Mathias Lessort publicly apologizes for incident with Filip Petrusev / News - Basketnews.com

Matthias Lessort admitted his fault for hitting Filip Petrusev but added that he was provoked and felt the need to protect himself.

Credit: Partizan Mozzart Bet/Dragana Stjepanovic Credit Partizan Mozzart Bet/Dragana Stjepanovic

After being involved in the incident with Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade forward Filip Petrusev, Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade forward Mathias Lessort issued a public apology.

Mathias Lessort

MIN:30.31PTS:12.43 (70.25%)REB:7.07As:1.32ST:0.86BL:0.93TO:1.46GM:28ProfileEuroLeague2022/2023

Lessortapproached and hit Zvezda centerFilip Petrusev, with whom he had an altercation during the game.

The situation escalated on the floor, as Danilo Andjusic approached Lessort to somehow flag him down, while Partizan's coachZeljko Obradovicheaded to Petrusev, as did other Zvezda players, like Ognjen Dobric and Facundo Campazzo.

Full Lessort's apology, published on Mozzartsport

"First, I want to apologize to the fans and people who support us and those who love this sport and showed me incredible love and respect for my teammates and my coaching staff, and the organization for reacting like this and showing a bad image of myself and our club.

As athletes, we are held to higher standards and should always lead by example and show composure in any situation.

However, I would like to emphasize that for the first time in 9 years of playing basketball professionally, I was in the middle of such an incident, unlike another person who has a history of participating in such situations and chaos.

I felt the need to protect myself and my dignity after numerous provocations and after the person in question hit me in the fourth quarter.Not that hard, but enough to knock my breath out.

If it were just words, I wouldn't have reacted at all. And I would leave it at a pure basketball fight, I would not lose my composure as I did.

This is not an excuse, but I believe that our fans and fans in general, who watched yesterday's game, should know what happened. The truth is that I did not attack but reacted. Unfortunately, in a way, that is wrong, in a way that should not happen on the basketball court," Lessort told Mozzartsport.

Zeljko Obradovic already issued an apology straight after the game, saying that such actions are absolutely unnecessary.

Meanwhile, Crvena Zvezda requested ABA League to suspend the French forward until the end of the season. It's not clear what punishment Lessort will receive.

Finally, Partizan already confirmed that the club will discipline Lessort based onthe internal disciplinary regulations signed by all Partizan players.

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