By Vangelis Papadimitriou/ info@eurohoops.net
Dimitris Giannakopoulos was hosted on SDNA.gr and talked about everyone and everything in a live YouTube interview.
The owner of Panathinaikos answered all questions regarding the new roster and even talked about the negotiations with Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk.
As he explained: “As you have seen, we neither deny nor confirm anything that has been written. We try for the best. Mykhailiuk, with the little I know about him as an athlete and the much I know about him as a person is an important tool. Let the coach make his final decisions. If he tells me to press the button, the button will be pressed”.
The discussion also reached the case of Tyler Dorsey, with the Greek guard being rumored to be near a deal with Panathinaikos for a long time.
Giannakopoulos stated: “It is purely a matter of Fenerbahce and Itoudis. We are very interested in the best that is out there, especially Greek players who are not many at this level. What to do? We have to fix past mistakes. This model brought us to the top of Europe and this is what we will follow”.
Giannakopoulos once more repeated that Panathinaikos tried to sign Facundo Campazzo and Edy Tavares and he admitted that at the start of the summer, things were not easy for the Greens: “I felt like I was walking into a restaurant where I never booked a table and being told: “Sir? Why are you here?”. We had our share of rejections but we didn’t put it down”.
In the end, everything worked out, and Giannakopoulos used the example of Juancho Hernangomez to explain the shift in comparison to his brother, Willy: “I think it has to do with the project and our goals. We told Juancho that we want to reach again the top of Europe, to have the best possible environment in a sold-out stadium without violence. When you have such a vision, others will prioritize where they would like to live, like Campazzo who refused our offer which financially was twice as much as Real’s, or believe in the vision we presented them. However, of all the rejections we got this year, the one of Willy Hernangomez hurt me the most”.