Konstantinos "Kostas" Sloukas (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος "Κώστας" Σλούκας; born January 15, 1990) is a Greek professional basketball player and the team captain for Panathinaikos of the Greek Basket League and the EuroLeague. He is also a regular member of the senior Greek basketball national team. He is a left-handed, 1.90m (6'3") tall[1][2] combo guard.
Sloukas has played in seven EuroLeague Finals (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2023) winning the title on three occasions (2012, 2013, and 2017). He was a member of the All-EuroLeague First Team in 2019.
Sloukas began playing club basketball as a youth, with Megas Alexandros Thessaloniki. Then he moved to the Mandoulides School youth teams, in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Sloukas joined the Greek Basket League power Olympiacos Piraeus, in the year 2008.[3] He then spent the 2008–09 and 2009–10 seasons with the club. He made his debut in Greece's top-tier level Basket League, during the 2008–09 season, and made his debut in Europe's top-tier level, the EuroLeague, during the 2009–10 season. He also won the Greek Cup title with Olympiacos, in 2010.
Sloukas was loaned by Olympiacos, to the Greek club Aris Thessaloniki, in 2010.[4] While a member of Aris, he was named the Greek Basket League's Best Young Player of the Greek Basket League 2010–11 season. With Aris, he also played in Europe's second-tier level competition, the EuroCup, during the same season.[5]
After spending the 2010–11 season with Aris, on loan from Olympiacos,[6] Sloukas returned to Olympiacos for the 2011–12 season. With Olympiacos, he went on to win both the 2012 Greek League championship, and the 2012 EuroLeague championship. He then signed a 3-year contract extension with Olympiacos, in June 2012.[7]
With Olympiacos, Sloukas also won the 2013 EuroLeague championship, and the 2013 FIBA Intercontinental Cup championship. In his last season with Olympiacos, Sloukas was selected to the Greek League Best Five team, and he also played in the 2015 EuroLeague Finals.
On June 29, 2015, Sloukas signed a three-year contract (with the 3rd year being optional) with the Turkish Super League club Fenerbahçe İstanbul.[8] With Fenerbahçe, he made it to the 2016 EuroLeague Finals, and then won the 2017 EuroLeague championship. In the summer of 2017, Sloukas signed a new 3-year contract with Fenerbahçe (with the 3rd year being optional),[9][10] at a salary of €1.7 million euros net income per season.[11]
Sloukas played in his third straight EuroLeague Finals with Fenerbahçe, as the club also made it to the 2018 EuroLeague Finals, where they eventually lost to Real Madrid, by a score of 85–80.[12] During the 2017–18 EuroLeague season, Sloukas averaged career-highs of 10 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game, in 35 games played.[13]
As a member of Fenerbahçe, Sloukas also won three Turkish Super League championships (2016, 2017, 2018), the Turkish Cup (2016), and two Turkish President's Super Cups (2016, 2017). On 25 April 2019, Sloukas, was the star yet again for the Turkish side as he finished the game with a double-double of 25 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals against BC Žalgiris helping his club to win the series with an aggregate 3-1 to secure a place in the Final-4 for a fifth consecutive season. Sloukas has qualified for seven Final-4's in his career, with all seven appearances coming in the last eight seasons. On July 23, 2020 Sloukas and the Turkish club officially parted ways after five successful seasons.[14]
On July 24, 2020, Sloukas signed a three-year contract with Olympiacos.[15]
On 12 August 2020, it was announced by the Euroleague that it was a member of the top ten (team) of Olympiacos in the decade 2010-2020, being fifth in the public vote with a percentage of 79.33%. On 16 August 2020, it was announced by the Euroleague that it was a member of the top ten (team) and Fenerbahce in the decade 2010-2020, being fourth in the public vote with 84.78%.
On 18 December 2020, he became the eighth player in Euroleague history to exceed 1,000 assists. In the 2020-2021 season, he finished with Olympiakos in twelfth place. In the 2021-2022, he became the youngest player (31 years and 342 days old) in Euroleague history with 200+ wins. On 27 January 2022, he completed 300 Euroleague appearances, becoming the tenth athlete to achieve this feat. On January 29, against AEK for the Greek Championship, he set three individual career records. He had 23 points (4/6 two points, 4/7 three points, 3/4 shots) which constitute his top performance in A1. He also had 11 assists (individual record draw) and 37 points in the rating system which is also an individual record. On February 20, he won the Greek Cup, defeating Panathinaikos 81-73 in the final. In addition Olympiacos achieved to qualify to the Play-Off Round of EuroLeague by Finising 2nd in the Regular Season. After facing Monaco in a best-of-five series, Olympiacos qualified to the Final Four with 3-2 wins , 5 years after team's last participate.
