Last week's Pavlos Giannakopoulos preseason tournament at the Panathenaic Stadium drew a mammoth crowd of 42,000 during the nightcap game featuring home team Panathinaikos against Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade. The number doubled the previous attendance record, which was coincidentally set by the same two teams when they played at Belgrade Arena during the 2008-09 Euroleague season.
Although the hosts lost to Partizan 64-75, former NBA guard Patrick Beverley believes it would be tough for an NBA team to win at that venue with that kind of environment in a game with something meaningful on the line.
" The Panathinaikos game in Greece," Beverley said on his podcast. "First Olympic stadium — 40,000 people, almost 50,000 people at a hoop game outside. Nah, they snapped. It wasn't even the other team's fans, it was just them. They — all their fans. It'd be tough for an NBA team to win there. It'd be tough. Not saying it wouldn't happen — it'd be tough. It'd be tough. It'd be tough. That's all."
It hosted the largest crowd ever in any basketball game in 1968
Built around 330 B.C., the iconic Panathenaic Stadium in Athens was the venue for the first modern Olympic games in 1896. During the '60s, the stadium was used by the Greek professional basketball team AEK Basketball Club as its home court.
In 1968, the FIBA European Cup Winners Cup final between AEK and Slavia VS Praha was played in front of 80,000 seated fans. That total is widely believed to be the world record for attendance in any basketball game. Although the Olympic Stadium's capacity is now down to 45,000, a sold-out crowd there would be something that even the NBA's biggest stars have seen. And according to Pat Bev, even the NBA's best teams could fold under the pressure of that kind of crowd.
"Like almost 50,000 people against you?" added Beverley. "Almost every mistake is magnified. Any missed shot is magnified. Any big shot is a dagger. Any like, Nah, it'd be hard. It'd be hard. Not saying that it wouldn't be done. It is just hard."
Pat Bev is enjoying his time playing in Europe
Since signing for Hapoel Tel Aviv BC of the Israeli Premier League last July, Beverley has been all praise for European basketball. Immediately after arriving in his new basketball home, the three-time NBA All-Defensive team member declared that basketball in Europe and the NBA are two different games.
"In Europe, everyone is trying to play and fight through everything. You don't really have a lot of guys missing stuff unless it's something serious. If it's not something serious, guys are playing. Over there, every game is important. You lose one, two games in the regular season, you might not even make the qualifier. If you're EuroLeague and you finish last, you get kicked out, or you gotta play the team who won EuroCup, and they might beat you out," Pat Bev said .
It's nice to hear Beverley talking about the good things he's been experiencing away from the NBA. He even recently compared his popularity in Israel to being like LeBron James . Well, that just shows that he is enjoying every minute of his tenure away from the NBA, which is nice because it proves that there can still be a good life for players after they are cut from the NBA.
Related: Patrick Beverley says he's one of one: "Steph Currys, LeBron Jameses, Kobe Bryants, Michael Jordans, those guys come all the time"
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