Huge shake-up in Panathinaikos: coach Priftis fired, Diamantidis dismissed / News - Basketnews.com

Head coach Dimitris Priftis, president Panagiotis Tirantopoulos, general managers Dimitris Diamantidis and Fragiskos Alvertis, and technical director Nikos Pappas have been relieved of their duties.

Credit: Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images Credit Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

Panathinaikos Athens announced massive changes on the sidelines and in the front office.

Nikos Pappas

Position:SGAge:32Height:195 cmWeight:98 kgBirth place:Marousi, GreeceProfileNewsStatistics

Per the official announcement, Panathinaikos parted ways with the head coach Dimitris Priftis, president Panagiotis Triantopoulos, general manager Dimitris Diamantidis, and technical director Nikos Pappas.

Fragiskos Alvertis is also leaving his general manager position, but he will be offered a new role in the club, according to the announcement.

Argyris Pedoulakis was appointed as a new technical director. Per the official statement, he will be in charge of building a team and selecting a new head coach.

"Although the direction was clear and the team was rid of any pressure, instead of building a basic core -as it had been agreed upon- foreign players of questionable quality were selected, for the sake of short-term success which obviously wasn't achieved.

In fact, the team failed to be competitive even against opponents of the same financial caliber. In combination with the team's overall outlook, which has been in constant decline as far as results and performance, we think there's no point in going forward with this plan," the official press release stated.

In his resignation, Triantopoulos admitted that Panathinaikos didn't achieve its budget goals, and the club's owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos had to cover an amount of €3M.

Giannakopoulos came forward with an Instagram story a few minutes after the official announcement, accusing Diamantidis, Alvertis, and Triantopoulos of poor managementand stating that the change was inevitable.

According to various reports of Gazzetta, Sport24, and SDNA, Georgios Vovoras is mentioned as the top candidate to replace Priftis.

Significant changes were announced after another loss in the Greek derby against Olympiacos Piraeus, 62-68.

Panathinaikos finished 13th in the EuroLeague regular season.

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