Pionir Hall had full house, some said there had been 8000 Partizan-fans there. (Zvezda-fans were locked out.)
Absolutely full house
(photo: Twitter)
The boys were warming up wearing these T-shirts
The T-shirts were made to support Podrži Život Foundation (you can support them even via SMS, from any Serbian mobile network, to the number 5757)
(photos: Facebook/KK Partizan)
Approx. 30 minutes before start
Miroslav Vulićević was there in the crowd. Upon reports he stayed among fans, very modestly, with no VIP-section or any other extras. You can see he was happy to see fans approaching
(photos: Twitter)
Former Partizan football player Mateja Kežman was also there
(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)
And the atmosphere:
Reds sent big and slow Marjanović for the kickoff, as always. He got the ball and the standing became 0:4 within moments. Zvezda turned on the moronizer with Dangubić as their secret weapon. He was such an ace that he got 3 personal fouls within about one and a half minutes. Meanwhile Marjanović pumped himself up. I don’t know what kind of stuff he smoked or drank or injected to himself, but he surely got extra dose from the bottle with the label "assholesteron". That’s one thing he was present at all actions, may it be defense or attack, also that he made the best out of his physical abilities, most of all his height and his extra long arms. But the fact he made it all with a sly, cunning and aggressive way, that was too much.
In the meantime we equalized (4:4), Mačvan took us on the lead (6:4) and we kept ourselves, always ahead with 2-3 points, until 13:11, when Zvezda equalized. They increased the difference almost immediately, to 13:18. Marjanović surely got some very special doping before the game, also they brought the maximum out of their "sandwich" defense trick, namely when two Zvezda-players surround the attacking Partizan-player, and then in the critical moment they crash together, holding the black and white player inside, just like two pieces of bread holds a slice of ham, while the poor attacker can’t even take a breath, not mentioning to move forward.
(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)
And there were the referees, too. This time they made no secret about their support for Zvezda. Mačvan was smashed down, the referees fouled him instead of the Zvezda-player. (For some reason today Mačvan was a black sheep for the referees.) We finished the first quarter with 20:26.
The second part started with Zvezda’s score (20:28) and it all started to look like more and more tough. The opponent avoided to use open infringements, instead they operated with small, sly and invisible tricks.
I swear they were bullying Partizan-players all the time, with these annoying little taunts. There were not just one or two fights, wrestlings and yellings during the game, seemingly almost all of them were started by a Partizan-player. Zvezda team members in the meantime looked at the referees like innocent little lambs. (LOL) I bet bullying was going on for the entire game between the players of the two teams, and no wonder some people lost their head after a while.
At 22:30 was the first fight. Saša Pavlović and Kalinić clashed, yelling at each other, and as an extra, the otherwise always humble and modest Andrić joined and yelled right into Kalinić’s face.
(photo: Twitter)
(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)
The referee took a big breath and gave a throw-in to us, only to whistle a foul on Pavlović a few seconds later. The atmosphere was terrible even at this point, and it wasn’t even half-time. Everyone was nervous, sometimes they were within an inch of a physical fight, meanwhile the referees took all the chances to whistle foul on us and give extra free throws to Zvezda as gift.
As an extra, a moron found Milutinov again. Through the broadcast all we could see was Milutinov standing at the bench, pressing a piece of cloth to his throat. Later he came back to the court, with a bandage on his neck, his jersey was covered with blood.
(photo: blic.rs)
(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)
Amazing. So, now eternal derbies mean a life threat for Milutinov. The corrupted rats of the League must make steps against it. We know you hate Partizan and you do everything to drop us out (and for sure you’re pissed that we made it to the semifinals), but when a player gets life-threatening injuries twice, both are without a doubt intentional, well, ladies and gentlemen, that is punished with suspension even at the worst places.
The difference was just growing and growing. If we could gain any points, that was mostly from free throw, if they whistled free throw for us instead of Zvezda... The opponent was ahead with 10 points, sometimes we could reduce it to one-digit, like e.g. with Milosavljević’s 3-pointer (40:49). We reached the half-time with 44:51 and so typical, the referee trio was booed while they were walking to their locker rooms.
(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)
The next period wasn’t much better either. Referees kept on wearing red-white striped jerseys, Zvezda still used their sly tricks, but there was a memorable moment:
Or when at 49:61 Milosavljević was thrown to the floor, but he still scored while falling (51:61). Then Milutinov was pushed to the ground under Zvezda’s backboard, referees didn’t whistle, but when we blocked a red attack a few seconds later, the referees took it as a foul together with a gift free throw for the opponent. At 54:70 Pavlović got into a fight with Lazić. Pavlović wanted to run up for an attack, but Lazić was standing in front of him for the whole time, pushing himself into the Partizan-player’s personal aura, keeping him back the nastiest possible way. Pavlović tried to push Lazić away, first politely, then firmly, but when Lazić didn’t seem to want to disappear at all (meanwhile having a smirk on his face), Pavlović hit him.
A few sensitive people were upset after this scene, but I will surely not judge Pavlović for this. At such a game, within such circumstances this was clearly a provocation. Lazić knew this well. He made it on purpose. After all these he should not be surprised, nor should he whine that he was punched where the sun doesn’t shine. He deserved it.
Meanwhile Zvezda chose new tactics. Whichever Partizan-player appeared under their backboard, they pushed them to the floor. Referees didn’t whistle (at the best case), but if they did, they whistled offensive foul (that was the unexplainable part).
And after all these Zvezda’s trainer was yelling and complaining from the bench.
We finished the quarter with 62:73. It was not about basketball long ago.
For the last quarter the opponent’s tactics were surely to eliminate Mačvan, no matter how brutally, no matter what kind of unsportsmanlike way, the most important was to keep back our power forward from action. Zirbes got this very noble task and he did his best (with the referees’ help). Mačvan was on the floor for almost the entire period. They also tried to knock off Milosavljević with this method.
Zirbes liquidating Milosavljević
(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)
Despite all we made it to 74:75. We were just a step ahead from taking the lead back.
That was the point when the referees entered.
They whistled for everything. Really everything. A simple block was a foul on Milosavljević, while Mačvan being smashed on the floor was just a "go ahead". Milosavljević was pushed to the ground, we could go ahead. Kalinić was blocked, foul and free throw. And so on. And we still reduced the difference to 84:91, even this way it didn’t seem impossible to win. But referees were ruthless. They didn’t whistle even when three red players were stomping on Milosavljević, but Zvezda still got free throw for everything. That’s all, folks, that’s what happens when people abuse their power. The end result was 85:95, 4th game comes today at 21:00.
Update:
There’s a video circulating all over the interwebs. It shows Kalinić approaching the referee after a foul, asking him to whistle rather to Jović instead of him. The referee is a nice guy, who is always willing to serve Zvezda and their players. Eventually he whistles the foul on Jović.
WHAT THE FUCK???
ABA League,
Right. Now.
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