By Dionysis Aravantinos/ info@eurohoops.net
SHENZHEN – The game between Greece and Team USA ended in an unexpected and tense way. With the game already decided, Thanasis Antetokounmpo made a hard foul on a Harrison Barnes dunk.
After the end of the game, Jaylen Brown pointed at Thanasis and exchanged words with his brother, Giannis Antetokounmpo. Coaches and refs intervened, nothing major happened and as Jaylen Brown said a bit later: “It was a bad play, it was all the way down, but we move forward and we focus on Brazil, so our minds are on that.”
According to ESPN, there’s more to that. Team USA members are not happy about what happened.
“The [no apology] escalated it,” Marcus Smart said according to the report. “At that moment, you’ve got to take it for what it is. Regardless of whether you feel like it was wrong or right, it was wrong.”
“The game was over; probably a frustration play,” Harrison Barnes said on the matter. “Apologies only go so far. If I don’t get up and something would’ve happened, apologies aren’t going to help us in the next game. Luckily everything is all good.”
Meanwhile, Thanasis Antetokounmpo suffered some bruised ribs in the game, according to an official announcement of the Greek basketball federation.
.@FCHWPO on scuffle with the Antetokounmpo brothers: pic.twitter.com/rdUI4wzvJI
— Dionysis Aravantinos (@AravantinosDA) September 7, 2019
Photo credit: FIBA.Basketball