Panathinaikos Basketball Club owner Dimitrios Giannakopoulos wants to bring three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic to Athens, with the Denver Nuggets superstar potentially joining the Greek club for the 2027-28 season.
Giannakopoulos, whose net worth has been estimated at between $500 million and $1.9 billion, said on the “Euro Insiders” podcast, published Tuesday, that he approached the Nuggets about buying out Jokic’s contract and bringing the Serbian star to Greece.
“People are going to say, ‘OK, now he’s joking,’” Giannakopoulos said. “I did make a very serious proposal this year, both to his team and to him. I got a rejection. I know that he has one more year (on his) contract.”
Technically, Jokic has two years remaining on his contract. According to Spotrac, he is due to be paid $59,033,114 this season and $62,841,702 next season, while the 2027-28 season is a player option.
“When I asked, he had a certain contract running,” Giannakopoulos said. “This was his last year. I tried to buy out his last year. They didn’t even, I mean, it took a few seconds to say, ‘Who? Greece? Where? What? Bye,’ from his team. But ... let’s wait until next year.”
