Greek NT coach Vassilis Spanoulis goes hard at Olympics officiating, including Giannis’ treatment: “Giannis? They beat him more than any other player that I have seen in this Olympic tournament. If they play another player like Giannis, come and tell me, I’ll say, ‘Sorry.’”
by DrunkLad
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Full statement. He talks more about Giannis in the second half:
“The criteria of refereeing is not the same for everybody. We have a lot of complains every game about situation that are not 50-50. They are clear for one side. It’s very obvious if you watch basketball. Again, today, free throws – 11-21. The same with Spain – 5-18. The same with Canada. In the first quarter, it was 20-3 or something,” he said.
“We cannot play basketball like this. We have the best player in the world, we have amazing players next to him. There are a lot of things I said during the game to be the same like they do for the other teams,” Spanoulis explained. “They have to respect us more.”
When he was asked about the treatment Greece’s biggest star, Giannis Antetokounmpo, receives in the games, Spanoulis got heated again.
“Giannis? They beat him more than any other player that I see in this Olympic tournament,” he said. “If they play another player like Giannis, come and tell me, I’ll say, ‘Sorry.’ To hack him and to play him over the limit of a foul and to push him, this is not basketball. Sorry, this is not basketball. This is some other sport. To play strong, physical, on the limit of a foul? Yes. But to be unsportsmanlike a lot of times? No. This is not correct.”
“I get the feedback, I respect all the referees. I respect the referees a lot because they are a part of the game. I have huge respect, and I think we have very good referees, but I think they have to take it more on a game-to-game situation to have the same criteria,” he concluded.
[Every Bucks fan](https://i.imgur.com/GduTe6R.jpeg)
If Greek make it to the quarters, hopefully this’ll get the refs to watch for this again. Giannis should be averaging 10 FTs a game with how much he’s hacked.