Jalen Adams pushed Hapoel Haifa's chairman in the face after controversial call / News - Basketnews.com

Roman Sorkin's blocked dunk attempt sparked fiery reactions from Hapoel Haifa coaching staff after a controversial decision by the officials. Maccabi guard Jalen Adams pushed Haifa's chairman Yovel Rossman in the face after the game when the man was arguing about the call the referees made.

Credit: Screen capture Credit Screen capture

The game between Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv and Hapoel Haifa featured an interesting episode at the end of the second overtime which sparked emotions from the coaching staff of the guest team.

Jalen Adams

MIN:16.34PTS:6.67 (52%)REB:1.47As:1.47ST:0.67BL:0.07TO:1.07GM:15ProfileEuroLeague2022/2023

With 11 seconds to go and up by 2 (106-104), Maccabi's forward Roman Sorkin went for a dunk to finish the game in style. However, his dunk attempt was blocked by Will Rayman, leaving Maccabi with just 1.7 seconds on the shot clock.

The referees of the game went to the instant replay system to check who touched the ball last when they saw that there was an unusual situation during the shot attempt.

While blocking the shot, Rayman's right hand went through the basket and later grabbed onto the rim to deny Sorkin a scoring chance. After the review, the referees ended up counting the basket which gave Maccabi a 4-point lead (108-104).

The Haifa bench went crazy with head coach Sharon Drucker and chairman Yuval Rossman leading the way. After the final whistle, members of Hapoel went to the center of the court to argue with the officials again. Rossman went to argue with Maccabi players as well and was pushed to the face by Jalen Adams.

The incident between Jalen Adams and Yovel Rossman:

The entire situation:

"I've been in the profession for many years, it's the worst thing ever. You come in, play well, dominate most of the game, come to such a drama, and if there is justice - and there is no justice - we should have won," Drucker told after the game. "I talked to the referees, and I'm not talking about them either in wins or losses, because the decision was simply not clear to me. They went to see an out-of-bounds play and gave two points - if not for the call, we would have stopped them and could have won."

The referees union released a statement today, announcing that the officials were not acting according to the protocol. Although an illegal block attempt was made, it could not have been checked via the Instant Replay system and reversed as there was no call made on the court.

Since no violation was called on the court, the referees had no authority to overrule the initial decision, the referees union announced. The organization said they regret the mistake made during yesterday's game.

Hapoel's player Chinanu Onuaku couldn't believe the decision and took to Twitter to express his opinion.

"They really be giving away games overseas to the “better” team," he tweeted.

Like what we are doing? You can express your gratitude here.