Vassilis Spanoulis touches on Mario Hezonja’s heated ejection

By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net

AS Monaco coach Vassilis Spanoulis addressed Real Madrid forward Mario Hezonja’s ejection and agry reaction in the EuroLeague game between both teams.

With 6:30 to play and Monaco up 65-60, referee Anne Panther asked Hezonja to show her his hands to check if he was bleeding. The Croatian player did so and the referee told him to go to the bench, while Monaco forward Jaron Blossongame, who was near, was applauding the decision.

Hezonja turned his head back and said something to the referee, receiving two technical fouls in a sequence that got him ejected. He was visibly aggravated and lashed out at the referees while his teammates tried to restrain him before he went to the locker room.

“Mario is a great player. Everybody knows this. He’s one of the best players in Europe in his position. In general, everybody, we have to be ab calmer for the good of basketball,” Spanoulis said after Monaco’s win when asked if Hezonja’s ejection was a turning point in the game. The Real Madrid star was the leading scorer of his team when he got ejected with 15 points.

“I respect Mario a lot,” Spanoulis added. “You never know. When you play basketball… everybody wants to win so much and sometimes we don’t show our real character on the floor. There’s a lot of emotions during the game. Mario is undeniably a very good person and a great player.”