Vassilis Spanoulis may miss 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup

Vassilis Spanoulis, captain of Olympiacos B.C. from the Greek Basket League, will undergo a season-ending surgery for a peroneal tendon rupture on his right foot, announced the team manager on Friday. This means that the 36-year-old guard may miss the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup in China.

Spanoulis was injured in the first half of the EuroLeague game against the Olimpia Milano on March 14 and has not played any game since then. Originally he was expected to miss only the remainder of the EuroLeague regular season, but the latest estimation said goodbye to the whole 2018-19 season for him.

This was definitely bad news for the Greek national team because Spanoulis is one of the greatest basketball players in the country's history. Back in 2006, at the FIBA World Championship in Japan, Spanoulis, as Greece's sixth male participant, scored 22 points to help his country defeat the U.S. in the semi-finals 101-95. This was not an easy feat, considering the U.S. team had LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Chris Bosh.

Vassilis Spanoulis #7 of the Olympiacos Piraeus penetrates in the game against the Khimki Moscow Region in the 2018-2019 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular season Round 19 game at the Peace and Friendship Stadium, January 17, 2019. /VCG Photo

Spanoulis had a remarkable record in his European career, too. He won three EuroLeague championships, seven Greek League titles as three-time EuroLeague Final Four MVP and three-time Greek League MVP. In 2013, Spanoulis also received the EuroLeague MVP.

Thanks to the long list of honors he had won, Spanoulis gained the reputation of the "European Kobe Bryant." In 2004, he was selected by the Dallas Mavericks as the 5th pick in the NBA Draft and sent to the Houston Rockets. However, like many of his European compatriots, Spanoulis could not adapt well to the NBA and departed the U.S. in 2007.

As a result of the surgery, Greek fans will not be able to see the valuable veteran assisting Giannis Antetokounmpo at the national team against New Zealand, Brazil and Montenegro in Group F in Nanjing at the 2019 Basketball World Cup.