The Night of the Finals

The closing of the 29th European basketball championships could not have been sweeter for the Yugoslavs. Some people might say a triumph over Croatia might have been better, but believe me - everything that happened before, during and after the final game made this the greatest possible victory. Since the planned "wedding" with Croatia was canceled, everyone expected a much calmer final with Lithuania. The Greeks were expected to support Yugoslavia despite two defeats presumably because they know about basketball. That never happened; Yugoslav fans and the basketball team were thrown into the boiling cauldron of the Olympic stadium at Marousi where 18,000 Greeks, helped by several hundred Lithuanians, created a noisy mood of total support for Lithuania and total hostility towards the Yugoslavs.

So, how come the Greeks didn't support us?

Things started changing when the Greek team faced Yugoslavia for a second time in the semi-finals and lost. The referees were wrong again for reasons only they knew. Since that game was played on Saturday, the Sunday papers were full of reports and comments alleging robbery, tampering, and efforts to do everything so Yugoslavia would win. That was a preparation for the finals.

Journalist Zvonimir Simunec, who has been in Athens for a while, said Greek fans are always hungry for a victory, especially when the national team plays. Since that is a relatively rare occurrence, every victory means ecstasy, every defeat a tragedy. The press is most often first a fan, then a reporter. They satanize anyone they blame for the defeat. After the first defeat against Yugoslavia, the press humiliated Panathanaikos guard Kosta Patavoukas only because his last attempt to score failed.

The accusations in the Greek press against US referee Toliver (the other referee in the finals was Greek Pitsilakis who was "objective and fair") and Bora Stankovic and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) overshadowed the Yugoslav victory. Headlines like "Tampering in the FIBA Kitchen" were the norm, none of the newspapers had front page photographs of the winning team but the Greek team (fourth place, no medal) were headline news.

If Bora Stankovic's undoubted prestige did anything to help the Yugoslav team, that help came in the form of securing objective referees or at least men who hold no grudges against us. That is no small matter but it's unimaginable for Stankovic to pressure referees.

So what was the dispute about in the final game?

The Greek TV, which is known for reruns of disputed moments, could only show the foul Toliver ruled against Karnisovas. As if that decided the game.

What about the nine three-pointers Djordjevic scored, what about Danilovic's rebounds over Sabonis; didn't that decide the game?

The Greek press feels it didn't. The only thing that was important to them, as usual, was justifying themselves. The Lithuanians were defeated in great game, perhaps even the best ever played in a final game. That's why they took the defeat so hard; the great game played by Sabonis, Marchulionis and Karnisovas didn't help. Still, they got up the courage to admit defeat and shake hands with the winners. The Croats wouldn't do even that, but that was no surprise. They are people who have to live with two faces; one for the authorities and public, one for themselves. Our players weren't surprised; they expected the Croats to walk out when the winners (the "so-called FRY") came out on the field. Croatian journalists also disappeared after the game.

During the journalists' basketball tournament in Athens (another first for Yugoslavia), one Croatian journalist mistakenly wandered into the final game with Greek journalists. He played the entire second half of the game. He seemed embarrassed to stay after the game but asked us discreetly not to mention he'd played in our reports. He kept running away from us in the press center later. We understand him (and I haven't mentioned his name). And a final note: the only ones to shake our hands were journalists from Bulgaria and Italy.

At a press conference later, Marchulionis said he hadn't seen "anything as shameful since I've been playing basketball" but the overall impression was rescued by that great gentleman, Lithuanian coach Vladas Garastas, who did complain about the referees but added that "The Yugoslavs were the best team here, and they're probably the best in the world".

Our head coach, Ivkovic, is the only one who always spoke in Greek, but even that didn't help get him better treatment. After the game, in a small war with Greek, Lithuanian and even Swedish reporters, Ivkovic calmly explained why his team won: "We set up a zone when we needed it most and managed to defend ourselves".

Ivkovic didn't miss an opportunity to elegantly strike back at the hosts saying Lithuania was among the first to recognize Macedonia and that if politics are going to interfere in sports he couldn't understand the mood of the crowd. His comment was provoked by questions of the Croats leaving the ceremony. The translator refused to do his job so Ivkovic had to repeat it in English and the translator responded with an angry "Don't you teach me my job!" That drew cries of outrage from the reporters there but Ivkovic refused to respond.

All that just motivated the Yugoslav colony in Athens to party until dawn. The basketball team went to the Caravel Hotel to change, where fans were waiting to cheer them. Those fans later went to the Omonia Square in central Athens and partied all night.

We agreed to get together at the Corner pizza parlor in Glifada which is open all night and we celebrated the sixth European champion title with pizza and beer. The most frequent song was to Paspalj. He explained why the Greek fans were so unhappy with him: "Turncoats are a frequent occurrence here. They have a need for idols, for gods. When I played in Olympiakos for two seasons they made me a god. But they also love toppling gods. I don' care, the most important thing is that we're first and we showed everyone who we are."

The whistling and booing of the Yugoslav national anthem, the noise that made everything else inaudible are not characteristic to the Greeks. The same thing happened at the 1951 European championships in Paris when the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia played in the finals. The Soviets won, scoring in the last few seconds and the unhappy French booed the Soviet anthem.

In any case that and the walk out by the Croats is a dangerous scandal for basketball since future events could seem more like playing in concentration camps than a sports event. We'll have to wait and see if FIBA will react to protect the game.