Βy Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
With 1.40 left in the game between Real Madrid and Partizan all hell broke lost in Madrid.
With the guests leading by 15, Sergio Llull made a hard foul to Kevin Punter, who reacted and went straight into the Spanish guard.
Dante Exum and Guerschon Yabusele immediately run to their teammates with unclear intentions. Gabriel Deck followed and attacked Punter, while almost everyone from the two teams gathered center court in what ended up being the biggest brawl in the EuroLeague history.
Ejections coming up, and Yabusele in danger of missing the next game after his action against Exum #EuroLeague #Playoffspic.twitter.com/raLU6yUryK
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) April 27, 2023
The league is expected to hand many sanctions for all those involved, however, the suspension of Guerson Yabusele is almost certain after hanging and bodyslamming Dante Exum who ended up being hurt in his leg.
“We talk about players having emotions, but it was the end of the game and nothing really happened (to trigger the incident)”, said Partizan coach Zeljko Obradovic in the press conference.
As he added: “I will try to calm things down because I have many friends in Real Madrid, it’s a great club and we have to welcome them in Belgrade. We have to talk about basketball and if we do that, there’s nothing else. There’s a video, but it doesn’t matter. The players talked after the game and this should be the end of the story. We don’t need to continue to talk so much about this”.
For Exum, Obradovic added: “It looks bad, we will know tomorrow”. The Australian guard has suffered a ruptured tendon in his toe, per Partizan’s doctor, Moma Jakovljevic. His lip was also injured.
The apology of Real Madrid
Rudy Fernandez as Real Madrid captain offered his apologies to everyone for the incident: “After what we have experienced today, we have to say sorry to our fans, to every basketball fan. We can’t watch this kind of incident, but as players we have emotions and we make mistakes. Today was one of these days. We consider Partizan a team that is our friend, coach Zeljko knows very well this gym and we all feel the same. The tension has to stop here and we will have to play just a game of basketball for the fans to enjoy the EuroLeague”.
Coach Chus Matteo explains why the game was ultimately suspended: “The referees said that if a player leaves the bench, he has to be ejected so they decided to suspend the contest. I hope there will not be any more sanctions. We are really sorry. We have to think about the frustration of the players, but we also don’t want to see those kind of things”.
Sanctions expected in 24 hours
EuroLeague announced the following after the game: Game 2 of the playoff series between Real Madrid and Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade was stopped with 1 minute 40 seconds to play on Thursday when an altercation on court happened and most of both benches emptied.
When disqualifications were applied for those players participating in the altercation and those automatically ejected for leaving the bench area, neither team had the requisite minimum of two players each required to finish the game, therefore the game is considered officially ended with the score at the time it was stopped, 80-95 in favor of Partizan, which therefore now leads the series 2-0.
Euroleague Basketball has referred the reported facts to the Euroleague Basketball Independent Disciplinary Judge, who will issue a decision about the on-court incidents in accordance with the established proceedings, within the following 24 hours.
Euroleague Basketball strongly condemns the events that happened at the end of the game. Such events do not represent the values of respect that the league and its clubs promote and that the sport of basketball embodies.