Double for Panathinaikos

By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net

The end was far from ideal, but what ultimately will be remembered is the title and it belongs to Panathinaikos. Game 3 of the Greek finals never properly ended, as 1,5 minute before the final buzzer there was an attack to the bench of the Greens (video).

The referees asked – as they have the right to – for the evacuation of the gym, but that never happened with 100 persons refusing to leave. As a result Panathinaikos won the game and the Greek championship with a 3-0 sweep. Euroleague champion Olympiacos has peaked one month earlier in Euroleague’s Final Four, couldn’t recover in time for the Greek finals and now faces a severe punishment after one more night of shame for Greek basketball.

Vasilis Spanoulis left the gym furious with the way the season ended, Acie Law, Kyle Hines, Milan Tomic and coach George Bartzokas congratulated the winners in their locker rooms and in the press conference it was time for a big revelation by coach Argiris Pedoulakis.

As he said: “Dimitris Diamantidis couldn’t be himself, because he is playing injured since the 28^th of December. With the new Top16 schedule we couldn’t rest him and his effort is a testament to his character”. Stephan Lasme also praised Olympiacos, while an emotional Kostas Papanikolaou shared his concern: “Panathinaikos deserved the win, but we are deeply hurt by the rumors started by Greeks, that doping had to do with our Euroleague win. This is something that we didn’t deserved and it affected us. We should be leading European basketball by example. Instead we self-destroy everything good our teams achieve”. Coach Bartzokas added on this matter: “One journalist who is a joke, started a rumor and the Greek state change its anti-doping policy. That says a lot about Greece. Nobody around Europe mention anything like that about us and finally we hurt Greek basketball ourselves with such nonsense”.

* The 3rd place series in Greece continues with Panionios leading 2-1 over AGOR

UPDATE: On Thursday. 20th of June, Olympiacos was punished with playing four games without fans next season and a penalty of -2 points in the standings also for next season. The Reds will appeal their punishment.