By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
After beating last year’s champions Gran Canaria in the Eight-Finals, Besiktas will now face Hapoel Tel Aviv (13/03 at 18:30 CET) in this year’s BKT EuroCup Quarter-Finals looking ahead to the final part of the season.
One of the most anticipated players to watch in such a clash will be Xavier Munford, who has been stealing the show as one of the most electrifying guards in the whole competition. However, Besiktas has questioned his presence in the do-or-die encounter.
Releasing an official press release, the Turkish team put a question mark on his suspension from domestic league action in Israel. “We have learned with surprise that Xavier Manford, the basketball player of Hapoel Tel Aviv, our opponent in the BKT EuroCup quarter-finals, has been suspended from competitions for an unprecedented 21 days by the Israeli Basketball Federation due to drug use”, the statement opens.
The black-and-white club’s statement continues. “It is unacceptable that the sanction applied to such an action, which is incompatible with the spirit of sports, was announced a few days before the competition with our Club and as 21 days, which is quite low compared to its peers. This announced penalty casts a shadow over the deterrence of such behavior, which is contrary to the spirit of sports, and creates a situation that may pave the way for such behavior”, it says.
“Moreover, The fact that the Hapoel Tel Aviv head coach said in an interview that the sample was taken in December, but the results were announced in February, raises questions on the subject. We hope that the FIBA and Euroleague boards will make a fair decision regarding the situation in question, taking into account previous precedents. We would like to state that we will follow the issue until the end and use all our legal rights”, Besiktas’ press release ends.
Thus far in the 2023-24 season, the second consecutive with the Israeli team, the 31-year-old shooting guard has been averaging 15.9 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game, shooting 56.2% from two, 43.8% from three, and 82.0% at the charity stripe. He was named MVP of Round 8.
Before heading to Tel Aviv in 2022, he already played for Frutti Extra Bursaspor in the BKT EuroCup, appearing in six games with Barcelona back in 2017. He also spent some time in the NBA between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Milwaukee Bucks, being affiliated with the G-League as well.
PHOTO CREDIT: BKT EuroCup