By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Not only Kostas Papanikolaou is going to play in the NBA, but he will do it with a contract that will give him a raise compared to his salary at Barcelona. The two time Euroleague champion with Olympiacos has a two year deal with the Houston Rockets, as reported by Adrian Wojnarowksi, which will pay him in total 9,4 m. dollars.
On the 17th of July, Papanikolaou had denied the initial offer of Houston which was a two years, four million dollars contract. The problem was not only his salary, but also the fact that he has to pay a 1,5 million dollars buy out to Barcelona for which only 600.000 dollars can be given by the Rockets. This addition makes the money spended by Houston for the Greek forward a total of 10 m. dollars. Τhis deal makes Papanikolaou the 5th highest paid player of the team, behind Dwight Howard, James Harden, Trevor Ariza and amnestied Luis Scola.
Papanikolaou is the third Greek player who will be a member of Houston, after Jake Tsakalidis’ tenure and the one season that Vasilis Spanoulis spended with the team. However, Spanoulis left Houston after the initial year of his contract practically regretting his decision to play in the NBA, but this time things are different.