Dimiris Giannakopoulos talks PAO's great year, his favorite EL teams / News - Basketnews.com

Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens president Dimitris Giannakopoulos talked about what works with his team this year and his favorite teams from EuroLeague history.

Credit: Vangelis Stolis Credit Vangelis Stolis

In a special reception with the aim of wishing success for the club, Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens players, staff, employees, and their families joined together.

Free throws this season

76%15,3Points made:15,3Accuracy:75,8%Place in standings:3Record max:25Record min:10Most made FTs:Mathias LessortTeamEuroLeagueStatisticsSchedule

Club president Dimitris Giannakopoulos delivered a speech, making some interesting remarks at the reception.

"Last year, at roughly the same time, we were almost in the last positions of the EuroLeague, we were second in the Greek League, having suffered consecutive defeats by our main opponent [Olympiacos Piraeus], and we were the black sheep in the EuroLeague," the president admitted. "The club operated with security personnel, and everyone needed to perform 20-30 tasks."

"At some point, in a discussion with the government, the issue of the OAKA was raised. This began to swirl various thoughts in my mind," he continued. "In any case, we sat down with Argyris Pedoulakis, who knows how much I respect and love him, and we said that we have to turn it around and bring Panathinaikos back to the top."

With the help of President [Vassilis] Parthenopoulos, our relationship with the EuroLeague is better than ever before. We express our opinions on everything, and we are leaders in the decisions made," he said, calling attention to Panathinaikos's improving image in the continent's top competition.

Another major talking point for the Greek president was the return of the fans to the OAKA, which had been almost deserted in the last years.

"The second thing we had to do was bring the fans back to us. I'm talking about casual fans but also Gate 13 [ultras]," Giannakopoulos stated. "I would like to say a big thank you to [Basketball and Communications Director] Dimitris Kontos, as with his efforts, we sat down, talked with Gate 13, and there was a huge willingness on their part to work with us in this effort."

Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens / Schedule

Real Madrid Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens86-97 Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens LDLC ASVEL VilleurbanneFri19:15

We set some goals with our financial and marketing department about how to get fans back in the arena. And not only have we brought them back, but we've also broken every past record," he said. "The OAKA has changed. It has become a nice family environment."

Giannakopoulos also talked about a proposed modification of the OAKA to make it unique, though he has refrained from giving many details.

"10-15 days ago, a plan was presented to us by Populous, a world-famous company that will undertake part of the change of OAKA," he stated. "I would like to believe that what we will be experiencing next year at OAKA will be unique by both European and American standards," he explained.

For the Greek president, what matters the most this year is the fact that the club enjoys a lot more sporting success this season and has much higher ambitions, particularly in comparison to recent years. Currently, Panathinaikos has homecourt advantage in the EuroLeague and was only defeated once in the Greek League.

"All that is nice, but if you don't have a team within the four lines that can support it, it doesn't make much sense. I think that so far, the greatest success of Mr. [Ergin] Ataman and the whole team is not that we are third at the moment in the EuroLeague, it is not that we are first in the Greek League, it is the fact that no one considers as success what we have achieved so far," Giannakopoulos elaborated.

"Everybody wants the Final Four, everybody wants the championship, everybody wants the 7th trophy. This is our great success. When we sat down last year, we said that we wanted to bring Panathinaikos back to normality, to become competitive again, and for people to embrace the effort. Not only is the team playing well, but we have also accomplished everything that I said," he said with pride.

Finally, the executive talked about his favorite teams from the history of the continent's best basketball competition.

"For me, the best team in history has been Pini Gershon's Maccabi, then Jugoplastika in the 90s, and then Panathinaikos at Berlin [2009]," he revealed. "With what I saw in Madrid, I think we would beat all three of those teams. But what does that mean? it means that the bar has gone very high, and the end of the year will find us with a European and a domestic title," he concluded with high ambition and motivation.

The Greek president would be right in heightening his ambitions. Panathinaikos finished the EuroLeague regular season in the second-from-last position last year, while this year, they are currently in third place with AS Monaco and Virtus Segafredo Bologna.

In a rejuvenating season, Panathinaikos also became the first EuroLeague team to beat Real Madrid at home in Round 27, a feat which is also important in that it was PAO's first away victory against the reigning champions since 2013.

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