Big Ioannis wants Wolves championship before focusing on next target

The only thing stopping Ioannis Dimakopoulos from his first break from basketball in two years after the Joondalup Wolves' season ends will be if he gets to achieve his NBL dream, but right now all he's worried about is helping the Wolfpack to an NBL1 West championship.

It's been quite the hectic six years for the 7'2 Greek-Australian giant since he finished his college career at the University of California, Irvine, which saw him finish up as a senior in 2017 named to the All-Big West Conference Second Team.

Since then, Dimakopoulos has played with Spanish second division clubs Albacete Basket and Afanion CB Almansa along with Greek clubs Panionios and Apollon Patras, and then Baskonia B in Spain, AEL Limassol in Cyprus, LWD Basket in the Netherlands, MBK Handlova in Slovakia, UBSC Graz in Austria and even at the Eastern Mavericks in NBL1 Central.

That has included him not taking a break for approaching two years now, but Dimakopoulos is showing no signs of the wear and tear having hit the game winning three-point at the end of overtime in Saturday night's preliminary final win for the Wolves over the Rockingham Flames.

That has him now preparing for Saturday night's NBL1 West Grand Final for the Wolfpack against the Geraldton Buccaneers where he will be a key player for Joondalup with the all-round talents he's showing as a big man who can pass, shoot, rebound and block shots.

Goals in future beyond this NBL1 season

Once this NBL1 West season ends at the Wolfpack for Dimakopoulos whether it's after Saturday night's Grand Final or after next week's National Finals, he has his sights on one of two things next.

He would have gone 24 months straight without a break if the Wolves make the National Finals so a holiday to Italy is on the agenda before he decides on his next home.

However, the only thing that would stop that is if he's able to secure a home in the NBL to remain in Australia with him eligible to play as a local.

"Everything is in the air still at the moment as long as we keep playing and especially if we keep winning that will mean I am here playing for another week after this too. A lot of things depend on if I have any NBL interest," Dimakopoulos said. 

"If that's the case, then I will definitely accommodate that but if I don't, then I was planning on going on a month vacation to Italy. I feel like after 23 months straight of playing, my body needs one month's rest so that would be my plan."

Having just battled against the NBL's oldest ever Rookie of the Year Tom Jervis this past Saturday night, Dimakopoulos is hopeful an NBL opportunity could still come his way as he approaches his 29th birthday.

Sure, he won't be eligible for that Rookie of the Year award given he's played professionally throughout Europe over the past six years already, but having played in Greece with Panionios and Apollon Patras, his next goal to tick off is playing in the NBL.

At 7'2 and given he will be able to play in the league as a local and has proven he has an inside and outside game, can rebound, block shots and moves well for his size, it wouldn’t surprise if he did attract interest still for NBL24.

"I would really like to play in the NBL for the first time as an Australia, that's my next big goal. I have played in the highest division in Greece as a Greek person so it would feel amazing to play in the highest division in Australia as an Australian person," he said. 

"Then I would have fulfilled both sides of my family, my father's side and my mother's side. It would be very interesting for me and this was my goal coming to Australia even from my first time to try and make an NBL roster. It hasn’t happened so far but I'm turning 29 soon and I'm not too old I hope. But we will see."

Landing at the Wolves in 2023

Dimakopoulos had always dreamed of playing professionally in both countries where his parents came from with his father born in Greece and mother in Australia so he was eyeing off the NBL1 as his chance to get a foot in the door of the NBL.

While he didn’t mind his NBL1 Central experience at the Eastern Mavericks last season, he was after something more in 2023 and the Wolves soon became obvious as the place he wanted to play once his season in Spain at Albacete finished.

"I wanted to come back to Australia and I think there are 76 clubs overall in NBL1 so I told my agent to try and find one that would be the best fit for me and who would be happy for me to come in mid-season," Dimakopoulos said.

"My agent had interest from two clubs here in NBL1 West who were meeting my requirements and I was meeting theirs, and I guess Wolves were the option that I went with.

"Coach Morrell also coached in South Australia before so he was a bit familiar with the league I played in last year so he could see how I could fit into his system, and we had a good chat and I decided that it was going to be my next move."

Feeling to win that way in preliminary final

Technically it wasn’t a walk off buzzer-beating three-pointer, but it just about was when Dimakopoulos knocked down the killer blow with the three-pointer that ended up in his hands after Quintin Dove had his shot blocked inside on the last play for the Wolves.

