By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
After months of speculations and rumors, the next day of Panathinaikos is already on track and will be very similar to the previous one. As Eurohoops.net learned, there was a meeting before Game 3 of the Greek Finals between the ownership of the team and Zeljko Obradovic where everything was decided not just for the next season, but until the summer of 2014.
That’s the proposal of Panathinaikos to Zoc, to have a new contract for at least two more seasons and the Serbian coach seems ready to sign it. The budget of the team will be somewhere between 12 and 15 million euros, depending the revenues. Panathinaikos ownership on the meeting was represented by Thanasis Giannakopoulos and his nephew Dimitris Giannakopoulos, son of Pavlos, who will be the new president of the team.
There is also a plan for the players that will leave Athens. Romein Sato wants to continue his career elsewhere, because he thinks that Greece is not any more a safe country for his children. Aleks Maric is one step away from signing to Maccabi Tel Aviv and Steve Smith, David Logan and Pat Calathes will be free agents. Panathinaikos will try to sign young players, preferably Greeks, in order to build a new team under the court leadership of Dimitris Diamantidis. There aren’t many top class Greeks available, so even players with big question marks on their resume will be considered. That means that maybe Sofoklis Shortsanitis will be in Panathinaikos’ plans.