Interview on the French channel “Skweek” ahead of the start of this year Euroleaguethe strongman of KAE Panathinaikos AKTOR granted, Dimitris Giannakopoulos.
The major shareholder of the European and Greek champions spoke about his relationship with the owners of KAE Olympiacos, the planning of the team and his “wants” Ergin Atamanwhen he took over, while he revealed that he was… sure that Panathinaikos would win last year’s Euroleague.
In detail:
On his relationship with the Angelopoulos brothers: “My relationship with the Angelopoulos brothers… These people have spent a lot of money and I respect that. I have tried too many times to get some healthy relationship with them, because the competition between us exists within four minutes for 40 minutes. I’m in the business world of sports together. Unfortunately, they don’t share my opinion. If you ask me, the fact that we’ve beaten them so many times makes them build that tension to keep their fans happy. They are two highly respected people, they have big companies with a lot of people behind them. Competition always makes you better.”
And he continued: “My father always told me ‘Dimitris when you’re at the top’, he was mostly talking about pharmaceuticals, but this also applies to sports, ‘it’s hard to have competition, the only competition is in the mirror. What you have to do is you better look in the mirror metaphorically”. So we are always ourselves in competition, trying to become better each time without looking at what others are doing.
It would be silly to say we don’t make mistakes. There are also failures and they are what shape you and prepare you for success. According to the results, however, every year we are even better.”
On the wishes of Ergin Ataman when he came to Panathinaikos: “Panathinaikos was in a very bad position when Ergin Ataman joined the team. The budget was much lower and usually the players’ contracts reflect the team’s ability as well. So since the numbers changed so much, it made perfect sense for the roster to change as well. It made perfect sense when he told me that the whole team had to change. I don’t know basketball myself, I can play, not well, but I understand it less, so I have to trust people. I trusted the coach and he trusted the players. It’s chained.”
On whether he thought at the start of the season he would win the EuroLeague title: “I was sure. The three years I was away I had everything planned and God was on my side and everything I had planned happened exactly as it was written on paper, so…”
On whether he believed there was ever a target: “The Euroleague is a strange creature, let’s say… There are owners who spend their own money, some others who are part of a bigger group, like the Spanish teams, others who don’t have an investor, so when Panathinaikos started to question and put pressure on Mr. Bertomeu about where everything was going the money or why we’re not exploring all the ways to develop the EuroLeague, it was something he didn’t like and it ended up being a personal issue. I woke up every time at 6 in the morning like my father, I worked 12-14 hours a day and when I invest my money somewhere I want everything to be fair, to have healthy competition. Unfortunately, due to the reasons I mentioned above, we faced unfair competition.”
“Everything changed from the criticism I made and also from the fact that if I think I am not being treated fairly, I react. I’m not a person who will sit back and be slapped on both cheeks. If someone slaps me, I’ll slap back. I don’t like to “slap”. I’m the first person who doesn’t want to step on even an ant, but if someone throws a small stone at you, you have to take a big rock and destroy it.”
Watch his full interview:
Source: Sport Fm
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