N'Diyae kept against his will

Mamadou N'Diyae(2.13-C) gave an interview to greek website basketblog.gr saying that Panellinios is holding him against his will to his contract. The senegalese center says that he is being held against his will to a 2-year contract and that he hasn't been paid since December 2007 by Panellinios.

It all started last season when the head coach changed in Panellinios and it was evident that coach Zouros didn't want N'Diyae in the team and his playing time was reduced down to 10 minutes. Eventually he was loaned to Zalgiris and N'Diyae accepted it straight away because he wanted to play more. He was unlucky though and had a serious knee injury playing for Zalgiris while he was doing quite well. After he underwent surgery in May 2008 he wanted to find out whether Panellinios would still need him in the next season as his contract stated. He says it was quite strange that his agent at the time, Kostas Pappadakis, was getting his other players signed to Panellinios and he was "kept in the dark".

He never got an answer and he decided to take matters onto his own hands. He even got a diagnosis from the medical team of the Orlando Magic saying that he is fit to play but the administration of Panellinios wasn't convinced and kept sending him to their own doctors that were telling him he couldn't play. He then proceeded to get a diagnosis from 2 greek specialists that said he could play but the administration of Panellinios wasn't having any of it. He even got an offer from Khimik to play in the Ukraine and when the ukrainian federation asked for his letter of clearance Panellinios demanded 20.000 euros as a buy-out clause. N'Diyae is saying that he doesn't even know who asked for that amount from the staff in Panellinios and he is also wondering whether the owner of the team knows where this money is going to end up if they receive it from Khimik.

Finally he said that he is going back to the States to train and although he is 33 now and it will be difficult for him to find a good contract, he says he just wants to play basketball...