A visibly overworked one Olympicwho lost Williams-Goss and Shikma to concussions, had Isaiah Cannon have a great day in an 81-72 victory over Marsin the premiere of the Basket League.
After the match, George Bartzokas expressed in his statements his dissatisfaction with the refereeing, stressing that it allowed the excessively physical game. At the press conference, the Greek technician repeated his complaints, while also opening a dialogue with journalists on the matter.
In detail what he said:
“The most important thing in today’s game was what happened before the jamball, the honor in memory of Giannis Ioannidis. Once again, my deepest condolences to his wife and daughter.
The match doesn’t stand up to much criticism, you can’t say much. My feeling is that no basketball was played. We saw a situation with a very physical game, which was beyond all logic. The referees decided to let..
A basketball was played that is different from the EuroLeague matches and from the other games of the Greek league. Two more players were injured from this (Williams-Goss and Sikma) in addition to the two or three we already have and some were forced, after the extra time we played on Friday night (against Panathinaikos at OAKA), to be eliminated playing more. But that’s the situation. We won the first match. It’s never easy to win here. Congratulations Aris and good luck.
I’ll leave it to you, the number crunchers, to watch the game again. Obviously you and I have different positions in basketball. We probably understand the game differently. My own image and my own conclusion on that particular play was that for the fifth foul to be called, four were called before. I’m not here to judge the referees, there are others who judge them, but there should be a common ground in how the referees in the EuroLeague, in FIBA, in the Greek league deal with the games. It can’t all be different.
I came here to make a snapshot of how I saw the game. Obviously you, and I respect that, see it differently. What do you want us to say more about this thing now? With all respect. You count the fouls, I have an opinion about basketball. Obviously you have another opinion, I respect that too.
These (pp. injury issues) are seen the next day. Williams-Goss and Sikma will undergo an MRI and we will see the extent of the damage.”
Source: Sport Fm
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