By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos Athens says that the club won’t be conducting any business with the Network Sports agency following the transfer of center George Papagiannis to Fenerbahce Beko. Network represents both Papagiannis and Fener coach Dimitris Itoudis.
Earlier on Friday (14/7), Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos went into detail on why he was angry with Papagiannis’ decision to move to Fenerbahce after turning down the Greens. The boss of the Greek powerhouse also accused Itoudis of “sharing the agent’s fee” with Network while expressing his amazement with the amount of money the Turkish side offered the player.
Panathinaikos’ position is the following:
“Panathinaikos isn’t willing to work again with any representative of Nikos Spanos [Network Sports owner], since the club doesn’t want to get involved in stories of “communicating vessels” between agents, players, teams, and coaches.
Spanos, Itoudis, and the rest are now judged by the basketball world. Everyone who wants to wear this [Panathinaikos] jersey should know that with this representative, the door remains completely shut.
DPG attacks Itoudis and Spanos
Via social media, Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos in a much personal tone attacked both Fenerbahce coach Itoudis and Spanos with the following text, naming them directly:
So he doesn’t let a player [Tyler Dorsey] that he didn’t use at all in the Turkish Finals because he will come to us and, to put the cherry on top, he gives 1.6 million to an athlete who has an offer by Panathinaikos for 1.3 million and 1.7 million (for the sake of love) while the third offer is at 700 thousand.
All these while the athlete has asked for 1.3 million and 1.7 million, we said “yes” but he goes elsewhere.
Am I the only one that doesn’t make sense of it and I suspect that something else is hidden?
One thought says… since I [Papagiannis] have already signed some time ago, let’s ask the sun, the moon, and the stars from Panathinaikos, they will say “no” and then all is good… he couldn’t have imagined how much we loved him.
There’s another thought. If only one digs deeper into the relationship between Spanos-Itoudis and most athletes there.
Another thought indeed is how 100K per year makes such a big difference when you receive 1.5 million and while you have received I don’t know how much more all these years.