Greek Media Criticize Referees: "They Took Kendrick Nunn Out"

Greek media sharply criticized the officiating after Panathinaikos' dramatic 93:86 win over Olympiacos after two overtimes, which tied the Greek playoff final series at 2:2 and denied the Reds from Piraeus the chance to celebrate the championship. The game will be remembered not only for its drama, but also for the refereeing controversy that accompanied it.

In Greek media, harsh criticism was directed at the officiating crew after the fourth game of the final series. The Greek outlet SDNA wrote: "The referees eliminated Kendrick Nunn with two controversial whistles that led to his disqualification on five fouls." The calls against the American sparked major anger on the visiting side.

Panathinaikos coach Ergin Ataman said: "We played exceptionally well and fought until the end. We did not allow Olympiacos to celebrate the championship. Now it is our turn to win the title at their home court. We lost Kendrick Nunn and Grant with five fouls, and that made the game even more difficult. Everyone gave everything, some played more than 40 minutes. We are ready to win the championship. I hope everything will be fair there, and then we will do it. Olympiacos is a great team, but so are we."

In addition, Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos received a heavy punishment after the events of the final series against Olympiacos. The Greek league's disciplinary court barred him from all arenas in the country for six months and fined him 50,000 euros. Panathinaikos itself was also fined 50,000 euros because of the owner's conduct, bringing the total financial penalties to 100,000 euros.

The incident took place in the second game of the final series, when about 33 seconds before the end of the second quarter, Giannakopoulos came down from the area of his seat near the court, approached the referees in what was considered a threatening manner, protested to them, and also directed insulting remarks at them. Following the incident, the game was stopped for four minutes until security personnel removed him from the court.

On the red side, things were not calm either. Tyrese Jones fouled out and had a particularly tense moment with coach Georgios Bartzokas. The forward fouled out early in the fourth quarter, Olympiacos' frontcourt rotation was affected, and Milutinov was left to carry the burden under the basket in the decisive stages.