While they still had a defensive possession to play, Dimakopoulos won't hide his feelings over how good it felt to hit what turned out to be the winning shot for and for the Wolves to do what might have been the unthinkable to those outside their four walls – eliminating Rockingham.

"It felt amazing but it wasn’t really a buzzer beater because we still had to defend the next possession to make sure we secured the win," he said.

"But it was a three not a two so it gave us a bit of safety that it could go to a second overtime but we couldn’t lose. It felt really good, though, I'm not going to lie.

"To be honest it felt good to win that game and I do respect Rockingham as a team because they have a very good coach with a very good roster, but it was a game I was confident we could win. Looking back to our locker room and coaching staff with our personnel, we have a very good team as well. 

"We were definitely ready and prepared for that game, and we only lost to Rockingham in a good game at our house when we lost Mathiang early and it was only my fourth game with the team. But this time it felt like we were way more prepared and played more as a team, and then you see that in the result that we got."

Confidence in the team built at Wolfpack

What had Dimakopoulos so excited about joining this Joondalup team was that he had two things in mind when choosing his new NBL1 home – he wanted to be on a team competing for a championship and one that could help him get to the NBL.

He felt the Wolves would provide him the platform to shine but also give him a chance to win a championship given the team they had put together with imports CJ Turnage and Quintin Dove, and recruits Christian Jurlina, Mathiang Muo and Bryan Michaels.

He always had faith that the team could be successful but they just couldn’t get the full team on the court in the regular season. In the 13 games that Dimakopoulos has now played, only three of them have been with Turnage, Dove, Jurlina, Muo and Michaels also out there.

Even last weekend, Muo only played Thursday's semi-final where he had 27 points against Willetton while Michaels only played Saturday's preliminary final with 16 points against Rockingham.

However, what makes Dimakopoulos so confident in his team is what they are capable of at full strength which he hopes they now can not only show on Saturday night, but also in next week's National Finals.

"I think our roster is amazing. We did a good job of putting together a group of guys who can win games, it just happened that a couple of guys including myself were missing in the first part of the season and we lost some guys as a result," Dimakopoulos said. 

"Then if you look into it, we had so many games where either Quintin Dove the leading scorer in the league, Mathiang one of the best shooters, Bryan Michaels who is almost a 20 points a game player missing games. 

"And sometimes we had more than one player missing and last time we played Geraldton, Christian Jurlina and Quintin Dove both were not able to play so we haven’t ever really had our whole time out there this season a lot. 

"So I wasn’t worried going into the playoffs because I knew we would finally have everyone so I was confident in what we could do."

The journey to get to Joondalup

Coming to the NBL1 West for the first time and to do it mid-season wasn’t easy for Dimakopoulos despite just how accustomed he's become to jumping from team to team over his professional basketball career over the past six years.

He's now had 11 different stints at clubs in six years since graduating from college at UC Irvine with precious little time off along the way, but there's still always an adjustment period especially coming to a new league for the first time.

"It's tough because it takes a lot of adjustment and for me, it's not like I'm coming to a team fresh and after a break," Dimakopoulos said. 

"My season so far of continuous basketball is 23 months. I started in late August of 2021 where I played almost 10 months in Spain, then I played last year in South Australia. 

"Then it was straight to my season in Austria with a 10-day gap of me travelling back to Europe from Australia. After that, I went back to Spain and when that season finished I came straight here so I've been playing basketball for 23 months straight."

Confidence in own ability and of the team

While Dimakopoulos has enjoyed the challenges he's faced playing in the NBL1 West season for the first time and to come up against a variety of centres from Tom Jervis to Gorjok Gak, Andrew Ferguson and now Grand Final opponents Liam Hunt and Mat Wundenberg, he always felt he would be able to do well even coming in mid-season at the Wolves.

A big reason for that is the level of players he has grown accustomed to in Europe including at Spanish clubs Albacete and Almansa along with powerful Dutch club LWD Basket, Austria's UBSC Graz and Slovakia's MBK Handlova.

The payroll for some of those clubs is even superior to the salary cap in the NBL so while Dimakopoulos would never take anything for granted, he always felt he was well placed do well in the NBL1 West given what he's become used to coming up against in Europe.

"I respect all my opponents, but I have played a very high level in Europe with the team I was with in Spain this last season came up against teams who spent $3.2 million on their players," Dimakopoulos said.

"So I know that in any game at NBL1 I know I won't face players making that much money so that was a very high level I was coming from, but that doesn’t mean the players here in NBL1 aren't also a very good standard. 

"But I did feel like I was prepared coming here for whatever I faced and I will give everyone the respect I play against, but I'm also not worried about anyone I will face. 

