The WiZink battle already has punishments. The Euroleague Disciplinary Judge has communicated this Friday the sanctions imposed on Real Madrid and Partizán Belgrade for the fight that both teams staged in the second match of the quarterfinals played on Thursday in the Madrid pavilion. Yabusele has been banned for five games after his attack on Exum, Punter has been punished for two games, while Deck and Lessort have been suspended for one game each, all of them for hitting players from the opposing team. In addition, each club has been fined 50,000 euros. The scenes of the players exchanging punches have caused a great deal of embarrassment in the world of European basketball.
The trigger was an unsportsmanlike foul by Llull on Punter with 1m 40s remaining before the end of the match and Partizán clearly dominated 80-95. The Madrid players were already impotent to see that the tie was heading to that 0-2 against before traveling to Belgrade next Tuesday. Punter turned against Llull when receiving that strong blow and the American point guard and the Spanish captain faced each other with their fists raised. It was then that the rest of the players intervened and the track became a ring in which the punches flew: Punter, Deck, Lessort…
The most violent action was carried out by Guerschon Yabusele. The 27-year-old French center, 2.01m and 123kg, grabbed Dante Exum (27 years, 1.98m and 97kg) from behind, putting an arm around his neck and threw the Australian player to the ground as if he were hurting him. a judo key The aggression was so savage that the referees and several members of the two clubs, including the Partizán coach, Zeljko Obradovic, came to separate Yabusele and worry about the shooting guard, who played for Barça last year. Exum had to retire without being able to walk on his own, and the Belgrade team doctor alerted him about his condition: “The tendon of the second toe has ruptured. It is a serious injury. I have never seen anything like that in my life. It’s been terrifying. The way in which Yabusele has caught him is jail or life suspension. He could have damaged her spinal cord or her head and ended her career.”
This Friday morning, the French center apologized through social networks. “I deeply regret my behaviour. Basketball is sportsmanship and friendship. My most sincere apologies to Partizán, a club with which we have always had a great relationship, to Dante Exum and his family, to my teammates, to my club and to all the fans”, said Yabusele, who arrived at Madrid on summer of 2021 from Asvel and has a contract until 2025. Llull also joined in the apologies, as did Rudy and Chus Mateo after the match. “I take my responsibility for making that harsh foul that triggered the subsequent disaster. My apologies to all the basketball fans”, said Llull. Madrid will study the internal sanctions to apply to the players for the incidents, regardless of the decision of the Euroleague.
The brawl resulted in 21 disqualifications between those who participated in the fight while already on the track at the time of the action and those who jumped from the bench, even if it was to separate other teammates. According to the competition regulations, only coaches and assistants can leave the technical area and access the playing area in these cases. The long list of eliminations meant that neither of the two teams had the minimum of two players available to continue the match, so the referees ended the game without playing the remaining time.
What happened last night should never happen on a basketball court. I take responsibility for making that harsh foul that triggered the subsequent disaster. My apologies to all basketball fans.
— Sergio Llull (@23Llull) April 28, 2023
The quarterfinal tie, with a 0-2 advantage for the Serbian team (no one in history has overcome that result in a series in the European competition), now travels to Belgrade, where the third match will be played next Tuesday. The Stark Arena is the pavilion with the highest average attendance in the regular season in the Euroleague: 17,763 spectators, compared to 14,801 for Zalgiris. In this list, Madrid occupies tenth place with 7,625 fans per night. The Serbian club has announced that all the tickets for that event, almost 20,000, have already been sold. The Partizán coach, Zeljko Obradovic, winner of nine European Cups (including one with the white team in 1995), tried to calm things down in the face of this duel that can become a cauldron of strong emotions and a lot of tension. “What has happened is not good for basketball, nor for the image of Real Madrid or Partizán. This can’t happen anymore. From this moment I am going to try to calm all the people in Belgrade, that they are not going to do anything. I want to talk about basketball, I do not want to talk about this. I’m going to repeat it every day,” said Obradovic. “You have to look at who started and why they started. You have to control your emotions and not respond. And when one responds, well what happened happens. I have already spoken in the locker room with the players. You have to control emotions and whoever controls emotions has a better chance of doing something in sport, ”he added. The Partizan squad was received this Friday morning in Belgrade by hundreds of fans at the airport. The third game, with casualties in both teams and a feeling of embarrassment, is already beginning to be played.
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