Team 2008-09: OLYMPIAKOS PIREUS (Greece-ESAKE)
Career: Iraklis (Greece-ESAKE, 2000-03), Cantù (Italy-Lega, 2003-04), Aris (Greece-ESAKE, 2004-05), Olympiakos (Greece-ESAKE, 2005-09).
Sofoklis Schortsanitis was a huge hit at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan following a very impressive campaign at Olympiakos under then coach Jonas Kazlauskas. In the time since, he has struggled to maintain his focus and battled weight issues, spending all of the 2007-08 season away from the floor with Olympiakos. The arrival of Yannakis at Olympiacos after the Reds' sacking of Pini Gershon led to a Schortsanitis revival. Big Sofo agreed to attend a special center in Switzerland to lose weight and made his first steps back to basketball in the spring of 2008, coming back with the national team in the summer of 2008, but his role was much more limited. Sofoklis has often had weight problems but when he wears the national team jersey, he becomes a 150 kilo monster, moving through the paint with the quickness of a guard. This son of a Greek father and a Cameroonian mother, Sofo used to be a chess champion in his hometown of Kavala but he soon turned to more physical activities.
