The Printezis debacle

Or how not to negotiate a contract release..


It seems that Giorgos Printezis(2.05-PF) was very lucky when he signed one of the most illustrious contracts in the Euroleague earning 1.2 million euros per season. And for that he had to thank his agent mostly and not his own performance. He'd never make that kind of money back in his homeland and he knew that very well.

Now he is well into his 2nd season and he's yet to justify all that money that the administration of Malaga are injecting into his account. He has after the highest contract in the team and that may come as a shock to some people. It's as if he is tenaciously trying to rekindle the negative tradition of Lazaros Papadopoulos(2.13-C) in his days in Real Madrid. But there was light at the end of the tunnel and Olympiakos decided to bring back the prodigal son. But then it all went wrong again.

According to gazzetta.gr, the deal went sour for 100,000 euros. On Wednesday, Printezis was getting ready to get on a plane and return to Athens. He even said his goodbyes to his teammates in Malaga but to no avail. Just a few days later and he was back. Malaga were ready to give Printezis on a loan agreement to Olympiakos until the end of the season but there was also the matter of his next season contract. On Friday Malaga were giving Printezis 500,000 euros as compensation for next season but through his agent he asked for more money. So on Monday they came back with a better offer for 600,000 euros but that still wasn't enough for Printezis and his agent. They also asked for the April's salary which is another 100,000 euros on top of the 600,000.  Needless to say that the people of Malaga retracted their offer and now Printezis is sidelined and he could be sidelined for the entire next season as well.

It just goes to show that sometimes you must know when to stop.. so no Olympiakos for Printezis and possibly no basketball for quite some time.

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