This is Dimitris Giannakopoulos, the controversial president of Panathinaikos who has the Euroleague on edge

When the Valencia Basket-Panathinaikos game was at its tensest moments, Dimitris Giannakopoulos (Athens, 52 years old), president and owner of the Greek club, stood up from his seat next to his team’s bench, passed behind the players and coaching staff, and began angrily protesting behind the scorers’ table. Then they had to return him to his seat, after the commercial break, where he continued making gestures of disdain. After the game, Pedro Martínez said he was “an unacceptable person” and that the Euroleague should take action. Valencia Basket issued a statement along the same lines. The businessman extended the confrontation a bit more by calling the Barcelona coach a “liar” and accusing him of not knowing how to lose. The Euroleague has decided to open a disciplinary file against him and a sanction similar to the one he received last year is expected: five games without being able to attend a venue and a financial fine.

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Panathinaikos responded this Friday with another statement denouncing “unacceptable incidents” ranging from objects being thrown at their bench to the pursuit of Isaac Nogués, a Valencia player, to Kendrick Nunn. Fortunately, the young man slipped while running after him. The note includes a protest because they felt harassed by security personnel and because the club called the police to try to stop Giannakopoulos.

The quarterfinal series travels, with the Greeks leading 0-2, to Athens, to the scorching OAKA, where a hellish atmosphere is expected. Coach Ergin Ataman already said goodbye to the press in Valencia with a threatening phrase. “See you in Athens,” he said before getting up and leaving without taking questions. The question is whether Dimitris Giannakopoulos will be there or if he will have already been sanctioned. Panathinaikos can decide the series both on Wednesday, May 6 and Friday, May 8, the scheduled dates for the third game and, if necessary, the fourth. The club, one of the owners of the Euroleague, will be exempt from punishment for the unjustifiable behavior of its owner.

Dimitris Giannakopoulos is a 52-year-old Athenian businessman, an only child, who inherited his father Pavlos Giannakopoulos’s pharmaceutical company (1929-2018). The grandfather, Dimitrios, had opened a pharmacy in 1924 on Peirairos Avenue, which connects downtown Athens with the port of Piraeus. Pavlos founded the company Pharmagian in 1960, which in 1971 was renamed Vianex. The business is dedicated to producing medicines and marketing products from the world’s major pharmaceutical companies in Greece. Vianex earned 443 million euros in 2022 and, according to 2020 data, has 1,242 employees. Dimitris also owns 50% of the company Superfoods, which produces dietary supplements and natural products.

His father revolutionized basketball with signings of great basketball stars such as Dominique Wilkins, Byron Scott, Nikos Gallis, Stojan Vrankovic, and Dino Radja. In 2012, he left the team’s reins in the hands of his son, Dimitris. After losing a derby to Olympiacos in 1999, he entered the locker room to criticize the coach. Dino Radja, a famous 2.11m Croatian center, assaulted him. Later he confirmed the altercation in an interview with ‘Meridian Sport’. “I hit the boss’s son, the current president. I apologize,” he said.

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The son also inherited his father’s impetuous character. After another duel with Olympiacos, he told the referee: “Write whatever you want in the match report, but be sure you will find me in front of you.” And in 2016 he entered the locker room and insulted Vassilis Spanoulis, to whom he dedicated serious threats. “I will kill you and your family, I will f*** your mother. I will send your wife and children to the grave. F***ing bastard.” Later he apologized.

His record is full of incidents. In 2017, after losing to Fenerbahçe, he punished the team by making them return by bus from Istanbul to Athens. A 12-hour trip that several players skipped by buying a plane ticket to avoid that humiliation. After another match with Fenerbahçe, he wrote out-of-line words on social media. “Eternal hatred for Obradovic. I’m going to f*** all the Turkish fans until they bleed,” he wrote. The Euroleague punished his comments with a 12-month suspension from attending European games. “His public statements endanger harmonious relations between clubs and harm the sport of basketball,” said the Euroleague statement. He then appealed and the punishment was halved with a 50,000 euro fine. Giannakopoulos challenged the league and showed up in the box during the game against Olympiacos, a provocation that cost him another 60,000 euros.

Giannakopoulos, eternally outraged by refereeing, sent a letter in 2018 to various European media with information that, according to him, documented the damages his team had suffered against rivals such as Fenerbahçe, Olympiacos, and Real Madrid. All defeats seem to sting him and after a counterattack against Barcelona, he demanded that the bank accounts of Costas Rigas (Euroleague refereeing official) be reviewed, insinuating that he had been ‘bribed’.

His reprehensible attitudes have cost him various sanctions, such as in 2015, when he was forced to pay a 150,000 euro fine for “extreme verbal threats” in a game against CSKA. None of this calms him down. Giannakopoulos is an arrogant guy who roams freely through arenas across Europe, who doesn’t mind smoking in places where it’s not allowed, and who is capable of offering 10,000 euros to those who provide information about a fan who spat on him. In the last Final Four in Abu Dhabi, he was already punished by the competition committee, an independent body of the Euroleague, with five games without being able to enter the arena and a financial fine. Now he faces missing the conclusion with Valencia Basket and later, if Panathinaikos qualifies, the Final Four.

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