EuroLeague owner is ‘very serious’ about trying to sign Nikola Jokic

Nikola Jokic can become a free agent next summer. If he does, he sounds likely to have an unexpected contract offer on the table.

Dimitrios Giannakopoulos, the owner of Greek basketball power Panathinaikos, says he fully intends to try and lure Jokic to Europe with a contract offer next summer. Giannakopoulos even said he made an offer to the Denver Nuggets to buy Jokic out of the final year of his contract, which was swiftly rejected.

“People are going to say, ‘OK, now he’s joking,'” Giannakopoulos told the “Euro Insiders” podcast, via Anthony Slater of ESPN. “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 of a contract.

“It took a few seconds [for the Nuggets] to say, ‘Who? Greece? Where? What? Bye. But let’s wait until next year.”

Jokic could have signed a max contract this offseason, but opted to wait one more year for financial reasons. He has publicly said he has no intention of leaving the Nuggets and that he wants to play out the remainder of his career in Denver. As long as he remains without a long-term deal, however, there will be room for far-fetched speculation.

This is not the first time the Nuggets have had to tangle with Giannakopoulos, as he unsuccessfully tried to sign Jonas Valanciunas last summer. Panathinaikos also has a history of bringing in big names, and even had Rick Pitino as their head coach for a period of time.

Jokic is still just 31 and remains a perennial MVP candidate, and he will have the opportunity to sign a $359.5 million deal with Denver next summer. He has no incentive to leave the NBA, be it financial or from a competitive standpoint. The Nuggets probably won’t lose any sleep over this potential threat.