The Denver Nuggets have been viewed as one of the biggest losers of the NBA offseason and are seemingly projected by many to take a step backward in the Western Conference this upcoming season. Evidently, this summer has led to one team owner seeing blood in the water when it comes to Nikola Jokic‘s future.
Speaking with the Serbian website Mozzart Sport, the franchise owner of Panathinaikos B.C., Dimitris Giannakopoulos, reaffirmed his desire to sign Jokic and his willingness to do whatever it takes to pull him away from the NBA.
“For me, I stopped watching the NBA the day that Jordan stopped bouncing the ball. I started watching a bit of the NBA again when Jokic went there. I believe he’s top ten players of all time. I would love to see him in a Panathinaikos jersey, and I’m going to do whatever I can to try and do it.”
Panathinaikos B.C. owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos on his interest in signing Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (H/T EuroHoops.com)
Nikola Jokic contract (Spotrac): $59.033 million salary for 2026-27 season, $62.841 million player option in 2027
Jokic is eligible for NBA free agency next summer, when he would be entering his age-32 season. He could decline his $62.8 million player option to test the open market or instead sign a five-year supermax contract extension with Denver that would be worth roughly $350 million, or approximately $70 million per season.
While the three-time NBA MVP has already made more than $300 million in career earnings on the court alone, it seems highly unlikely he would walk away from a single contract worth more than he’s made to this point in his entire NBA career.
With that said, Giannakopoulos has been publicly adamant in his belief that he can present an offer to Jokic that would convince one of the best NBA players of the modern era to come over and play basketball in Greece.
However, it should be noted that Giannakopoulos does believe “politics” could complicate a pursuit of Jokic as the NBA might not “allow” for one of the faces of the league to depart and finish his career overseas.