Photo: Peter Baba

Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos has revealed his ambitious goal of signing Nikola Jokic, saying he already made a serious attempt to bring the Denver Nuggets superstar to Greece.

“There is one player who remains a dream of mine, whom I haven’t signed yet, but I will sign next year. It’s Jokic, the best player in the world,” Giannakopoulos said on the Euro Insiders podcast.

“Don’t laugh at all. If I don’t sign Jokic, I’m not going anywhere,” he added.

Giannakopoulos revealed that Panathinaikos approached both Jokic and Denver this year.

“This year, I tried to make a proposal. … People are going to say, ‘OK, now he’s joking’. I did make a very serious proposal this year, both to his team and to him. I got a rejection,” he said.

He also explored buying out the remaining portion of Jokic’s contract, but Denver quickly dismissed the possibility.

“When I asked, he had a certain contract running. This was his last year. I tried to buy out his last year. They didn’t even… It took them a few seconds to say, ‘Who? Greece? Where? What? Bye’ from his team,” Giannakopoulos recalled.

“Let’s wait until next year.”

Signing Jokic would remain extremely difficult financially. The three-time MVP could become eligible for a projected five-year, $359.5 million extension with Denver in 2027 and has indicated that he intends to remain with the Nuggets.

Despite those obstacles, Giannakopoulos says he isn’t giving up on his goal of bringing Jokic to Panathinaikos.

He intends to try again next year: https://t.co/3x50omDN9r