Local contingent shines in world championship basketball tourney

It’s almost hard to believe that a team consisting almost entirely of Winthrop athletes could be competitive against large nations sending their best players, including many ex-professionals.

But that’s what transpired at the 13th Annual European Championship in Athens, Greece, where former Winthrop High and Suffolk University basketball great Chris Tsiotos and his teammates excelled in the Masters’ 70-Over Division, going 2-2 with wins over national teams from Uruguay and Japan. Winthrop’s other games were against teams representing Greece and Italy while Germany, Mexico, Spain, and England played in other brackets. The Winthrop team took home the Ambassadors Trophy as the top non-European entrant.

“I’m very excited about how well we competed,” said Chris.

In addition to Tsiotos, the 6-foot-5-inch WHS Hall of Fame inductee who led the Northeastern Conference in scoring with a remarkable 28 points-per-game average (long before the 3-point rule went into effect), the team consisted of Viking alumni, starting guard on the 1973 Tech Tournament team, Steve Mahoney (whose daughter, Kelly Mahoney, hit one of the most memorable game-winning shots in school history) WHS Hall of Fame basketball player, Louie Hinckley (who played at UMaine), Adam Hubley (who played basketball at Bowdoin, following the path of his father, Norman Hubley), and Dr. John Earl (a professor at the University of Richmond, whose niece, Caroline Earl, starred at Winthrop High, captaining the 2021 team.)

“We basically had our Winthrop summer league City team, when there were 24 teams in the league,” said Tsiotos. “It was the same team that played together 50 years ago.”

Tsiotos noted that Hubley was a standout in the international tournament, averaging 17 points and four three-pointers per game.

Also playing for Winthrop were Steve Bulpett, the former Boston Herald sportswriter, former MIT basketball player Peter Maimoni , Mike Aronson, and Dr. Neil Harding, who played high school basketball at Rindge Tech (Cambridge).

“Interestingly Neil Harding played against Winthrop 50 years ago when we lost to Rindge Tech in a very controversial game in the Tech Tournament at the Garden,” recalled Tsiotos. “It was fate that he was now playing with the Winthrop team. I never expected that years later I’d be a teammate of a guy whom we lost to by one-point in the semifinals. Neil is an emergency room doctor now.”

Games played in Olympic arenas

Winthrop’s games were played in the same basketball venues that hosted the

2004 Summer Olympic Games. More than 1,000 players participated in the tournament. Before each game, the teams exchanged gifts emblematic of their country.

The tournament kicked off with a parade to the Acropolis. The Winthrop group also visited the Parthenon, an ancient Greek temple.

The teams played 40-minute, 5-on-5- games, meaning the players had to be in excellent physical shape.

“There was a little adjustment, for us” said Tsiotos, noting that most tournaments are 3-on-3, halfcourt. “In 5-on-5, full court, you have to run a lot. It’s a little more challenging, and no teams show up that aren’t in shape.”

Reflecting on the tournament experience which especially resonated with Tsiotos, who is of Greek heritage, the Vikings’ all-time basketball hoopster and attorney-at-law said, “It was a great time. We were in Greece for nine days and visited all the sites. When we were playing in the Winthrop summer league, we never expected to be playing in the European Championships.”

The experience was so memorable, that Tsiotos and Company are considering a trip to Brazil for the 2027 world championships.

“We’d like to have my brother [former Suffolk University basketball player Nick Tsiotos] with us next year,” said Chris.