still be playing basketball, but in bondage to his gambling addiction. The one that lured him into a world where you always have to have money to play. And this one didn't.
Floor gyrologist
Shortly after his 20th birthday, the then young basketball player, born in a suburb a stone's throw from the centre of Athens, got the first big transfer of his career to an A' National League team. He would feast his eyes for two consecutive seasons before moving to a team in Thessaloniki, where he wins his first European title, followed immediately by perhaps the biggest signing of his career. He moves to one of the top two teams in the league, a perennial contender for the trophy, of which he has been a fan since childhood, something he has never denied.
Explosive character, sometimes convincing, sometimes not. He gradually matures and learns that silence is sometimes golden. He will be anointed champion, but for some inexplicable reason he hardly ever lasts more than two seasons at one club. He is not helped by his character, say people who have known him well and witnessed him through both the good and, more importantly, the difficult moments of his time on the court.
An impulsive character, he carries a suspicion of a romantic rebel, which does not thrive in such places, where the competition and the war for a golden contract are fierce. He will fight with managers with better known names than him on the floor, but he didn't want to put water in his wine, which is why after 2007 the teams he plays for are not first-rate. His introduction to a stunning woman brings a great love affair that leads to marriage at the end of the last decade and about two years later comes the day he holds his only daughter in his arms. The little girl becomes his whole being, but at that time the demon that has haunted him to this day enters him for good.
Gambling addiction in all forms is not long in coming and, although he remains a very loving father, every day he becomes more and more immersed in gambling. He even goes as far as playing for a team in a foreign country that hardly exists in basketball, as he needs money to satisfy his passion for betting.
The relationship with the woman he loved and gave him his only child doesn't take long to go downhill and when the separation comes, she leaves him with their child, according to reports at the time. The Greece national team international bobs around in small clubs and there are more than a few times when fans recognize and cheer him on.
What led him to them? People who have interacted with him say the main reason was his choice to essentially be an easy rider, saying "no" when others said "yes" and most importantly talking by going against the grain. In recent years his pay was nothing like what he used to get, and gambling was now an integral part of his daily life. Apart from the endless hours he spent and still spends raising his daughter, he then lived to gamble late into the night.
But something that constantly required money that was not there, so the basketball player started borrowing too often from acquaintances and friends, saying he was facing financial difficulties. With the promise that they would get it back, he found a temporary solution to his passion, but it wasn't long before it became known in the industry that he was playing every day, refusing to accept that he was addicted to gambling.
Some older people in the industry remember him, in the early 1990s, a kid in the southern suburbs trying his best, being a tall kid who looked like he was going to develop. Except that even then he couldn't imagine that 30 years later he would still be playing basketball, but in thrall to his gambling addiction
Gradually, and after he got to the point, by all accounts, of asking for loans even from people who barely knew him, everyone stopped lending him money. Some may have hoped that by no longer giving him money they would be able to stop the decline of the accomplished athlete, who could no longer live without playing. But they had not considered that when someone is an addict he will do anything to satisfy the passion and any obsession that has taken hold of him.
So he plummeted lower, unable, as people who know him say, to tame the personal demon that has well and truly gotten inside him. At the last team where he played, he started stealing from his teammates at unsuspected times by going into the locker room when no one else was there. He would search pockets in jackets, take what he could find and go back, but relatively quickly his teammates realized that every time after practice they were missing money. Their suspicions fell on the protagonist of this incredible story not for any other reason, but because everyone knew of his sick passion for betting.
So wanting to have solid proof, they placed the tiny hidden camera in the locker room, which captured their teammate in action. Appropriate steps were taken so that the culprit would be sanctioned, but almost everyone did not want his name to be defamed by publicizing the case.
One, however, started sending the controversial video to sites and sports newspapers that did not want to publish it, especially since the basketball player was essentially a sick and addicted man. Someone who would never have dared to contemplate such a thing had he not been so addicted to betting gambling that he didn't even consider the humiliating things that would follow. The things that everyone hopes will be forgotten mainly because right now all this man needs is to be helped and put into a rehab program for the sick passion that destroyed his life and career.
Source: Proto Thema
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