By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Slovenia couldn’t contain Canada in the 2023 FIBA World Cup quarterfinals and especially struggled when it’s star player, Luka Doncic, got ejected.
Klemen Prepelic believes it was an unfair decision by the referees and explains thoroughly why.
“I simply don’t understand why Luka, for example, got a technical foul against Australia for shooting from half-court as a joke. They considered this a technical foul, and there’s a guy who, in the second minute of the game, put an elbow in the opponent’s face and received an intentional foul. Then, for 40 minutes, he engaged in trash-talking. You know what he’s doing, and then, with two minutes to go, you give him a technical foul and throw him out of the game. That’s simply unacceptable,” Prepelic said.
He’s still proud of what they achieved at the World Cup.
“We are known as a very emotional team, and we have to control this, but we know how to compete this way. Sometimes we get results, sometimes not. At the end of the day, we are in the Top 8. We are Slovenia, a very small country, and we are super happy.”
Mike Tobey, known as a great fighter under the rims, talked about the physical aspect of the game.
“It was a physical game, and we tried to play physically, but we weren’t able to match their physicality. I don’t know, it’s not our favorite type of game; it’s going to be remembered as a bad memory, one that got away from us. However, at the same time, I think we can learn from it,” Tobey said.
The Slovenian center believes Slovenia didn’t receive the same treatment from the referees as Canada.
“We knew they were going to be physical, which is fine. It’s a physical game; it’s FIBA; this is a World Cup. We don’t mind playing physically, but you’ve got to let us play physically as well, and it didn’t feel like they were letting us.”
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Photo: fiba.basketball