By Stefan Acevski / info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos had everything in their hands, a 2-0 series lead against Valencia, but they will not be seen at the OAKA Arena in Athens.
Valencia managed to turn the series around, winning three games in a row, including two away games, thus securing themselves a semifinal match against Real Madrid.
Ibrahim Kutluay, a former player of Fenerbahce and Panathinaikos, with whom he won the EuroLeague in the 2001/02 season, commented on the situation. In his statement for “Socrates”, he criticized the “greens” and pointed out that this team seems like it can “fall apart easily.”
“Looking at Fenerbahçe’s playoff run last season, and comparing it to Valencia and Olympiacos also, you see a team with energy and resilience. You don’t see that with Panathinaikos. They look fragile, soft, and like a team that can fall apart easily.”
He also added that PAO cannot blame the referees after this collapse.
“You’ve already lost — it’s a huge disappointment. And there’s no point blaming the referees because you were up 2–0 in the series and going back home. Panathinaikos fans won’t buy those excuses. You come back home with a 2–0 lead and lose two games there. Talking about free throws, fouls, whether a call was made or not — that’s just a story. Win one game and you’re in the Final Four.”
He had a special message for Nigel Hayes-Davis, who joined Athens during the season and called basketball a “children’s game” after the Quarterfinal exit.
“Then you hear the players’ comments, Nigel’s comments and all that stuff — ‘it’s just a children’s game, teenagers take it too seriously,’ and so on. You make €5 million from this ‘children’s game.’ You earned €3 million in half a season — what children’s game are we talking about?”
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Kutluay also criticized his long travels during the season and advised the power forward to “put his head down and apologize.”
“You lost. Put your head down, apologize, and deal with your disappointment internally. Then go into the finals and beat Olympiacos or don’t beat Olympiacos — then you can talk. But what is all this?On top of that, before the Playoffs you’re traveling to India and Jordan. You’re in the middle of a playoff series — how does that happen? Sure, go travel, do whatever you want, that stuff happens. But if you’re performing on the court and shutting everyone up, then you can do whatever you want. Instead, you do all that and then make ridiculous comments like ‘I don’t care,’ and so on.
You don’t care at Panathinaikos? Go walk around Athens and see whether people care or not. It’s not that easy. Let him go out in public and see what happens.”