"I will just go out and do my job, and follow the scout that our coaches give us and I think on this team, if we stick together as a group we have a good chance and we've proven that now by beating the first team Rockingham, Willetton the third team and Perry Lakes the fourth team in the last game of the regular season to get to the Grand Final. 

"So we've gone through the first, third and fourth team in the last three weeks and that's the way you have to do it if you want to become the best," he added.

"You have to challenge the best and so far Rockingham was the best team in the league, and it felt good matching up with their great players like Tom Jervis for example and the league's MVP Devondrick Walker who is an amazing player. It's always nice playing against nice players like that."

Difference from playing in Europe to Australia

Dimakopoulos is well adjusted to playing different styles of basketball and even before arriving at Joondalup he'd played an NBL1 Central season at the Eastern Mavericks and then his four years of college at UC Irvine.

He's also had extensive experience throughout Europe playing in Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Netherlands, Slovakia and Austria over the past six years so he's well placed to judge the difference in the game around the world.

The half-court, physical grind of basketball in Europe where it's more focused on the half-court is something he's found a way to thrive in, but he does enjoy the faster pace of the game down under – especially once he got a better handle on the officiating.

"In Europe we're very strategic in the offensive and defensive style of play where everything is calculated to the spot while here you have a lot more freedom," he said.

"You can also see that by the scoring where the teams score a lot more in games here. I think the biggest reasons for that is that are more possessions in the game because teams shoot earlier in the shot clock and it's less of a half-court game without trying to find the ultimate advantage or mismatches. That has been a bit of a different for me and I've had to adjust to that."

Getting the balance with an inside, outside game

Clearly at 7'2 and with the skills he possesses with ball in hand, Dimakopoulos has all the tools and moves to be able to be a dominant post presence in the NBL1 West.

Rival clubs obviously know this too and that's why he has quickly faced double teams anytime he's caught the ball in the block and as a result hasn’t really got to showcase what he can do in terms of his inside game.

However, the great benefit of that is that he's been able to show his array of talents and he can be a majestical passer of the basketball, dishing one handed dimes to his waiting teammates that he's more than happy to set up.

Dimakopoulos has also shown he has the shooting touch that defies the fact that he's 7'2 tall by nailing 45.2 per cent of his three-point attempts including that huge winning triple against Rockingham in the preliminary final.

He's also going at 56.9 per cent overall from the field this season with the Wolfpack and while he wouldn’t mind getting the chance to show off what he can do in the post, he's happy to do whatever is best for the team.

"It depends on what the team needs. For example, with Rockingham coach Morrell asked me to stretch the floor a lot and shoot the three, and then anytime I could go in the post without a double team then I should try to go all the way," Dimakopoulos said. 

"But unfortunately, the last six or seven games I've been getting double teamed in the post right away so I haven’t showcased my post moves or what I can do it in the post in Western Australia as much as I would like. 

"The moment the double team comes I'm a willing passer and I want to keep my teammates happy, but also do what's best for the team. I do think I'm a good passer and I learned how to do that from my father who was a professional basketball player for many years, and also my coach in college was a big guy who was an assistant for the Warriors. 

"So you learn to play through a system where everyone is able to do everything, but for me it's what the team needs. When Rockingham was guarding me with Jeremy Combs then I went to the post but when it was Tom Jervis then I was spacing up to shoot the three. 

"It just depends on the day and I will do what coach Morrell wants me to do but now that I'm almost 29, I have enough experience to be able to read the game and am able to see where I'm mostly needed."

Feeling as Saturday's Grand Final draws near

Dimakopoulos can feel the excitement building ahead of Saturday night's Grand Final where he's set to lock horns with experienced championship winning bigs from the Buccs, Liam Hunt and Mat Wundenberg.

But at the same time, he's trying to treat it like any other week with one game to prepare for while knowing if the Wolves prevail, he's going to have to change things up a little next week for the National Finals which will also be held at HBF Arena Joondalup.

"I'm a bit excited and not really too nervous because it's just a game at the end of the day. I just try to not really thinking about it too much and am trying to do exactly the same as the previous weeks," Dimakopoulos said.

"I'm just going to my weight room, getting treatment, I'm doing my shooting and I haven’t changed anything in my routine for the game. 

"I'm treating it as one more game this week and then if we are able to win and we get all the way to the National Finals where you have to play three games in three days, then I will have to treat it a bit differently about my rest and nutrition.

"But I have played three games in three days before every year in college where it's the same thing to reach the March Madness. I just have to remember how to do it if we get to that point."