By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos‘ onwer mr. Dimitris Giannakopoulos gave an interview to Sport 24 where, among other things, he invited one of Olympiacos‘ onwers, mr. Panagiotis Aggelopoulos to…. an “one vs one” basketball game!
Here are some parts of the interview:
How do you see Panathinaikos after the new additions? Are you pleased?
Of course I am. The team now appears to be ready to achieve its targets.
Everyone is commenting on your change in your behavior. What does Dimitris Giannakopoulos himself says about that? Do you agree?
Listen…. Everyone that knows me can confirm that, but I never refused personal self criticism from myself and never closed my eyes in front of the truth. When I became president of Panathinaikos, on summer of 2012, I had all the will to keep our conflict with Olympiacos between the four lines of the court. That’s what I had said in my first interview back then. Unfortunately, after the unprompted attack by Olympiacos‘ owners I made some mistakes myself. Sometimes, I got carried away and turned upon myself.
Rivalries should be limited in the 40 minutes of playing time. Not in press releases, cameras etc. In Panathinaikos we never looked for “ghosts” or made enemies. I have no personal quarrel with anybody. Imagine that I wouldn’t say no in inviting Panagiotis Aggelopoulos in an “one vs one” basketball game.
You are joking of course…
Not at all, and I don’t want to offend anyone. We should send a message to all the Greek fans through basketball, the sport that we love so much. We should show that we have no differences outside basketball courts. If he has a personal quarrel with me let’s solve this in this way. It is an invitation, not a challenge.