Zalgiris head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius wasn’t happy with the referees’ work in his team’s away loss against Barcelona. Former legendary point guard claimed that the referees has cost Zalgiris wins in EuroLeague.
“I respect the EuroLeague greatly but they must decide why Zalgiris is here [in EuroLeague]. Is Zalgiris here because they need 16 teams and 11 licenses or so that Zalgiris will go and fight. Zalgiris is in this organization from its foundation but I see no respect. We could have been in a much higher position if not the refereeing”, Jasikevicius said to BasketNews.lt
“I’m talking about refereeing, I don’t understand why we are getting punished so much. I understand that there’s a star and there’s Lithuanian, Frenchman or an unknown Canadian. When you are Fenerbahce or CSKA, a whistle here and there does not decided anything because you can return to the game. But for us every whistle is very important.
“The EuroLeague must decide whether we are here to fight or just make the numbers. I have no idea what we are doing wrong but we will have to work not only on the court bu also outside of it.”
“We played well but we cannot come back from after so many whistles. At one point the fouls were 7:1 in favour of the Spaniards. Very important whistles [were] against Maccabi and Darussafaka… Zalgiris can no longer remain silent. Each questionable foul is called against Zalgiris. We will collect video and will send to the EuroLeague.”
Zalgiris is currently second from the bottom in the EuroLeague with 1 win and 5 losses. The Greens are hosting Galatasaray next Wednesday in Kaunas.
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