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Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens has dismissed head coach Ergin Ataman following a turbulent 2025-26 season that saw the Greek powerhouse fail to reach the EuroLeague Final Four and surrender the domestic league title to fierce rivals Olympiacos.
The club confirmed the departure on Monday through its official social media channels, ending a three-year chapter that began with historic triumph but concluded in bitter disappointment.
The parting was confirmed after a face-to-face meeting between Ataman and club owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos, the same man who had publicly defended him just weeks earlier. Ataman departs despite holding a guaranteed contract for the 2026-27 season.
The decisive blow came in the EuroLeague semifinals, when Panathinaikos collapsed against Valencia Basket, losing three straight matches after taking a 2-0 series lead, and missing the Final Four held in Athens, a tournament they had been favorites to host as champions.
The elimination prompted the club to cancel a scheduled training session, and speculation about Ataman's future began circulating almost immediately.
The domestic campaign offered no relief. Panathinaikos fell to Olympiacos in the Greek Basketball League Finals, surrendering the title in a best-of-five series they could not close.
The Greek Cup was the only silverware the team collected in 2025-26, a solitary triumph that did little to quiet growing frustration among supporters.
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The season was defined as much by turbulence off the court as by results on it. In January, Ataman publicly disclosed that some Panathinaikos fans had been sending him hostile messages about his Turkish nationality, urging him to leave Greece. "They start to attack, sending a message that I am Turkish, and I must leave Greece because I am Turkish," he told reporters. He added that he was proud of his origins while affirming his affection for Greece.
Tensions intensified during the Greek League Finals. Following Game 3, in which Olympiacos won 102-92 and Ataman was ejected late in the contest, the coach took to Instagram to condemn what he described as repeated anti-Türkiye chants from the opposing crowd.
"Yesterday, throughout the game, you once again chanted offensive slogans directed at my country, Türkiye," he wrote, while being careful to distinguish between Olympiacos supporters and the broader Greek public, describing the Greek people as "brothers and sisters."
He also drew attention to the absence of Greek national team players in Olympiacos's lineup during the game, in an apparent attempt to deflect the nationalist framing directed at him.
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