The calendar shows June 15, 2026. The meeting with the owner of the CDE Panathinaikos, Dimitris Giannakopoulos, completed, the handshakes were carried out in a climate of absolute respect and the common consensus of cooperation also took formal flesh and blood. THE Erkin Ataman He opened the exit door and never looked back, but left three years full of four titles: one EuroLeague, one Championship and two Greek Cups.
But what lives at the end of the day? Always in a calm, civilized and understanding separation, human nature tends to keep good memories and for the Turkish technician, the legacy it leaves in the "triflle" is enormous. His name will be eternally remembered next to the seventh European star of the "greens" and his figure will mentally adorn the sky of Telekom Center forever, next to all those iconic figures that wrote history, with their good and bad.
Erkin Ataman, the man who refuses to lose, the man of the finals and the most numerous coach in Europe in the last decade met the explosive temperament of the powerful man of the "green" OEM and created the recipe of success. But all the good stuff comes to an end. ..
Thank you, Ergin! #paobcaktor pic.twitter. com/FDXTWaMicV— Panathinaikos BC (@Paobcgr) June 15, 2026
2023-2024: Timing and renaissance from ashes to Berlin
To understand the size of the achievement of the first season, one must remember where Panathinaikos was in the summer of 2023. The painful three years of "outwards" had ended. When the Turkish technician arrived in Athens in the summer of 2023, Panathinaikos was perhaps in the most difficult competitive period of his modern history and was looking for the way to do the rest. The season had been completed with the "trifl" in EuroLeague's 17th place, away from any talk about Final Four, even further away from claiming titles.
At that time Dimitris Giannakopoulos had already decided to restore the club to the leading role he had lost. The first writing samples had been seen early on with the metagraphical movements of Matias Lesor and Luka Vildosa, but needed more, a coach who could embody the vision of rebirth. In fact, before Ataman's choice, Pablo Lasso's case had fallen strongly on the table. Finally Panathinaikos chose the man who at the time was perhaps considered the top coach of EuroLeague, having already twice led Anadolu Efes to the European top and even continuously.
The first season was a real roller coaster with clear key points on the road to success. The beginning was not only easy, as the heavy defeat by Olympiacos at the Super Cup of Rhodes created questions, the new roster needed time and the arrival of Kostas Slouka had turned in summer into one of the most noisy in the history of Greek basketball. In fact, in the coming of Panathinaikos' leader who made the jump from the "eternal" opponent, Coach Ataman played a role in giving him the credentials for the plan and role he desired.
But the switch turned. The two huge doubles, in Monaco with Grigonis' tripointle and Madrid with Space Lesor, changed the group's chip, including the whole mentality. In all this it cannot be mentioned separately and Kendrick Nan's transcription, a transcript of historical European data, which not only matched and highlighted EuroLeague's MVP the following year, but was one of those who paved the way for the arrival of NBAers in the leading European intercollegiate event.
Panathinaikos began to believe that he could win anyone and when he believed it, everyone else began to believe it. Ataman's famous mind games began to work. Sometimes at risk, sometimes provocative, but always with his two raised fists giving the tone. Who can forget the famous statement as early as November 2023, when the Turkish technician urged the fans of the team to book their tickets to the Berlin Final Four. Some may have thought him "crazy", but history. ..he wrote.
The episode series with Maccabi in playoffs as an outsider was perhaps the biggest turning point. The "greens" were found with their backs on the wall, but survived by getting the qualification after five games and when they arrived in Berlin, Ataman did what he knows best throughout his career, winning. There, leveling Real Madrid in an exciting final, he sewed the 7th star in his jersey, returning to the throne after 13 years. The conquest of EuroLeague against the Queen was not just a title. It was the fulfillment of a promise. The realization of the famous "7th Star" which he repeated almost obsessively from the moment he set foot in Athens.
The cherry on the cake? The domestic finals with the ultimate overthrow, the second only in the entire history of the Greek league. Olympiacos was leading 2–0, with few believing that the series could turn, but Ataman in an almost magical way brought it all tumba. The 3-2 is a fact, Panathinaikos was crowned champion and the Turkish technician is named Coach of the Year in Greece. Justification brings, in the summer of 2024, the early extension of his contract until 2027. He actually believed that within a few weeks he had achieved what seemed unthinkable twelve months earlier.
2024-2025: The difficulty of maintaining the acquired and the first. ..arrhythmia
Season two began with Erkin Ataman now being treated as the man who had achieved one of the largest team renaissances in EuroLeague history. But reality was not so simple, as in these cases "must" grows and maintaining the peak is only easy, with anything other than it automatically characterized as failure.
