By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Zenit St. Petersburg and former Panathinaikos coach Xavi Pascual would like to have the chance to collaborate with Manos Papadopoulos, however, the whole transfer is much more complicated than anyone may have expected.
Not only Papadopoulos is the right-hand man of the Giannakopoulos family in Panathinaikos for more than 30 years, but he is also currently the president of the basketball club and since 2014 he is practically the owner of 89,9% of the club’s shares.
Dimitris Giannakopoulos has taken the decision to give him the ownership in order to comply with a punishment that was imposed on him at the time by Greek sporting authorities. The penalty prevented Giannakopoulos from actively being involved with sports due to his statements on live television against Vassilis Spanoulis. Since then, Papadopoulos typically remains the owner.
So, while he is acting as the general manager, Papadopoulos is practically much more than that. However, he wasn’t present on Monday’s EuroLeague conference, a move that turned a lot of heads around Europe. The official excuse was that a health issue kept him from participating in the conference call.
With Fragkiskos Alvertis also on the exit door of Panathinaikos for unspecified yet reasons, despite the initial information about Papadopoulos staying with the Greens and not taking the offer made by Zenit, everything can happen. Still, both Panathinaikos and Papadopoulos have not made any official comment on the whole issue.