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August 28, 2010

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Greeks, Serbs hit with bans

Source: Agencies | August 28, 2010, Saturday | Print Edition

THE brawl between Greece and Serbia in a warmup game has left two of the top teams at the world championship in Turkey reeling from suspensions that have ruled out some of their best players for the start of the tournament.

Serbia will be without center Nenad Krstic for the first three games and guard Milos Teodosic for the first two. Power forward Antonis Fotsis and center Sofoklis Schortsanitis will miss Greece's first two games for their role in the August 19 brawl.

The tournaments that starts today in four Turkish cities already is already missing a number of top stars for various reasons, including Kobe Bryant and all of the Olympic champion United States team, Pau Gasol of Spain and Dirk Nowitzki of Germany.

The suspensions handed out by FIBA late Thursday infuriated the coaches of Serbia and Greece, but the players involved did not seem surprised.

"This is something unbelievable," Greece coach Jonas Kazlauskas said yesterday.

FIBA's ruling was a blow to Kazlauskas ahead of Saturday's opening game against China. Both Fotsis and Schortsanitis will also be sitting on the bench during tomorrow's game against Puerto Rico in Group C.

Serbia's 66-year-old veteran coach, Dusan Ivkovic, noted that the brawl at a game in a warmup tournament in Athens took place on August 19 and that FIBA was "perfidious" in waiting to hand out punishment so close to the start of the tournament.

"FIBA could have reacted quicker," said Ivkovic, who led the former Yugoslavia to one of its record five world titles in 1990. "It was buying time. We have to react in a very short time, I have to prepare my players mentally. Krstic is our captain, or pillar, our main offensive option. Without Teodosic, we lose a lot of creativity. Our qualification (for the quarterfinals) is now under threat."

Ivkovic said Serbia has lost "two key players" for the games against Angola, Germany and Jordan in Group A in Kayseri.

The fight broke out during the last game of the Acropolis Tournament, which was abandoned with 2:40 remaining and Greece leading by one point. Players from both teams exchanged punches and kicks on the floor and in the tunnels leading to the dressing rooms.

It began when former NBA player Fotsis moved threateningly against Teodosic, who had fouled him. Krstic, of the Oklahoma City Thunder, then grabbed Fotsis by the throat and threw a chair toward Schortsanitis, who was pursuing him. The chair hit Yannis Bouroussis, who had not played because of a hand injury, and left him with a bloody wound on the side of his head.

Both Fotsis and Schortsanitis said they expected to be punished.

"This is the decision. We can't change it," Fotsis said. "It was very difficult not to punish us. We accept this punishment."

Schortsanitis said he would be ready to help the team when his suspension is over.

"I am not angry," said the Greece center, who is known as Baby Shaq. "We expected it."

Krstic also said he was not surprised by the suspensions.

"We expected something like this," he said.
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