Nikola Jokic may be locked into Denver for the foreseeable future, but that has not stopped Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos from treating the Nuggets star like the ultimate fantasy target.
Giannakopoulos said on the Euro Insiders podcast that Jokic is still the one name he has in mind above all others.
“There is one player who remains a dream of mine, whom I haven't signed yet, but I will sign next year,” Giannakopoulos said on the Euro Insiders podcast. “It's (Nikola) Jokic!
The best player in the world. Don't laugh at all.
If I don't sign Jokic, I'm not going anywhere.”
He also made clear that this was more than a throwaway line. Giannakopoulos said he spoke directly with Jokic’s agent, Misko Raznatovic, and tried to buy out the final year of the center’s contract.
“This is something that people are going to say, ‘Okay, now he's joking.' I did make a very serious proposal this year, both to his team and to him.
I got a rejection. I know that he has one more year on his contract,” Giannakopoulos continued.
“When I asked, he had a certain contract running. This was his last year, and I tried to buy out his last year.
It took them a few seconds to say, ‘Who? Greece?
Where? What?
Bye.'
“Let's wait until next year.”
The timing matters because Jokic has already passed on extension money from Denver. He turned down a three-year, $200 million extension in 2025 and then declined another extension this offseason that could have reached $278 million over four years.
Instead, Jokic is headed into the 2026-27 season on a $59 million salary, with a $62.8 million player option for 2027-28. That option is widely expected to be declined, setting up a much bigger payday for Denver down the road.
By opting out and becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer, Jokic would be eligible for a five-year, $359.5 million supermax proposal from the Nuggets. That is the financial path behind his repeated decisions to pass on extensions over the past two years.
For now, though, the answer to Giannakopoulos’ dream is simple: Jokic is not leaving the Nuggets anytime soon. And while Panathinaikos remains a EuroLeague powerhouse, the club is nowhere near the kind of money it would take to pull the 31-year-old center away from the NBA.
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