Greek Final Ends in Controversy Again

6.6.2010 - (2) Olympiacos 69 vs (1) Panathinaikos 76 - Game 4 (PAO wins Greek Championship.)
-Scoonie Penn- 7 points, 1 assist, 1 rebound

In Greece, if it is not one thing, it is always another. From political corruption to financial troubles and even sports, controversy is a staple of this country. Every season the Greek Championship comes down to two teams with the biggest budgets, Olympiacos & Panathinaikos. This year was no different, both teams were evenly matched & the series was moving along fine until game 3.

Both squads split the first two contests with each winning at home. Everything was even until it swung back to Panathinaikos' or PAO's home court for game 3. Olympiacos was pretty much controlling & dictating the pace of the game, despite being the obvious victim of blatant homer calls. The Reds maintained control, but wilted in the fourth quarter after a succession of mysterious calls in favor of PAO.

So after basically robbing Olympiacos in game 3, PAO was 'welcomed' in game 4 by a partisan Olympiacos crowd that was ready to riot from the jump. We'll give Greek fans credit for one thing, they know when they have been wronged..and are not afraid to show their feelings too. This game was home to a bunch of chippy nonsense and bad calls as well. Everything culminated into a near riot situation in the 3rd when the fans began to throw stuff at Panathinaikos players. This mess actually caused a near hour delay. Postpone the game? No, they actually made the players resume a championship game after a long delay after 5 minutes of warm up action. So the game resumes, but the fans are still crazy so they ended up calling the game with 1 minute left in favor of Panathinaikos! PAO went on to win & capture the Greek Title for the 8th year in a row (big surprise)..they did so in a game with basically no identity or flow.

This was actually a promising series until the 3rd game. In our objective view, PAO was a little more sound as far as team play than Olympiacos. But when it looked like the Reds were starting to control the series, PAO received a lot of help from the Greek Federation. All those terrible calls & subsequent fan reactions ruined any type of flow that you would expect from a championship series, it was frankly bad basketball.

This game marked the end of Scoonie Penn's 2nd run with Greek power Olympiacos. Penn scored 7 points & had a rebound and assist each. Penn's decision on returning to Europe or retiring for next season will be one the more interesting stories of the Summer..we will have more on him in his season review post..well done Scoonie!