It was the end of an era at Panathinaikos OPAP Athens as the Greens announced on Friday the departure of superstar point guard Nick Calathes, after eight seasons playing with the team. Calathes (1.96 meters, 31 years old) started in all 28 games last season with Panathinaikos and averaged 13.3 points and 4.9 rebounds while also leading the league with 9.1 assists per game and also total assists with 255. Calathes had come to become a symbol for Panathinaikos and the city of Athens.

Calathes made his debut with Panathinaikos in 2009 and played there until 2012, winning the EuroLeague title in the process in 2011. After that, he played in Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar in the 7DAYS EuroCup and he led the team to the title in 2012-13. After that, he played a couple of seasons in the Memphis Grizzlies but then he returned to his Panathinaikos in 2015 and played there until now. During that second stint, Calathes could not lead the Greens to another title, but he became a major name in the league as one of the best point guards in the game. He was named into the All-EuroLeague First Team back-to-back in 2018 and 2019 and was also MVP of the Month in November of 2017 and March of 2019. Between April 2019 and January 2020 Calathes dished 17 assists or more on three occasions, and since his comeback to the league in 2015, he leads all players in assists with a whopping 1,147 decisive passes in 152 games (7.5 apg.), as Thomas Huertel stands second far away with 761 in 127 games during the same period. On April 4, 2019, Calathes also posted the first triple-double in 12 years in the EuroLeague against Buducnost VOLI Podgorica with 11 points, 12 rebounds and 18 assists.