Panathinaikos: The Transformation and Ambitious Comeback of the Green Power of Athens

Panathinaikos, the green power of Athens and its fearsome OAKA with capacity for almost 20,000 of the loudest fans in Europe. A team with six Euroleagues, the third most tied with Maccabi (eleven Real Madrid, eight CSKA). The mention of which evokes the fierce rivalry with Olympiacos, the city center against the port area. And in whose legend Zeljko Obradovic, Dimitris Diamantidis, Deja Bodiroga, Fragiskos Alvertis, Mike Batiste, Vasilis Spanoulis, Ramunas Siskauskas dance… But that is an increasingly distant past. After a few years of anxiety for the two great Greeks, Olympiacos emerged from the crisis faster, they have been in the Final Four for two years in a row and last year they were one shot away (the one that Llull scored or the one that Sloukas missed) from be champion

Panathinaikos, meanwhile, is searching for a lost identity. He hasn’t been a champion since 2011 and hasn’t played in the Final Four since 2012. And since the 2018-19 season he has not had a winning record (he was sixth). Last year they finished second to last with 11 wins, 23 losses, internal troubles… and an average of less than 6,500 people in the stands of an OAKA with less than a third of occupancy. And with the lowest matches in the entire Euroleague: 2,340 people against Bayern. The green, frozen hell. Something had to change.

And boy has it changed. The owner, the volcanic Dimitris Giannakopoulos (a vortex of trouble and scandalous headlines), promised in May that they would make a team to “win doubles and triplets again.” “Panathinaikos’ position is not the last in Europe… but neither is it the second in Greece.” Olympiacos had also won (3-1) in the series for the domestic title.

Giannakopoulos has marked this year as a new beginning. Investment in the OAKA, whose concession has been renewed for 49 more years. A coup d’état on the bench with the arrival of Ergin Ataman, the hot Turkish coach who made Efes champion in 2021 and 2022 and who lands with a bet on all or nothing, front door or infirmary: “Nothing is impossible, that’s why I’m here. “I have the highest expectations.” Like a hobby that sold out in hours the special t-shirt launched for the new course, green and white with the silhouette of the Acropolis.

And, of course, revolution in the squad. Eleven signings, an ultra-ambitious bet with which they have removed Sloukas from the eternal rival, Olympiacos, and with which they have also tied up Luca Vildoza, Jerian Grant, Matthias Lessort, Ioannis Papapetrou, the ex-ACB Kyle Guy and Olek Balcerowski …and Juancho Hernangómez, who signed for two seasons after seven in the NBA. The forward (27 years old) has bought the illusion that Giannokopoulos and Ataman sell: “There is a president who wants to win at any cost, and that ambition has made me return from the NBA.”

An ambition that materializes in these signings… and that turned European basketball upside down during the summer. The PAO knocked on all the doors. He tried to get Vesely from Barça, Shengelia from Virtus, Motiejunas from Monaco… Giannaokopoulos claimed that he tried to get Willy to wear green, like his brother (“the rejection that hurt me the most”) and he believed that they would sign Mirotic: ” I talked to him and he told me how much he loves Greece. When we hung up, he believed he would sign, but then I realized he had told other teams the same thing.” He even tested Facundo Campazzo, whom he said he had offered much more money than Real Madrid, and Edy Tavares: “I felt as if I entered a restaurant where I had not reserved a table and they said to me, sir, what are you doing here? ”.

2023-09-27 09:28:03
#Juancho #green #power