By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Zeljko Obradovic didn’t exactly receive a warm welcome tonight (12/1) in Belgrade where Fenerbahce lost to Crvena Zvezda for the 17th Round of the EuroLeague regular season.
The celebrated Serbian coach was quite displeased with the behavior of Red Star fans towards him, as he mentioned in the post-game press conference.
“They are acting so strange to me here. I didn’t say one negative thing about Crvena Zvezda in my life. I like them but before the game started they were shouting at me “you are Turkish, Turkish Zeljko.” I didn’t deserve it. I’m more Serbian than all the people who were shouting at me. Playing the patriot in Belgrade is easy. They should see what I’ve done for this country and its basketball. The hardest thing is to do these things where I do them. I no longer have a friendship with Crvena Zvezda”
Fenerbahce suffered a narrow defeat in the hands of its hosts. It was a game-winning block by Ognjen Kuzmic on Ekpe Udoh with few seconds to go, that practically sealed the win for Red Star.
According to Zoc, it was all about the decision making which took place some moments before these last crucial play.
“It was a tough game. In the end it was decided by us making very bad decisions, and Zvezda making smart decisions. We had control, but then made a stupid foul, and had bad defense [on Jenkins’s shot]. We made bad decisions throughout. We knew young Zvezda players have courage to shoot early, but we still allowed them to shoot, defending their shots with arms down. I think we had to win this game. We could have finished the job, we had fouls to give. We did not make fouls when we could, but made a foul to allow them a three-point play when we were up by 4. Zvezda did not surprise us. They play like they play every game. I keep saying there are no favorites in EuroLeage, all results are absolutely possible.”