[8] Well-known players that have played with the club over the years have included: Rolando Blackman, Ricky Pierce, Danny Vranes, Ruben Patterson, Kurt Rambis, J.R. Holden, Willie Anderson, Joe Arlauckas, Anthony Bowie, Arijan Komazec, Martin Müürsepp, Josh Owens, Clint Richardson, Bill Edwards, Victor Alexander, Claudio Coldebella, İbrahim Kutluay, Pero Antić, Carl English, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Bane Prelević, Georgios Amerikanos, Georgios Trontzos, Vassilis Goumas, Minas Gekos, Pavlos Stamelos, Kostas Patavoukas, Angelos Koronios, Michalis Kakiouzis, Nikos Chatzis, Jake Tsakalidis, Nikos Zisis, Nasos Galakteros, Vassilis Lanes, Dimos Dikoudis, Dimitris Papanikolaou, Ioannis Bourousis, Mario Chalmers, Jonas Mačiulis and Keith Langford.

Clubs such as Enosis Tataoulon (Ένωσις Ταταούλων), from the Tatavla district, Megas Alexandros (Μέγας Αλέξανδρος), Hermes (Ερμής) of Galata, Olympias (Ολυμπιάς) of Therapia, and Kati Kioi (Κατί Κίοϊ) of Chalcedon, existed to promote Hellenic athletic and cultural ideals.

After the war, with the influx of mainly French and English soldiers to Constantinople, many of the city clubs participated in regular competitions, with teams formed by foreign troops.

Forced by the Kemalist regime to change its name to Pera Club in 1923, many of its athletes fled to Greece, and settled in Athens and Thessaloniki.

[10] Kostas Dimopoulos, one of the creators of the AEK athletic club and footballer of the early years, had the idea of also creating a basketball team.

In 1930, the basketball section was not declared in any organized competition, with the effective efforts of Kostas Dimopoulos and his associates to do so, failing.

In 1958, AEK B.C., led by the player-coach Kostas Karamanlis, won their first Greek League championship, after defeating Panellinios in the final, by a score of 67–54.

"The Union", in the early 1960s, won the Athens-Piraeus Regional Championship two times in a row (1960, 1961), but did not manage to become the national league champion of Greece.

As one of the team's players, Giorgos Moschos had contracted cancer, but he managed to participate in certain competitions that year, before he died on 29 December 1966, at age 29.

However, a year later, under head coach Nikos Milas, AEK returned to the top of Greece, as they won the 1967–68 Greek League season championship, without losing a game.

[citation needed] AEK was the first ever Greek basketball team to participate in the FIBA European Champions Cup (now called the EuroLeague) Final Four, in 1966, which was held in Bologna, Italy.

[11] On April 4, 1968, AEK defeated Slavia VŠ Praha, by a score of 89–82, in Athens, in front of 80,000 spectators (at the time, the Guinness world record in basketball attendance) in Kallimarmaron Stadium.

[14] In 2000, on 11 April, AEK won their second international trophy, the FIBA Saporta Cup, by defeating Kinder Bologna 83–76.

[15] The next year, 2001, AEK reached the EuroLeague semi-finals, where they lost their playoff series against Tau Cerámica, in 3 straight games.

In April 2011, AEK was relegated down to the Greek Second Division (A2) due to serious financial problems and there was a great danger for its participation in the next championships.

A new administration council, with Nikos Georgantzoglou as a president, defined by the Athens Court on 12 September 2011 so that the club could be saved and play in the A2 division.

In September 2014, AEK overcame heavy financial problems, after Makis Angelopoulos bought the majority stake of the club's shares, just to return to the Greek elite level, and thus wanted to showcase its tradition and ambition in Greece and Europe.

On 17 February 2018, AEK won the 2018 Greek Cup Final against Olympiacos, by a score of 88–83, at Heraklion Indoor Sports Arena, on the island of Crete.

On 6 May 2018, AEK won the 2018 FIBA Champions League final against the French club AS Monaco by a score of 100–94 in the Nikos Galis Olympic Indoor Hall of Athens.

[30][31][32] Nevertheless, a bit earlier in the 2018–19 season, AEK became the global basketball champions, for the first time in their perennial history, by winning the 2019 FIBA Intercontinental Cup final against the Brazilian club Flamengo by a score of 86–70 in the Carioca Arena 1 of Rio de Janeiro.

[36][37] On 16 February 2020, AEK won the 2020 Greek Cup final against Promitheas Patras, by a score of 61–57, at Heraklion Indoor Sports Arena, on the island of Crete.

[38][39][40] On 4 October 2020, AEK lost by 85–74 from the Spanish side San Pablo Burgos in the 2019–20 FIBA Champions League final that was held in the Nikos Galis Olympic Indoor Hall of Athens.

After all, the double-headed eagle is featured in the flag of the Greek Orthodox Church, whose headquarters are in Constantinople, and served as the Imperial emblem under the Palaiologos dynasty.

has created a new version of the emblem, by adding to it two stars at its center, which symbolize the club's 2 FIBA Saporta Cup European-wide titles.

AEK also has many supporters worldwide, most of them being Greek immigrants, in places like North America, UK, Australia, and Cyprus.

†Moschos died of cancer in 1966, but he was inducted into the AEK Hall of Fame in 2008, and added to the 1968 championship team as an honorary member.