By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos lost to Maccabi Tel Aviv in EuroLeague Round 24 at Menora Mivtachim Arena. The game featured a tense start, with fans verbally abusing coach Ergin Ataman and his players before they even entered the arena.
After the game, the Turkish tactician did not hold back, expressing his dissatisfaction and condemning the insults from the stands.
“We were comparing the NBA with the EuroLeague, and we said the EuroLeague is the best league in the world. But what happened today is not basketball. When you enter the court to do your job and 10,000 people are coming to the court, waiting outside the dressing room, and then they spend 40 minutes insulting you—strongly—without anyone doing anything, that’s not basketball. I have never seen anything like that in the NBA, so I will not compare the EuroLeague to the NBA anymore,” Ataman said.
He also referred to the 2024 playoff series against Maccabi, which also had tension, when Ataman accused someone from Maccabi’s staff of threatening him about coming to Israel.
“This is not sport. I do my job, and I’m proud to have taken my team against Maccabi in the playoffs previously, to win the series, reach the Final Four, and win the title. That’s what I came here to do. But I’m not here to endure 10,000–15,000 people insulting me for the entire game, and nobody—referees, commissioners, no one—does anything about it. Okay, continue like this,” Ataman concluded his postgame comments.