Dimitrios Giannakopoulos, the Greek businessman who owns Panathinaikos Basketball Club in Athens, said he made a "proposal" to the Denver Nuggets to buy Nikola Jokic out of the final season of his current NBA contract and believes he can sign Jokic away next summer.
"People are going to say, 'OK, now he's joking,'" Giannakopoulos told the "Euro Insiders" podcast. "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."
Jokic has two seasons and $121.8 million left on his current contract, but the second season is a player option, giving him the freedom to enter unrestricted free agency next summer.
He became eligible to sign a four-year, $278 million max extension June 14 but has declined to commit, stating that his "idea and desire" is to stay in Denver for the rest of his career but that he plans to wait to sign an extension for financial reasons.
Jokic, 31, will become eligible to sign a five-year, $359.5 million extension with the Nuggets in July 2027, a contract that would be the largest in NBA history, according to ESPN NBA front office insider Bobby Marks.
Giannakopoulos said that the Nuggets declined his offer quickly, but he made it clear that he will pursue Jokic again once he is a free agent and told the podcast hosts to call Jokic's agent, Misko Raznatovic, and ask whether he really made a serious proposal this summer.
"It took a few seconds [for the Nuggets] to say, 'Who? Greece? Where? What? Bye,'" Giannakopoulos said. "But let's wait until next year."
Giannakopoulos tried to lure veteran NBA center Jonas Valanciunas from the Nuggets last summer and convinced some that a deal was in the works, leading to confusion before Valanciunas ultimately played out the season in Denver.
Valanciunas left the Nuggets this summer for Lithuanian EuroLeague powerhouse Zalgiris Kaunas, a minor note in what has been a quiet free agency period for the Nuggets.
They added veteran center Marvin Bagley III and retained reserve wing Spencer Jones, matching a two-year, $12 million offer sheet he signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Nuggets have otherwise kept an expensive roster intact while they navigate ongoing restricted free agency negotiations with Peyton Watson.
