Aris Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki has always split its basketball loyalty down the middle, and for the yellow-and-black half of the city, Aris is the older claim. The club grew out of the multi-sport Aris Thessaloniki, formed in 1922.

That dominance came later, and it came all at once. Between 1985 and 1991, Aris won seven straight Greek League championships, built around Nikos Galis, who arrived in 1979. His number 6 hangs retired at the club's home, the Alexandreio Melathron, which now carries his name alongside its own.

The silverware from those years extended past Greece. Aris took the Korać Cup in 1997 and the EuroCup Challenge in 2003, but the standout came in 1993, with the Saporta Cup — won after Galis had already left, with Panagiotis Giannakis carrying the side that season instead. It showed the club's success was not tied to one man alone.

Games against PAOK carry the weight of sharing a city with no separation between the clubs' histories, and the meetings are still called the Derby of Thessaloniki. Panathinaikos has been the other measuring stick, on the losing end of the 1986 Super Cup final.

The league title has not returned since 1991, and the cup has not been lifted since 2004. For a club that once strung together seven championships in a row, more than three decades without one says plenty on its own.