By Eurohoops Team / info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos secured another win in Valencia, defeating the hosts in overtime after a hard-fought battle to take a 2–0 lead in the best-of-five Playoff series, which now shifts to OAKA Arena.
After the game, Valencia head coach Pedro Martinez addressed the situation that occurred in the closing moments, when Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos approached the scorer’s table to protest the referees.
Some Panathinaikos players stepped in and guided him back to his seat, but Martinez did not overlook the situation.
“Panathinaikos is a great team, but their president is unacceptable. He’s completely unacceptable, and it’s not right that the EuroLeague allows people who go against the values of sport to create a bad atmosphere. He went over to the table, behaved disgracefully, and the EuroLeague should take action,” the Spanish tactician said after the game, and later added:
“There’s someone who is also a repeat offender when it comes to provoking others, and the EuroLeague can’t allow people like that“.
Ataman: “Police tried to arrest our president after the game”
Then, Panathinaikos head coach Ergin Ataman joined the press conference and briefly explained that police officers were outside his team’s locker room, allegedly attempting to arrest president Dimitris Giannakopoulos.
“I already shared my opinion with EuroLeague TV, so I’ll be very brief. Right now, there are 10 police officers in front of our locker room trying to arrest some of our staff and our president, Giannakopoulos. It’s the first time in my career — and I’ve been in this sport for 30 years — that I’ve seen something like this. We won at the buzzer, everyone is happy, and Valencia’s staff put police in front of our locker room so we can’t enjoy the moment. They are trying to arrest our president, Giannakopoulos, and our general manager… What is this? Thank you very much — see you in Athens.”
According to Panathinaikos side, Valencia security took General Manager Dimitris Kontos and team manager Giorgos Gotzogiannis off the court for absolutely no reason, because according to the Greeks, the athletes and the people of Valencia were the only ones causing trouble.
For the police presence in the locker rooms, Panathinaikos admits that Valencia brought the officers there, claiming that the reason was Giannakopoulos speaking to the referees and going to the scoring table 5.7 seconds before the end of the game. On the score sheet, the referees wrote that Giannakopoulos told them, “Call a foul”.
Valencia made the following official statement: “Valencia Basket condemns the behavior of Panathinaikos President Dimitris Giannakopoulos, who crossed all boundaries during the game by approaching the scorer’s table in a deplorable manner, attempting to influence and berate the referees, as reflected in the game report. He also refused to comply with the instructions of security personnel and created an unjustifiable tension, for which reason the police have issued him and several other members of his delegation a citation.
The Club will file a formal complaint with the competition and hopes that Euroleague will severely punish this type of behavior, which tarnishes the good image of our sport, especially given that he is a repeat offender”.