By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
With 42 seconds to go until the end of the first half and the score being 33-31 in favor of the guests, the big Greek league game of Thesaloniki between Aris and PAOK was interrupted, as an object thrown from the stands hit referee Panagiotis Anastopoulos.
The three referees asked for the gym to be evacuated, that didn’t happened according to their report – 400 Aris fans from the total of 5.000 who were present in “Nikos Galis Hall” didn’t leave on time – and that means a defeat for host Aris according to the league rules. However Aris president Leyteris Arvanitis supported a conspiracy theory: “Mr. Anastopoulos came to the gym in order to end the game the way he wanted to. From the first moment he was trying to create issues. We evacuated the gym as fast as we could, there were just 10-15 fans and he decided to end the game. He told me before the game that he was ready to leave, because a paper cup was thrown on the court. He had a mission for a system”.
When he was asked to elaborate, he explained: “The system is the Greek basketball federation. We didn’t supported the federation in the recent league elections. Our opponents in today’s game did and you have seen what happened. Things are not going good in basketball and at this point we have to speak up”.