When a group of basketball players from Winthrop decided to lace up their sneakers for one more tournament, they weren't heading to a local gym. They were bound for Athens, Greece, to compete on the international stage against national teams fielding former professionals. The result? A 2–2 finish that turned heads and brought home hardware.

The team—made up almost entirely of Winthrop High School alumni—competed in the Masters 70-Over Division at the 13th FIMBA European Maxibasketball Championship this summer. Their opponents included national squads from Uruguay, Japan, Greece, and Italy. The Winthrop contingent held their own against the international competition, securing victories over Uruguay and Japan while battling tough losses to the host Greek team and Italy. Their performance earned them the Ambassadors Trophy, awarded to the top non-European entrant in the tournament.

Leading the charge was Chris Tsiotos, a Winthrop High School Hall of Fame inductee who once led the Northeastern Conference in scoring with a remarkable 28 points per game—accomplished before the three-point line even existed. The 6-foot-5 center went on to play at Suffolk University and professionally in Greece, making this homecoming to his ancestral homeland especially meaningful.

Tsiotos was joined by a roster of local talent with deep roots in the community. Steve Mahoney, the starting guard on Winthrop's 1973 Tech Tournament team, brought decades of experience. Louie Hinckley, another WHS Hall of Famer who played at the University of Maine, added interior presence. Adam Hubley, who followed his father Norman's path to Bowdoin College, emerged as a tournament standout, averaging 17 points and four three-pointers per game. Dr. John Earl, a professor at the University of Richmond, rounded out the core of former Vikings.

The team also included Steve Bulpett, the former Boston Herald sportswriter; Peter Maimoni, a former MIT player; Mike Aronson; and Dr. Neil Harding, who played high school ball at Cambridge Rindge Tech. In a twist of fate, Harding had actually played against Winthrop in its controversial 1973 Tech Tournament loss to Rindge Tech—fifty years later, he was wearing the same jersey as his former rivals.

The games were played in the same venues that hosted the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, with more than 1,000 athletes from around the world participating. The 40-minute, full-court, 5-on-5 format demanded serious conditioning—quite different from the half-court 3-on-3 games common in most masters tournaments. Before each match, teams exchanged gifts emblematic of their countries, and the tournament kicked off with a parade to the Acropolis.

"We basically had our Winthrop summer league City team, when there were 24 teams in the league," Tsiotos explained. "It was the same team that played together 50 years ago."

For Tsiotos, the experience carried extra significance. As an attorney with Greek heritage, he relished the opportunity to compete in his ancestral homeland while visiting historic sites like the Parthenon during the nine-day trip.

The experience left such an impression that the team is already considering their next international adventure: the 2027 World Championships in Brazil. Tsiotos hopes his brother Nick, another former Suffolk University player, might join them next time.

From the Winthrop summer league to the Olympic basketball courts of Athens, these local athletes proved that competitive fire doesn't fade with age—it just finds new arenas.