Priftis unhappy with the technical foul: 'I was on the court with half of my shoe' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Vangelis Stolis Credit Vangelis Stolis

Panathinaikos Athens lost all their last 5 games in the Euroleague and is still waiting for the first win of 2022 in the competition.

Player of the Game EFF 20 Bryant Dunston Points 14 Accuracy 6-9 Rebounds 4 Assists 0

Based on these circumstances, yielding against Anadolu Efes with the game-winning shot of Adrien Moerman with 1.1 seconds remaining to the buzzer was particularly hard for the coach Dimitris Priftis to take.

Panathinaikos never stopped fighting throughout the game to earn its first away win of the season and even took the lead in the last 6 minutes to hold it until the last ball.

Despite keeping Anadolu Efes as low as 25% behind the arc, they could not stop that spot-up three in the final stretch.

In that all drama, there was a moment that made a subtle yet, decisive change. A technical foul was called against Dimitris Priftis.The reason? Stepping in on the court.

"I said nothing to the referee," said the coach after the game on the incident.

"I talked to my player. I stepped over the line with half of my shoe; not the full of it. To be honest, they warned me before... but I think it was a... No, I don't think anything, I tell only what happened," he added.

The incident footage shows that Priftis' shoe was well inside the boundary line, with full scale.

However, whether this minor infringement, which occurs pretty often, was worth calling a technical in the crunch time is another matter of debate.

Vasilje Micic made the subsequent free throw to tie the score, but Efes did not capitalize more of this advantage to take the lead.

However, that single free throw turned out to be the only point separating Efes from Panathinaikos in the scoreline at the end of the game.

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