Philadelphia, PA – The Greek community came out last night for the 2nd annual Greek Heritage Night at the Philadelphia 76ers game against the New York Knicks. Blue and White flags and Greece T-shirts covered section 107 where they cheered on their hometown team. The folks enjoyed a great game between the Sixers and Knicks that went down to the final minute of play before the Knicks pulled out the victory.
The evening kicked off with our own Greek youth, dubbed the “Anthem Buddies”, lining up in front of the Sixers players for the player introduction. That was followed by the singing of the national anthem. Vassy Karagiorgos, known by as “Vassy” scheduled to sing the anthem, was sick with laryngitis, but managed to show up and was recognized.
The halftime show put on by the Pontian Akritai of Philadelphia highlighted the evening. Daouli and Lyra players rang in the sounds of Pontos as the youth group circled the 76ers emblem on center court. Following the game, the crowd came onto the court where they got to try their basketball skills and grab a photo op with the 76ers player Nikolas Tomas “Nik” Stauskas. Stauskas has been in the league for three years now and was recently acquired from the Sacramento Kings.
Following a Q&A with Stauskas, a group photo with all the attendees closed out the evening.