The benevolent sanctions against the players of Real Madrid and Partizan Belgrade after the pitched battle they staged last Thursday during a Euroleague game have upset the world of basketball. The reactions in most cases are misunderstanding and indignation at the light punishments.
The Barça power forward, Nikola Mirotic, in statements collected by RAC1, made it clear that he did not want to comment on the mistakes of his fellow professionals, although he stressed that this type of unworthy spectacle has no place in sport. "I don't want to comment on the disaster that others have made. Let them think how they wash their hands and face for what happened," the Montenegrin assessed about the pitched battle that originated from Llull's unsportsmanlike foul on Punter.
Despite wanting to distance himself from the facts, Mirotic concluded his statements with a lapidary phrase about this type of incident in the world of basketball. "Obviously, basketball doesn't deserve these things, especially at this level."
In Tenerife they have not liked the sanctions either after a few weeks ago their coach Jaka Lakovic was sanctioned with four games for a protest. It must be remembered that Yabusele will miss five games due to a hold on forward Dante Exum.
Harder has charged the president of the Greek Panathinaikos Dimitris Giannakopoulos believes that this is sending the wrong message and that the bans should be much higher and stricter. The businessman published an Instagram story where he attacked the Euroleague:
“Being a person who has paid €300,000 for a post on Instagram when Turkish fans cursed my family and I answered them… From a person who has paid €120,000 because I did not listen to the sanctions of the Euroleague and the Disciplinary Judge, no let me go to the stadiums...
From a person who has paid €1,700,000 in personal penalties, not club penalties, personal penalties, for my Instagram and my supposed insults towards the EuroLeague... How must I feel today when the whole of European basketball was ridiculed for what happened in the Real-Partizan match?
What should I do now? How should I feel? Does anyone in the Euroleague or the Disciplinary Judge think about this? What message do you give me? Next time, I shouldn't swear, I shouldn't ridicule, [maybe] I should start beating people up. Is this the message you want to give with yesterday's sanctions?
Back then, 250,000 people viewed my Instagram. From what I know, the EuroLeague is watched by millions of people, tens of millions of people, 20, 50, 100 million around the world. You penalize players 5 games and 3 games, and I paid 1.7 million? I think something is wrong here, ”she concluded.
