Panathinaikos has started 6-7 in the EuroLeague, leaving the team in 10th place. The team’s owner, Dimitrios Giannakopoulos, has a volcanic reputation in Europe. He was fined 150,000 euros in 2015 for barging into the referee’s room and threatening to kill the officials and their families after a playoff victory over CSKA Moscow. Panathinaikos’ roster includes Nick Calathes, Georgios Papagiannis, Keith Langford, Deshaun Thomas, James Gist and the older brother of Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, Thanasis.
Keith Langford Rumors
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Keith Langford
Position: -
Born: 09/15/83
Height: 6-4 / 1.93
Weight:215 lbs. / 97.5 kg.
Earnings: $272,316 ($387,278*)
Born: 09/15/83
Height: 6-4 / 1.93
Weight:215 lbs. / 97.5 kg.
Earnings: $272,316 ($387,278*)
We talked to five players to learn more about life in the D-League and how that first call up went for them: Anthony Tolliver, Kelenna Azubuike, Keith Langford, Marqus Blakely and Elijah Millsap.
Millsap: “There was not really a special eye-opening moment when I made it to the Utah Jazz. I just felt I had been waiting for that moment for a long time and that I deserved it. I was like, ‘I’m here now, let’s do something special with this opportunity.’” Langford: “When making a decision about the D-League, you have to take into consideration how old you are vs. what your goal is. Anybody that’s younger than 25 and his goal is legitimately to be an NBA player should stay in the States and give it a try. Guys who are over 25 and with a goal of making money playing at a high level of competition, they should take the offers that are available to them (overseas). It all depends on where you fit.
Langford: “I played behind Ime Udoka and he was a consummate professional. He knew what he was doing. Sam Vincent, my coach in the D-League, was always telling me how I needed to follow what Ime was doing and learn from him. In my mind at that time, I was like, ‘I’m better than Ime, who is this guy?’” Tolliver: “Not getting called up my first two seasons in the D-League was frustrating, but it was also a motivation to stay hungry and keep working.”
Blakely: “The D-League was a good learning process. It’s not an easy league to play in when it comes to travel. Not as bad as it is overseas when you’re also away from home for a longer period of time, but getting to the games is more difficult and you’re not really getting paid as much as you could overseas. So it’s a sacrifice. But in my mind I knew it would eventually pay off.” Millsap: “It was tough at first end to pass on offers from Europe. That was in my mind. But money is just money and dreams are dreams. And my dream was to play in the NBA.”
27 Nov 15
