By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
During the press conference before tomorrow’s match between Olympiacos and Laboral Kutxa, the coach of the Reds, Giannis Sfairopoulos was asked about some comments that were made (by coach Dimitris Itoudis of CSKA Moscow or Darius Adamas, player of Laboral Kutxa and not only) about how referees approach the physical game of his team’s defense.
“It is true that recently, some coaches, members of teams’ management or players discuss Olympiacos‘ defense”, said Giannis Sfairopoulos. “It won’t be long until we see staff members, or the security of the arenas talk about it. The defense that Olympiacos puts on court is within a frame of sportsmanship. Basketball is a sport of contacts. Our team likes to play in this way and whoever doesn’t like that, shows some discontent and whines about it. We have never made any comment about the the referees. I only talked about them after the game in Moscow against CSKA but not before it.
We do not want all these to affect the way the referees whistle in the games. Because we see that they are affected. What is going on is a manipulation of the referees before the games and this is ugly for Euroleague. During Summer, mr. Bertomeu himself has asked everyone to not make any statements about the referees. I respected that until the game against CSKA. But from this game I had to react since I unfortunately saw everybody not respecting this.”