Jankovic for Olympiakos and Pappas for Panathinaikos?

Here we go again..


Some years ago the 2 wealthiest teams in Greece started buying all the young players out there on a crusade of accumulating all the players that their hated rival couldn't. Eventually this bubble burst and it was made obvious that the teams had no tolerance in building a team out of youngsters so many players were bought just so they're taken off the market and their best use that for a practice prop or they were given out to play on loan elsewhere. Inevitably some of them were released when they outlived their usefulness and in some cases their teams let go some of their best prospects with disastrous results.

This trend is coming out of the woodwork once again prompted by the unexpected (and well deserved at that) triumph of Olympiakos at the Euroleague Final Four. According to hoopfellas.blogspot.com, Vladimir (or in Greek Vladimiros) Jankovic(2.01-SF) is a target of Olympiakos. The player will be a free agent in the summer and has decided to ignore the wishes of his current team by going into surgery prematurely. The president of Panionios took offense to that so it seems very unlikely that Jankovic will be going back there. He is at a stage in his career where only one of the Euroleague clubs will pay the money he wants in Greece. Either that or he finds a contract in a team outside Greece.

The article also says that Panathinaikos will try to sign Nikos Pappas(1.96-SG) who all of a sudden became a hot commodity by playing a few games with Paok. The Greek shooting guard had a 4-season contract with Bilbao but he never actually played for them and he was released earlier in the seaon. Paok grabbed the opportunity to add another guard to the roster and Pappas grabbed the opportunity to make the headlines once again. The arrangement worked favorably for both and Pappas is once again a free agent.

Another name was added a few days earlier and that was of Michael Bramos(1.96-SG/SF) of Gran Canaria who is rumored to have agreed a 3-season contract with Olympiakos.



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