Maccabi Tel Aviv looking for a ‘Greek’ summer
Maccabi Tel Aviv, who just won the Israeli league against Maccabi Rishon LeZion, is planning to have a busy summer. Since the arrival of coach Sfairopoulos, who was hired back in November of 2018, the team completely changed rhythm and found new hope after several disappointing seasons. Now that Sfairopoulos is fully in charge, this summer Maccabi Tel Aviv wants to add some ‘Greek sauce’ to the team.
Maccabi Tel Aviv, in fact, is planning to go hard after both Kostas Sloukas and Kostas Papanikolaou, a source with knowledge of the situation told me. Maccabi already made an offer to Sloukas, who’ll be a free agent after June 30th, a source told me. They offered Sloukas a two-year deal and they’re willing to even raise the initial offer, if that’ll be necessary, a source with knowledge of the situation told me. Maccabi has been really high on Sloukas for months, especially after their plan to sign Milos Teodosic didn’t work. The interest around Sloukas remains high. The Greek point guard has already received a contract extension offer from Fenerbahce and another very rich offer from Barcelona, according to multiple sources. Barcelona’s offer seems the most lucrative one so far, according to a source, but Sloukas hasn’t committed to anything so far as he was fully focused on the Turkish League finals, which saw Fenerbahce losing the title against Anadolu Efes in Game 7 of the series.
For Papanikolaou the situation is a little bit different. Maccabi Tel Aviv’s interest for the Greek forward is strong. Coach Sfairopoulos really likes him as a player and has already coached him in the past. But Papanikolaou, unlike Sloukas, is under contract with Olympiacos for the next two seasons, after signing a three-year contract extension in 2018. But the future of Olympiacos remains uncertain. As of right now, the team would play in the Greek second division next season, after deciding to not take part in the Greek playoffs this season. The team was interested in joining ABA Liga but so far there haven’t been any developings on the situation and the board of ABA Liga doesn’t seem so excited about this idea. With this kind of uncertainty revolving the team, some players may decide to find new teams, including Papanikolaou. If that’d be the case, Maccabi will be ready to offer the forward a new home for the upcoming future.
Maccabi Tel Aviv has already secured Tarik Black’s extension and the team wants to keep around also Johnny O’Bryant, who played a very good rookie season in Europe, averaging 10.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game in Euroleague. The Israeli powerhouse, in fact, has offered a 1+1 contract extension to O’Bryant, a source told me. O’Bryant will take some time to evaluate the offer.