At this point also begins the piece of transcriptions that did not work for Panathinaikos despite expectations with the first transfer of Lorenzo Brown. Brown stole the impressions of the people of Panathinaikos being rival in the series with Maccabi, but despite trials and efforts he never matched the team. Eveia, the real negative turning point was Matias Lesor's serious injury on 19 December 2024 against Basconia in OAKA who completely changed the balance.
With a disadvantage in the "5" position and player arrivals that failed to fill the gap, such as Pliss, Gabriel and Yurcheven, Panathinaikos continued to fight. He surpassed yet another tough and tense playoffs series, this time against Anadolu Efes, and returned to Final Four again after a five-game series. There, in Abu Dhabi, Erkin Ataman's team was eliminated in the semi-final by the later champion, Fenerbahce, while also defeated in the small final by Olympiacos. It is worth mentioning that in the semi-final against Sarunas Jasikevicius' team he first competed after Matias Lesor was injured, resulting in his... relapse and need even longer rehabilitation. In this case, the issue of the management of the injured cause of major struggles is also raised, with the consequences proving to be negative.
Please note that the clover had succeeded in winning the Greek Cup that season in the final against the eternal opponent (as this year). In the Greek league, however, everything seemed to roll in favor of Panathinaikos. Olympiacos was facing significant injury problems and Panathinaikos seemed to have the psychological advantage, but the events in the SEF in Game 2, the intensity that followed toxicity and continued involvement with what happened outside the four lines seemed to affect the team's overall environment. Panathinaikos may have won the Greek Cup, but failed to complete the season in the way he envisioned after Abu Dhabi's Final Four failed. The first signs, the first cracks began to make their appearance.
2025-2026: Time in the hourglass began to... dwindle and gave space to start demystification.
And that's how we got to the third year, the most difficult, the most contradictory and so-called failure. The first in which Ataman failed to present a team worthy of the expectations he had created with one of EuroLeague's most expensive budget.
Metagraphic options didn't come out as planned. Players acquired to change the team level failed to offer the expected ones. T.J. Shorts, one of the most discussed arrivals, never found the role the club people expected and reminded for the second consecutive year Lorenzo Brown's aforementioned case, except in T.J. Shorts, the clover saw a potential successor in the future of Costas Slouka. A player with enormous talent that was never used as expected again.
At the same time, the management of the roster was first at the heart of such intense criticism. The options in rotation, the use of specific shapes, late adjustments during games and the way players were reinstated after injuries were again the subject of intense discussion. In fact, there was a strong lack of accountability accompanied not a few times by public nominal and harsh criticism of players who did not attribute the expected ones.
Lesor's case, the management of Slouka in various phases of the season, even the use of players such as Rogavopoulos or Osman in critical points of the finals of the Greek league while fighting injuries, opened a cycle of questioning that grew as the year progressed and culminated in the loss of the league.
This was the drop that overflowed the glass, but the exclusion from EuroLeague's Final Four against Valencia had preceded it. Panathinaikos led 2–0 in the series and seemed to have embraced the qualification in the Final Four that would be held in Athens, in his home and even without the arranger of his attacks, Kostas Sloukas. Instead, he met three consecutive defeats, two of them at the crowded Telekom Center, and stayed in addition to the top basketball event he had circled since the beginning of the season since he would host at his headquarters. The blockade was not just a racing failure. It was the point where all the doubts expressed during the year were gathered, while the cherry on the cake came with the conquest of EuroLeague by Olympiacos in front of 18 thousand red-white fans inside Panathinaikos' seat. For the first time Ataman's name was accompanied by the word "responsibility".
The management of the locker rooms, a piece that Erkin Ataman plays on his fingers in his career, got out of control with the frictions and the climate looking even heavier. Even in the league, the situation did not change with Slouka except (after the perilous 30 minutes against PAOK), Rogavopoulos knockout and Osman struggling to fight by knocking again on the player management bell that is afflicted by injuries. He had warned from January that without winning either the league or the Euroleague, neither Europe nor Greece would eventually leave the redemption he was seeking, although in Stoiximan GBL Panathinaikos's face against Olympiacos was very competitive.
And so, in the summer of 2026, came the crew of time so that both sides would split their paths and make the statement the Turkish coach had made a few months ago. A separation not accompanied by bitterness. Perhaps because his relationship with Dimitris Giannakopoulos exceeded the narrow limits of a professional partnership. "It was a dream to work with Erkin. He was, is and will always be my favorite man in European basketball," were the words of the strong man of the CEE. And maybe because in the end most tend to keep the good. They remember the two characteristicly raised fists after major victories. The endless Mind games, the lines that became viral and above all remember a man who never went unnoticed, a man with personality. Coach Ataman's real legacy is not measured in trophies, but in the return of faith and the huge footprint left in the finale.
Source: gazzetta