Where Will Nikola Mirotic Land Next Season? Panathinaikos Emerges as a Potential Destination

Where will Nikola Mirotic play next season? That is the big question in the European market at the moment. The power forward (32 years and 2.08 m) has been without a team since last Thursday, July 20, when Barcelona unilaterally terminated his contract, which had two more years left for 22 million euros gross.

His destiny seemed clear until this Saturday. The option chosen by the player was Serbia, Partizán Belgrade, who already had the contract ready after negotiating and speaking with Mirotic both Ostoja Mijailovic and Zoran Savic and Zeljko Obradović, president, sports director and coach of the Balkan team, respectively. However, the Spanish-Montenegrin said ‘no’. The reason, according to him, the threats and insults received when the Partizan interest was made public. Some facts that the Belgrade club categorically denied: “(His refusal) has nothing to do with threats, but with some other things that people will be able to see for themselves in the coming days,” the Partizan statement read.

Without Spain and Serbia, the cards are limited for Mirotic. Although there is one that wants to break the deck with him. According to Sportando, Panathinaikos has offered 4 million euros to the ex-azulgrana. It is unknown if they are gross or net and the duration of the contract.

The Greek team is undergoing reform after being eclipsed from the continental scene during the last decade by Olympiacos, their eternal rival. El Pao has not reached the Final Four since 2012, an affront for a club with 6 Euroleagues and which has seen its eternal rival reach 6 rounds for the title out of the last 11 possible for a balance of two European titles out of the three it has in its record.

For this reason, the controversial Dimitrios Giannakopoulos, owner of the greens, has spared no expense this summer. After finishing penultimate in the last edition of the Euroleague, he went after Ergin Ataman for the bench and has made nine signings, including Kostas Sloukas from Olympiacos, causing a civil war in Hellenic basketball. Mathias Lessort, Jerian Grant, Luca Vildoza, Kuy Guy… are some of those reinforcements to create a formidable squad in which Mirotic would be the icing on the cake.

2023-07-23 10:10:46
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