By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos suffered a huge blowout loss to Anadolu Efes in Round 15 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season, going home with a tough 93-67 defeat in Istanbul.
Even before the game was over, the Greek powerhouse’s owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos posted on his Instagram stories a picture of a green bus.
Rumors started to spread regarding a trip by bus for the EuroLeague reigning champions back to Athens, but Ergin Ataman clarified in the press conference.
“We will return to Athens tomorrow morning, our flight is at 11:50 in the morning”, the head coach said.
However, after Ataman’s decision, the team will stay together in a hotel for two days before their upcoming game for the Greek league against Lavrio BC.
Incidents with Greek fans outside the arena
Before the game, Turkish police clashed with Panathinaikos fans. Dimitris Kontos, Panathinaikos basketball and communication director, stated the following:
“There were other Greeks, around 200, who had purchased legal tickets, and at the entrance, they were not allowed to enter the stadium. In fact, there were some minor incidents. One Greek is in the hospital. Not seriously, from what we know. In any case, we feel the anger of the people and we stand by them, but above all, we cannot explain how it is possible to get official tickets and not enter the arena.
It is something unacceptable. As Panathinaikos, we will do everything we can to find the cause and who is to blame, because our fans follow us, they do not provoke anyone and we really feel very bad about what happened. We are outraged, as are our fans, who have an absolute right to be outraged about everything that happened”.
Read all the latest news from the basketball world