By Aris Barkas – Fersu Yahyabeyoglou/ info@eurohoops.net
The non call in the game of Galatasaray against Maccabi proved to a be a “casus beli” between the Turkish team and Euroleague. That’s why Eurohoops asked ex-FIBA referee Suat Yahyabeyoglu about his opinion on the crucial decisions of the game.
As he explained: “Last Thursday Galatasaray played a very important game against Maccabi in Euroleague. Euroleague’s director of referees, Costas Rigas, nominated his number one referee, Luigi Lamonica, to this game. Still there was two huge “errors” in the game. The first one; in the end of regulation Erceg was fouled when he was in a shooting position and with the continuity rule he made a basket also but the referees cancel the basket and also decided that the foul was made before the shooting position. The call should have been a basket and one. And the second one is Tyus’s block. Althoug Lamonica was at the right place and had an open view, he made a bad decision as the ball had started to descent. Both of the decisions affected directly on the result of the game.
According to the rules when the referees are not sure, they can use the instant replay help only for four situations; Who was the last to touch the ball before it went out of bounds, if a shot was a two or a three point basket, checking the clock in the end of periods and shot clock errors. As a result, both of the bad decisions were mistakes made by the refereees, but nobody broke the rules.
In recent years basketball accelerated significantly. Games are played in a “soldout” arenas and fans are very satisfied by the spectacle. In Turkey, basketball is on the rise. Unfortunately results and mistakes like these sadden both fans and sponsors. As a result fans think that Turkey is not treated with the same level of respect as Spain and Greece”.