On July 6, 2023, after a week of heavy negotiating, Sloukas informed Olympiacos that he would not be renewing his contract with the club, becoming a free agent once more. Sloukas was mainly concerned about the tactical playing style of the team and had clashed with coach Georgios Bartzokas throughout their shared tenure.
On July 8, 2023, in a move echoing the historically controversial transfer of Vassilis Spanoulis in the summer of 2010, Sloukas agreed upon a lucrative three-year deal with Panathinaikos, signing with the arch-nemesis of Olympiacos and changing the power dynamics of Greek basketball, as well as the EuroLeague, once again.[16] Sloukas was also named team captain before the start of the season by coach Ergin Ataman.
With Greece's junior national teams, Sloukas won the silver medal at the 2007 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship, and the gold medal at the 2008 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship, where he was also voted to the All-Tournament Team.[17] He also won the silver medal at the 2009 FIBA Under-19 World Cup, and the gold medal at the 2009 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. He also won the silver medal at the 2010 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship with Greece's junior national team.
Sloukas became a member of the senior men's Greek national basketball team in 2011. With Greece's senior men's national team, he has played at the following tournaments: the EuroBasket 2011, the EuroBasket 2013, the 2014 FIBA World Cup, the EuroBasket 2015, and the EuroBasket 2017. He also played at the 2019 FIBA World Cup qualification.[18]
Sloukas is nicknamed, "Slouky Luke" (pronounced Slucky Luke)[19][20] or the "man who shoots and passes faster than his shadow", which is a word play on his name and the Lucky Luke character.[21][22] Since June 2021, Sloukas has been married to his wife Maria and they have a daughter named Valeria.
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field-goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field-goal percentage | FT% | Free-throw percentage |
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | PIR | Performance Index Rating |
| Bold | Career high |
| † | Denotes seasons in which Sloukas' team won the EuroLeague |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG | PIR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009–10 | Olympiacos | 1 | 0 | 5.4 | .000 | .000 | .500 | 1.0 | .0 | .0 | .0 | 1.0 | .0 |
| 2011–12† | 15 | 0 | 14.7 | .520 | .556 | .875 | 1.7 | 1.6 | .7 | .1 | 5.5 | 7.3 | |
| 2012–13† | 30 | 0 | 14.5 | .413 | .431 | .870 | 1.6 | 1.2 | .4 | .0 | 5.2 | 5.1 | |
| 2013–14 | 28 | 2 | 19.4 | .431 | .377 | .816 | 1.5 | 2.9 | .5 | .2 | 6.5 | 7.0 | |
| 2014–15 | 29 | 0 | 18.0 | .362 | .346 | .868 | 1.9 | 3.1 | .6 | .1 | 6.7 | 8.8 | |
| 2020–21 | 34 | 33 | 27.3 | .414 | .404 | .922 | 2.4 | 6.1 | .3 | .1 | 11.0 | 13.4 | |
| 2021–22 | 37 | 1 | 24.5 | .488 | .418 | .848 | 2.6 | 5.1 | .8 | .1 | 11.9 | 14.8 | |
| 2022–23 | 36 | 0 | 22.5 | .530 | .325 | .906 | 2.1 | 5.6 | .2 | .1 | 11.0 | 14.7 | |
| 2015–16 | Fenerbahçe | 21 | 7 | 20.0 | .449 | .345 | .860 | 1.7 | 3.0 | .3 | .0 | 6.7 | 8.1 |
| 2016–17† | 29 | 14 | 26.1 | .445 | .429 | .870 | 2.1 | 4.5 | .6 | .2 | 9.2 | 9.8 | |
| 2017–18 | 35 | 10 | 24.8 | .445 | .381 | .916 | 2.5 | 5.4 | .6 | .1 | 10.0 | 12.7 | |
| 2018–19 | 33 | 12 | 26.6 | .522 | .449 | .934 | 2.2 | 4.8 | .5 | .2 | 11.6 | 15.2 | |
| 2019–20 | 25 | 19 | 29.3 | 482 | .422 | .938 | 2.8 | 6.1 | .5 | .9 | 11.8 | 15.5 | |
| Career | 353 | 98 | .225 | .475 | .399 | .891 | 2.1 | 4.3 | .6 | 19 | 9.2 | 11.4 | |
Olympiacos
Fenerbahçe
Silver
Gold Silver Gold Silver
