By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Seventeen days ago he called Olympiacos “the club of filth”, he then was banished for two months from any gym in Greece and on Wednesday the Reds asked his punishment for slander toward basketball by the Greek committee of sportsmanship, a disciplinary committee which acts under the shield of the Greek Olympic committee.
And on Thursday morning, Panathinaikos’ owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos with an open letter asked for the end of the “war” with the Reds: “Taking as an excuse everything that happened in the last 24 hours (ed. note: Olympiacos’ owners are also expected to be called by the athletic judge after a public demand by Panathinaikos because of their press conference after the end of the Greek cup final) and starting from the troubled cup final, having a sense of absolute responsibility and as a main target the common good of the sport, which my family serves with passion and consistency the last decades, I have to declare the following, in hope of having the Aggelopoulos brothers as supporters, defenders and sympathizers. It’s time for the “battle” to be transferred on the court and all eyes to be directed towards the real protagonists, the players of the two teams, the golden boys of not only Greek basketball, Diamantidis, Spanoulis and everybody else”.
Giannakopoulos condemns violence, calls all sides to be restrained specially during the Greek league finals in order for the family audience to return to the gyms and concludes: “Let this announcement be the dawn of new must course, full of promise, for the Greek basketball world. The success is on our hand and we will make it happen, because we owe it to ourselves, to our athletes, to our fans, to the new generation of sports and to the Greek society in general, which anticipates many more achievements by Greek basketball”. Now it’s Olympiacos’ turn to answer and only time will tell if this move will have any kind of result, or if it’s just a mere defense tactic…