Reds win hoops title as game is abandoned
Not for the first time, Greece’s basketball championship has ended with the final game abandoned due to fan violence.
This time, Olympiakos was crowned champion for the 14th time Thursday after the fourth finals game was abandoned with two minutes and 46 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Olympiakos, ahead 2-1 in the series, was leading 63-35 at this point, thanks to a barrage of 3-pointers and tough defense on the hosts.
Panathinaikos hooligans lit flares and started throwing bottles and other objects at Olympiakos’ bench, forcing the players to abandon their seats and the referees to halt the game.
Initially, the referees decided to demand the evacuation of the almost full Nicos Galis Olympic Indoor Hall, which seats about 19,500, before resuming the game, but, with the departing “fans” ripping off chairs and destroying the scoring table and riot police entering the floor, the game was abandoned.
Besides losing the league title, Panathinaikos can expect to be deducted several points from the next season’s championship, play several games in an empty arena as well as pay a hefty fine.
Before degenerating into chaos, the game started solemnly, with a minute’s silence in the memory of the migrants victims of a boat sinking earlier this week southwest of Greece, with 78 confirmed dead and possibly hundreds more missing. The two teams wore mourning badges in their uniforms.
The Antetokounmpo brothers were among those attending the game.
