By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
A one-year contract extension to keep Kostas Sloukas at Panathinaikos Aktor.
The 35-year-old Greek guard has acknowledged retirement is approaching, but a meeting with team owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos produced an agreement for a contract renewal, thus pushing back the last chapter of a storied career for at least one more year.
The deal was officially confirmed on Thursday.
Sloukas was on an expiring contract, on the last year of a lucrative three-year deal signed in 2023 to complete a move from Olympiacos to the opposite side of the Derby of the Eternal Enemies. With the Greens, he became a four-time EuroLeague champion and was named Final Four Most Valuable Player in 2024, following earlier EuroLeague titles as a player of Fenerbahce and Olympiacos.
At the top of his 16th journey in Europe’s premier club competition and third with his current club, the native of Thessaloniki averaged 8.1 points, 5.0 assists, 1.8 rebounds, and 0.6 steals per contest over eight appearances, including two starts. At 5-3, Ergin Ataman’s side trails co-leaders, Zalgiris, Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet, and Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv, by one game. More to his 2025-26 campaign, the five-time league champion in Greece has 6.0 points and 4.5 assists per contest in the Stoiximan GBL Regular Season.
Complementing a brilliant run at the club level, Sloukas was a regular for Greece, between senior and junior levels, for the better part of the last two decades. Capturing a bronze medal in last summer’s EuroBasket 2025 shaped the most important achievement of his international career.