Well, that certainly didn't take very long. Denver Nuggets fans knew that they would be in for a long year of rumors about Nikola Jokic possibly getting poached by another team next summer after he chose to delay signing his contract extension again. But this one certainly came out of left field. And apparently, straight from the source, they tried to buy out Jokic for THIS season, too. Oh, it's going to be one of those years, isn't it? Even if this one is more on the humorous side.
In a sit-down interview with the Euro Insiders, the owner of the Greek basketball club Panathinaikos, Dimitris Giannakopoulos, revealed that his dream player to sign is none other than Jokic. And while it's a dream for him, it didn't stop him from asking the Nuggets about Jokic for the 2026-27 season. Allegedly.
"The one player which is a dream of mine and I haven't signed, I will sign next year," Giannakopoulos said. The hosts tried to guess who it could be, and Giannakopoulos exclaimed, "It's Jokic! The best basketball player in the world!" He continued, "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 contract... this was his last year, I tried to buy out his last year."
It was funny to hear him explain the rejection. "It took a few seconds to say, who? Greece? Bye, maybe later," Giannakopoulos said.
Everyone is going to try to get Jokic to decline his player option
Giannakopoulos says he wasn't joking about the proposal, either. But unless he's going to shell out more than the projected $359.5 million over five years, his dream will have to wait, or never come to fruition. Jokic has said he wants to stay in Denver, and I think he's going to stay true to his word. The reason he keeps waiting to sign seems to be more about financial reasons than anything else. He qualifies for more and more money each season he waits to extend.
But the storm clouds are already forming over the Nuggets' roster-building difficulties, and they're only going to get worse from here without a big reset. Those same clouds eventually forced Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks decided to reset and rebuild, and they sent Giannis out to a destination where he's likely to extend his contract with the Miami Heat. That doesn't seem likely with Jokic. But how long can he live with a roster that's not good enough to win a championship?
The difficulties that lie ahead for the Nuggets to build a competitive roster around Jokic will be the driving force to pry Jokic away. And we're going to get hit with rumor after rumor of Jokic joining forces with some other stars by declining his player option to find a better chance to win a championship. Those will be the rumors that get our attention, especially if the Nuggets play poorly or get derailed by injuries early again this year.
But for now, we can laugh at this rumor. Even if Giannakopoulos was serious.
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