The new head coach of Aris BC and assistant coach of the Greek National Team, Dimitris Priftis, went to Athens for the preparation stage of the Greek National Team. According to basketplus.gr, he asked to meet Kostas Mitoglou (2.07-PF/C) in order to try and convince him to stay in Greece.
Kostas Mitoglou has not made his final decision yet although he said he will be attending Wake Forest next season. He is currently in the preparation stage of the U18 National Team of Greece and as both teams were in Athens, Priftis made the most of the occasion by meeting up with Mitoglou. His intention would be to convince Mitoglou to sign a pro contract with Aris and therefore be bound to the Greek team as currently Mitoglou is not bound by any contract after reaching the age of 18.
Aris would not be able to submit a one-sided contract anymore as Greek law used to allow and therefore all players that reach the age of 18 that come from the AC department of pro teams are free to choose whichever team they wish.
A similar situation occured last summer when Vaggelis Aggelou and Lefteris Arvanitis travelled to Bulgaria to convince Aleksandar Vezenkov. Mitoglou is not a prospect of Vezenkov's caliber but he is one of the best prospects available in Greece. Priftis wants to assume him that he will get the opportunities that Mitoglou wants and quite possibly next summer he could be a major player in Aris' rotation as it's likely that Vezenkov would seek his fortune in the NBA or after a full season he could be ready to make the next step in a Euroleague team.
Update:
It seems that the final decision will be made tomorrow when Mitoglou will call Priftis to tell him yes or no. Apparently the player would want to discuss with his family (and likely his agent) the prospect of staying with Aris for one more season. Nikos Lotsos, the agent of Kostas Mitoglou, is also the agent of Lefteris Bochoridis and Aleksandar Vezenkov so there is a lot at stake for him.
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