Papaloukas started his career at the small local Athens team Ethnikos Ellinoroson. His distinctive style (a 2.00m high point guard), led him to move to rising team of Ampelokipoi, then Dafni, and eventually to Panionios , a mid-level classic team for first league Greek basketball. His impressive performances garnered him his first move to a major Greek team, Olympiacos , and to the Greek national team, of which he is still a core element. He has played at the European Championships of 2001, in Turkey , 2003, in Sweden , and 2005, in Serbia And Montenegro . After an embarassing year both for him and for Olympiacos , he moved to another European powerhouse, CSKA Moscow , where he is still playing.
Papaloukas, well established already in European basketball as a result of three appearances in consecutive Euroleague Final Fours with CSKA, achieved a worthily acclaimed position at the elite of European basketball at the Eurobasket 2005 in Serbia and Montenegro. After a series of mediocre performances in the first round, he led Greece to beat Russia in the quarterfinals, and orchestrated a major comeback against France in the semifinal, when Greece was down 7 points with 47 seconds on the clock. In the final against Germany , led by prodigious NBA All-Star Dirk Nowitzki , he scored 22 points, leading Greece comfortably to its second European title, first after 1987 . As such, he was selected in the top-5 team of the Championship, along with fellow Greek Dimitris Diamantidis , Spanish shooting guard Juan Carlos Navarro , French all-around NBA player Boris Diaw , and Dirk Nowitzki , who also claimed the MVP title.
Papaloukas also joined the elite club of players who achieved the European title at the national and club level at the same year, as he won with CSKA the Euroleague title at the Final Four in Prague , 28-30 April 2006 . With 19 points in the semi-final against FC Barcelona , and another 18 at the final against back-to-back European champion Maccabi Tel Aviv , he was awarded the Final Four MVP award, having also be named the best point guard of the Euroleague for the year 2005-2006. Alongisde him were the best shooting guard Juan Carlos Navarro of FC Barcelona, best small forward Anthony Parker of Maccabi (the Euroleague MVP), best power forward Luis Scola of Tau Ceramica , and best center Nicola Vujcic of Maccabi.
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