The participation of the holy trinity of NBA superstars Janis Adetokunbo (Milwaukee), Luka Doncic (Dallas) and Nikola Jokic (Denver) is, and still in two thirds, a big draw of the continental showdown.
“International basketball is the most fun,” former national team coach Pavel Budínský said in a comment for Sport.cz. And some top-class matches, surpassing even the NBA in terms of quality, proved him right.
But it is the referees who stumble breathlessly behind the championship level. And there are many examples in recent days. 22 seconds were lost from Georgia’s match against Turkey after a timekeeping error. And no correction from the judges. We also didn’t see the Lithuanian free throw that should have been taken after a technical foul for the German coach.
“Our coaches started protesting, the commissioner just sat there blushing and did nothing,” wondered Lithuanian Mindaugas Kuzminskas.
The International Basketball Federation has stopped inviting Euroleague referees to its events since a dispute broke out between the EuroLeague and FIBA over the control of the main European competition. And this is the result.
“I prepare for a match for two or three hours, I will pour my soul out on the pitch, and then the referee will tell me: I’m sorry, I didn’t see it, I wasn’t in a good position,” complained the Croatian. Mario Hezonja.
“This tournament is really physically demanding. FIBA referees let a lot of things go,” compared Hezonjo’s teammate Jaleen Smith. “They don’t whistle as much as they do in the Euroleague.”
With mixed feelings, the Belgium players left the board after the round of 16, leading the favored Slovenia 64:63, but eventually lost 72:88.
On the last pass of the match, Belgian Kevin Tumba elbowed Dončić and was whistled for an unsportsmanlike foul. When the Slovenian star sent the opponent to the ground minutes earlier, there was no whistle.
“Luka also fouled, but the referee doesn’t see it. But if the other players do something, they notice. But this is EuroBasket, they should be fair to everyone. And the referee should whistle the same to everyone,” owned by Tumba.
“Luka can talk to the referees as much as he wants. When I talk to the referee, he answers: Don’t talk to me,” complained the Belgian, who Doncic refused to shake hands with at the end of the match.
“I’ve been hearing a lot about equality in recent weeks. But there is no equality in basketball. Everything will be 50/50. Everything will be fair and equal for everyone. But it’s not like that. Let’s stop lying to each other,” lamented Belgium coach Dario Gjergja.
The Slovenians shot 25 sixes in the round of 16 (Dončič 10) and the Belgians only 8. In the round of 16 match between Greece and the Czech basketball players, the ratio of free throws was 29:9 in favor of coach Ginzburg’s team. opponent At the same time, in some cases, it’s more about Adetokunba’s offensive fouls.
Then Jokic shot 15 sixes against Italy, but even his 32 points were not enough for the enthusiastic play of the opponents, who scattered the Serbian imaginations with sixteen threes. A good job defending Jokic was done by Nicolo Melli from Milan, whom the coach Gianmarco Pozzecco called in full euphoria the best player in the world and gave his credit card to the Italians to pay for the promotion celebration . “We all went to dinner. It didn’t turn out so bad, only about 700 euros (17,000 crowns),” revealed Marco Spissu, who scored 22 points for the Serbs, including six three-pointers.
However, FIBA rejects the patronage of star players, even as it admits mistakes in the group stage. From the original 44 judges, he chose twenty, who proceeded to the play-off in Berlin, which was common. However, many of the judges from the eliminated group had no idea about Europe. And the question is what the remaining twenty will show in the matches of the best eight teams.