Stelios Gousios

Asterios Gousios, known throughout his life as Stergios and in English as Stelios, was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, on 16 October 1937. He grew up in the city during the years of occupation and civil war, and was drawn to basketball at Aris, one of the oldest and best supported clubs in northern Greece. Standing about 1.94 metres tall, he was naturally suited to play as a centre, and he joined the Aris team in 1954 when he was only 16 years old.

In his first season, 1954 to 1955, Gousios played in most of Aris's games in the Thessaloniki championship, and over the next two years he became a regular starter and the team's top scorer. On 4 September 1957 he made his debut for Greece in a 74 to 65 friendly win over Romania.

In 1957 to 1958 Aris won the Thessaloniki championship without defeat and reached the national finals, finishing second behind AEK; Gousios scored 87 points in six games. The following year Aris tied with PAOK and Sporting at the top of the national finals. In the play-offs Gousios scored 25 points in a 78 to 77 win over Sporting, but Aris lost 66 to 58 to PAOK and again finished second.

He returned to the national team in 1960 for the Olympic qualifying tournament, in which Greece came third, and played at EuroBasket 1961, where Greece finished 17th. His best game for his country came on 4 June 1961 in Tunis, when he scored 15 points as Greece beat Libya 90 to 48. He played for Greece from 1957 to 1961.

Gousios remained with Aris until 1965, playing two seasons in the new Greek first national division and finishing as runner-up in 1965, his last season. Across his career he was a national finalist with Aris in 1958, 1959 and 1965 and a Thessaloniki champion in 1958.

After retiring as a player in 1965, Gousios ran a graphic arts printing business in Thessaloniki. He stayed close to the game, serving as a member of the Thessaloniki basketball clubs association from 1978 to 1982, and for many years he was president of the association of Aris veteran basketball players. In 2016, at the age of 79, he completed a degree in economics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, an achievement the Aris press celebrated as an incredible feat of a lifetime.

Stelios Gousios died in Thessaloniki on the evening of 1 November 2026, at the age of 89. His death was announced by Aris the next day. A memorial service was held at the church of Nea Panagia in the Diagonios district of Thessaloniki. No cause of death was given.

Gousios is remembered as one of the last great Aris players of the decade from 1955 to 1965, the era before the club's later European fame. In 2024 the Aris multisport club honoured him at its 110th anniversary celebrations for his overall contribution to the club's basketball. On his death Aris described him as a legendary figure, the team's standard bearer for more than ten years and an irreplaceable member of the national team, and as a diamond of Aris basketball and a fine man.