Game 2 of the playoff series between Real Madrid and Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade was stopped with 1 minute 40 seconds to play on Thursday when an altercation on court happened and most of both benches emptied.
When disqualifications were applied for those players participating in the altercation and those automatically ejected for leaving the bench area, neither team had the requisite minimum of two players each required to finish the game, therefore the game is considered officially ended with the score at the time it was stopped, 80-95 in favor of Partizan, which therefore now leads the series 2-0.
Euroleague Basketball has referred the reported facts to the Euroleague Basketball Independent Disciplinary Judge, who will issue a decision about the on-court incidents in accordance with the established proceedings, within the following 24 hours.
Euroleague Basketball strongly condemns the events that happened at the end of the game. Such events do not represent the values of respect that the league and its clubs promote and that the sport of basketball embodies.
Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade head coach Zeljko Obradovic:
“This is in the hands of the officials and in the hands of the EuroLeague. I believe that what happened is not good for the image of basketball, not good for the image of Real Madrid nor for Partizan. This should never happen, in my opinion.
“Second, we are speaking of emotions, right? The players have emotions and this has happened. But on the other hand, after the game, they greeted each other, and no problem. This happened during the game, it’s finished and it was discussed between them.
“From this moment on, I am going to try to calm all the people in Belgrade. Why? Because I have friends here. It’s a great club, Real Madrid. I want people talking about basketball, not talking about this. It has happened, and that’s it. We have always had here impressive hospitality from everyone in Madrid.
“Like I said, I have friends here and I have great respect for everyone. And when we go to Belgrade tomorrow, I’m going to talk about that. I’m going to try to calm everybody so that we receive Real Madrid like the people here have received us. That they are going to support our team, yes, but that they are not going to do anything against Real Madrid.
“Everyone has to feel good. From today I am going to begin, and every day I am going to repeat it. We need to talk about basketball because when we talk about basketball, there is nothing better.”
Real Madrid forward Rudy Fernandez:
“I have to thank Zeljko: he said it all. I think it’s difficult, a difficult situation for us, for everyone. I experienced it as a player. It’s difficult to live this, to have the home-court advantage and a team like Partizan plays better than we did. Then this happened, and we can talk about what Punter said and what Llull said.
“But the reason we are here is basketball. Their team as well as ours are teams that tend to put on a good basketball show, and we can’t repeat what happened in those last minutes.
“I have to thank Zeljko, because as he said so well, we have to calm everything down among both of our fanbases, theirs and ours. What we need to do now is think about this tough playoff and, even though it’s an uphill battle, make sure that Real Madrid fights until the end. So we have to think about this next game and only about how to enjoy basketball and only think about that.”
