If the price is right..

Last week there was a shareholder meeting at the offices of Aris BC and it was decided that if the price is right, then Kostas Papanikolaou(2.01-SF) will be sold to the highest bidder. It so happens that this bidder is Olympiakos, that are trying to win the bad impression they made on their fans by letting Giorgos Printezis(2.05-PF) leave the team.

On the other hand Aris are selling Papanikolaou with the pretense that they cannot afford the contracts that they have signed already. It was rumored that Aris was in the search of a major sponsor and they signed lucrative contracts with experienced Greek players (Hatzivrettas, Dikoudis, Kakiouzis) but it has been suggested now that they won't have enough money to pay them. The buy out amount is rumored to be around 1 million euros although it was also rumored that the final disclosed amount might be bigger than it will actually be in reality in an attempt to appease the fans. One might ask why did they sign the contracts in the first place if they hadn't secure the funds to cover them. Perhaps they had already decided to sell him before the pre-season began. Needless to say here that the fans of Aris are not happy at all about the administration's decision to sell the best Greek player at the age of 19.

Aris are also rumored to replace Curtis Stinson(1.91-PG) who has not convinced coach Mazzon with his performace and a possible replacement might be announced tomorrow in conjuction with the expectment announcement of the sale of Kostas Papanikolaou to Olympiakos. Many names have paraded across Greek media about possible replacements and they Aaron Miles(1.85-PG), Dan Dickau(1.83-PG) and Keith McLeod(1.88-PG). Quinton Hosley(2.01-SF/PF) was also offered to Aris to possibly replace the gap that Papanikolaou leaves behind. Corey Belser(1.98-SG/SF), who is currently practicing with the rest of the team in Italy, might be offered a one-month contract for the Euroleague qualifying round but that is not final yet.