By Stefan Djordjevic / sdjordjevic@eurohoops.net
As was the case in the 2018-19 ABA League Finals, Buducnost VOLI managed to bounce back from a 0-2 deficit in the series and force a Game 5 which will be played in Belgrade.
However, similar tension has been displayed as well between the two sides as Crvena Zvezda issued an official press release with which they protest the refereeing, especially so in Games 3 & 4, as well other off-the-court incidents.
Many accusations were made in the announcement but there were also some numbers that might be worthy of investigation. While the ratio of fouls and free throws was fairly similar in the first two games, that changed going into the latter two clashes played in Montenegro.
Buducnost drew a total of 61 fouls compared to Zvezda’s 45, however, that wasn’t the drastic difference. It was the free throws, as Buducnost got a total of 69 free throws over the past two games while Zvezda shot 31.
Zvezda also stated that the club declares “the general mobilization of all our supporters with the desire to be with us and support us in our efforts to prevent individuals and their criminal and corrupt “octopuses” from convincing us once again that “basketball won” after games 3 and 4 in which our team brutally robbed.”
It should be noted that, due to the coronavirus and the epidemiological measures, fans aren’t allowed to attend and the club was fined after the first two games for allowing more than a thousand people into the tribune.
The statement by KK Crvena Zvezda in the full:
If someone had any dilemma or wondered during this season “why KK Crvena Zvezda is leading a lawsuit against the ABA League” and what our club is fighting against, not only looking at themselves and their interests, all the “evidence” of the diseases that basketball in the region suffers from, suffocated by the narrow interests of individuals, got evidence in just a few days in four ABA league finals games that were everything but the propaganda of basketball and the best from the regional league.
Because of all that, KK Crvena Zvezda will no longer be silent about injustices and robberies that will destroy the ABA league due to rotten compromises, unprincipled coalitions, various clans and long-established habits that have nothing to do with sports!
To anyone who watched the ABA League finals No. 3 and 4 in Podgorica on Saturday and Monday, it is clear that basketball in the region is ruled by a kind of mafia that directs the outcome of matches for years without choosing a way to reach the goal, each in its “domain”. Basketball, the ABA league and an audience of millions next to the TV screen are not important.
The ratio in free throws in Saturday and Monday games clearly shows that:
The Crvena Zvezda basketball players were called for a total of 61 fouls, the opponent 45, and the ratio of free throws is even more drastic – Buducnost shot 69 of them, and Crvena Zvezda 31???
That is why KK Crvena Zvezda publicly asks questions:
– How is it possible that formally the best referees on the ranking list who are delegated to KK Crvena Zvezda matches (and this is stated as an argument against our club) make 20 mistakes per game to the detriment of our team? If they are not paid for it with money to whistle in favor of our rival, or in some other way forced, then it is called intent!
– As a friend of KK Budućnost, Veselin Barović, a security-wise interesting person and “businessman” who was banned from entering the Republic of Serbia in 2018, ended up in the second game next to the court with only one goal – to put pressure on certain referees with his presence. When and how was the ban, introduced on July 31, 2018, lifted?
– How is it possible that KK Crvena Zvezda has not received the ABA league’s response to the club’s official objection to the shameful delegate report after the third game, which it is obliged to submit by the beginning of the next game?
– Why weren’t the referees of the third game immediately sanctioned, in which the referee commission, after the referee’s expertise, officially found as many as 19 mistakes to the detriment of Crvena Zvezda???
– How is it possible that Dragan Bokan publicly threatened the commissioner in charge of appointing referees and delegates in front of several witnesses before the start of the third game, dissatisfied with the outcome of the first two games in Belgrade?
– How is it possible that one of the referees of the fourth game, as an explanation for a bad decision, states as a justification to one member of Crvena Zvezda that “it is easy for us because we are guarded by the police but he has to get his head alive out of Podgorica”?
There were more such examples along with the robberies that were seen by an audience of millions on Saturday and Monday.
That is why it is clear that all the events in the playoffs are not a “coincidence” but a systemic robbery with the intention of preventing Crvena Zvezda from fighting for the trophy on an equal footing!
KK Crvena Zvezda promises everyone that it will fight until the end, regardless of the price, that everyone has equal conditions on the game floor, that the better ones win and that basketball is in the foreground. That is why we declare the general mobilization of all our supporters with the desire to be with us and support us in our efforts to prevent individuals and their criminal and corrupt “octopuses” from convincing us once again that “basketball won” after games 3 and 4 in which our team brutally robbed and in which it was literally banned from playing, while they were decided, instead of players on the court, individuals burdened with fear, various mortgages or services like employing family members in certain corporations?
Due to all the above, KK Crvena Zvezda has an obligation to prevent another attempt of robbery on Friday, in which basketball is in the last place for now!
In order to convince the public of all this, KK Crvena Zvezda will enclose in another statement a video material with all the mistakes that the referees “accidentally” made in matches 3 and 4 in Podgorica, after which it will be clear to everyone what is the intention and main a goal that our club will not allow!
Also, the club is eagerly awaiting the expertise of the referees from match number 4, as well as the decision of the disciplinary judge Sasa Pavlicic Bekic on all objections related to matches 3 and 4, as well as the punishment of Dragan Bokan for threatening Srdjan Dozai… and we are looking forward to all those decisions before the fifth game!
The reputation of the ABA league was once again ruined, the finals were destroyed, and the future of the regional competition was called into question by the savagery of individuals who think that it is played because of them and that everything can be bought with “dirty money”. It is enough to mention the so far unseen fact that some bookmakers on Monday afternoon as a special offer for the fourth game with odds of 1.05 (popular “sure pick”) introduced the category of “free throws BC Budućnost 30 +”
After all that was seen, enough for the smart!
KK Crvena Zvezda mts