By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
Sofoklis Schortsanitis has a contract with Panathinaikos for the next season, but the Greek champions have the right to buy him out with a compansation fee agreed last summer – which is not a huge one – while Maccabi Tel Aviv is waiting in order to sign him for the second time!
The deadline for Panathinaikos to decide if they want to keep Big Sofo or not is the 5th of July, at this point it seems more than possible that the Greens will not keep him, but after everything that happened with Stephan Lasme, the situation of Schortsanitis with the Greek team is also affected.
At this point Maccabi Tel Aviv has only one real presence in the post, Shawn James, and the Israelis have decided that getting Sofo back probably with a cheaper contract will creat the ideal duo with James. There have been contacts between the two sides already and if Panathinaikos decides to release the player, then the interest of Maccabi Tel Aviv will be transformed into an official offer. Schortsanitis, however, after becoming a father for the second time a month ago – he has a son and a daughter – would like to stay in Athens, but if this can’t happen, then he will be more than happy to return to familiar ground in Tel Aviv. So, it’s just a matter of days for the outcome of this case to be decided, Panathinaikos may decide even sooner what they would like to do, while Sofoklis has also an offer since spring from the Turkish champions Galatasaray.