The owners and the players of Maccabi attended the Gala event in memory of the late Panathinaikos president Mr. Pavlos Giannakopoulous. Dimitrios Giannakopoulous: “Maccabi were always rivals on the court and true friends outside it”
David Federman (one of Maccabi’s owners) also attended the Gala event. Among the Maccabi reps to attend the Gala event: Maccabi’s vice CEO Eli Drikes, Mccabi’s GM Nikola Vujcic the club’s CTO Roey Gladstone and all of the members of the first team participating in the tournament. Fenerbache’s head coach who won five EuroLeague championships Zeljko Obradovic and Fener’s GM Maurizio Gheradini also attended the Gala.
Dimitrios Giannakopoulous, the president of Panathinaikos who sat next to the EuroLeague’s CEO Mr. Jordi Bertomeu, spoke and thanked Shimon Mizrahi personally for his friendship with his father throughout the years. “Shimon and Maccabi were always rivals on the court but true friends outside it”, said an emotional Dimitrios. Thanasis Giannakopoulous, the brother of Pavlos and one of Panathinaikos’ owners, also spoke with the invitees.
“I would say that I know Mr. Pavlos Giannakopoulos for more than 30 years”, said Shimon Mizrahi about the late President. “He was a man of honor with a lot of dignity and tradition. I appreciate everything that he was doing and as you know he was a very loyal person, when there was the crisis between FIBA and the EuroLeague (I.e. the beginning of the 2000’s), he and me decided together to give it another chance and we stayed with FIBA another year with the SuproLeague and then we came to the EuroLeague”.
“I would say that Mr. Pavlos Giannakopoulos devoted his life to his work and to his basketball, you can’t find everyday people like that and because of people like him we have the basketball that we have and it’s a great honor to be here and to take part in this tournament. I think that Panathinaikos is a very important part of the EuroLeague, and Mr. Pavlos Giannakopoulos devoted a lot for the European basketball”, added Shimon Mizrahi.
