By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
He is a five times Olympian, but he got ejected in the 28th minute of the game against Argentina in record time. Even without Juan Carlos Navarro, Spain got the win, still this incident was quite unusual.
“I’ve never been thrown out in 30 seconds before,” Navarro said after the game. “I’ve been ejected once or twice before but at first I really didn’t say anything and he called a technical that I think was more of a make-up call for having done the same thing to them earlier.”
Andres Nocioni of Argentina had been hit with a technical just four minutes before the Navarro incident. “And then,” the Spaniard said, “I was warned for flopping in the first quarter and I’d tried to go through a pick against a guy that is 50 kilos heavier than me and I fell. It was very weird. I did not say a thing, wanted to explain to him what happened. But it’s okay, things happen.”
(Dün geceden) Klasikleşen İspanyol itirazlarına darbe! Navarro, 7 saniyede oyundan atıldı! pic.twitter.com/LFJNTk2DV7
— Hızlı Hücum (@hizlihucum) August 16, 2016
Pau Gasol was also asked if he’d ever seen Navarro get ejected and he answered: “No, never have. I think those technical fouls are a little questionable, pretty quick, one right after the other, but the referees thought that was the thing to do. There is not much you can do on what they call, what they don’t call. It was an emotional game. Fans, you guys have seen, are pretty loud and also the referees get carried away a little bit. It’s part of the game.”