Top 5 craziest stories from Crvena Zvezda vs Partizan Korac Cup derby / News - Basketnews.com

From fan ejection during the first semifinal to complete numbness to all unfolding conflicts, the Radivoj Korac Cup featured multiple crazy events that would be unthinkable in most other basketball atmospheres.

Credit: Partizan Mozzart Bet/Dragana Stjepanovic | BasketNews illustration/M.Bertys Credit Partizan Mozzart Bet/Dragana Stjepanovic | BasketNews illustration/M.Bertys

The eternal Belgrade derby between Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade and Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade always delivers colorful stories both on and off the court, but this time it seemed like the stories would never end.

It was my third derby experience in two months, and it was partially the same as the last two times in the EuroLeague this season but completely different at the same time.

First, let's get the most important thing off my chest - the Serbian people were nothing but nice to me personally throughout the entire week I spent in the city of Nis. The volunteers in the arena and fellow journalists alike were as pleasant as you could possibly hope.

I had my own designated spot in the arena as a representative of BasketNews, where I could comfortably place all my electronics and enjoy local basketball. To get the full experience, I even went to the Mini Cup Koraca, the U15 tournament where legendary Predrag Danilovic's son Vuk won the MVP and led his team to a title with his father in attendance.

Despite what the official attendance numbers say, the Hala Cair arena was full whenever either of the two giant teams played. Both Crvena Zvezda and Partizan quarterfinal matches and the final packed the entire venue.

Radivoc Korac Cup is the only occasion when fans of both teams can come to a hall and support their team at the same time during the same match, as ABA League battles only feature fans of the home team.

When the two arguably craziest fanbases meet in the same place at the same time, things might end up happening. And they did.

Here are my top 5 craziest stories that I witnessed during the Radivoj Korac Cup and the eternal derby in particular.

5. Fan removal before the derby

I knew the upcoming derby might get really heated when incidents started happening way before the two teams began their warmups.

Before the clash between Partizan and Crvena Zvezda, FMP Soccerbet Belgrade and Mega MIS Belgrade played their matchup in the first semifinal of the cup. FMP controlled the match in the first half and built a 10-point lead.

Right around the juncture of the third and fourth quarters, Partizan fans came into the arena. When such fan groups come in, they let everybody else know about them with their chants and loud presence overall.

This time, their presence changed the entire game flow, both on and off the court.

Let's get to the context first. As is usual with Serbian, Greek, or Israeli basketball, there are a lot of underground facts that you just have to know in order to understand some of the things happening right in front of your eyes.

Both Crvena Zvezda and FMP are managed by essentially the same people - the Covic family. Nebojsa Covic is the president of Crvena Zvezda, while his son and former basketball player Filip Covic currently works in FMP as well.

Both clubs have shared the same resources for nearly the last 12 years. Even though the exact details remain unknown, the two organizations were financially joined back in 2011 in hopes of saving then-almost bankrupt Crvena Zvezda.

This is the background. Getting back to the game, when Partizan fans came in, they almost immediately started chanting various things, with the vast majority of them being directed at FMP, Crvena Zvezda, and Nebojsa Covic in particular.

Together with his son, Filip Jovic was also in the stands. When Mega started gaining steam, the insults from the Partizan stand intensified. In a stunning encounter, Filip Covic had to cover his son's ears in order for him not to hear the phrases directed at their family.

After two warnings, the match's referees decided to stop the game and walked out of the court even though only 3 and a half minutes were left and Mega were leading comfortably. The entire Partizan fan stand had to be cleared for the match to continue. The process took approximately 10-15 minutes.

4. Dusko Ivanovic's semi-ejection

The game between Crvena Zvezda and Partizan was marked by a fiery event almost right out of the gate.

With 100 seconds gone in the second quarter, Filip Petrusev's dunk attempt over Alen Smailagic was blocked. The referees did not whistle it to be a foul, and Crvena Zvezda's head coach Dusko Ivanovic went berserk.

After Partizan's fast break was stopped, Dusko immediately started gesturing wildly to one of the referees and quickly received a technical foul. When it seemed like it would be the end of the episode, Ivanovic did not stop and got t'd up once again, forcing himself to be ejected from the game.

At first sight, it would seem like any other basketball match in Europe and any other passionate coach. However, things didn't end there.

Dusko Ivanovic left the bench area but remained not so far from it throughout the match. While his assistant coach Carles Marco took the head coaching duties, Ivanovic was still instructing his team, although not directly.

"He said tactical things, even though he was out. I think he was the key, he was the leader, we listened to him, we received messages," Facundo Campazzo told the media after the game.

After head coaches get ejected, the usual practice is for them not to go to the post-game press conference. Instead, the specialist who took over the duties usually comes. This time was different.

The media was told that Dusko Ivanovic would come to the presser to explain his ejection in greater detail. He did appear in the press conference but didn't talk about his ejection at all.

Instead, Branko Lazic joked about it and mentioned that it might have been a secret tactic that woke the team up.

3. Fans throwing things onto the court

The first meeting between the two teams this season was interrupted after Nikola Ivanovic's injury in the first quarter sparked fury among Crvena Zvezda fans.

The home team's fans started throwing various things onto the court in dissatisfaction with the referees calling an offensive foul on the injured Ivanovic. Using the game announcer's microphone, Branko Lazic had to step in and ask them to stop.

The acts didn't stop, and the refereeing crew left the court. The entire Crvena Zvezda fan tribune had to be emptied before the game could be continued.

There was an impressive amount of police in the Radivoj Korac Cup. The entire street around Hala Cair was closed hours before the derby. Additionally, certain entrances of the arena were fenced off.

However, all the security in the world will not stop ultras from expressing their opinion about what's happening on the court by throwing some of the stuff they have.

Things started getting heated when Ben Bentil was given an unsportsmanlike foul against Mathias Lessort. When the referees went to the monitor to check whether their interpretation of the situation was correct, Crvena Zvezda fans started throwing various stuff toward Lessort, who was standing near the free-throw line waiting to shoot the two shots.

Once the officials confirmed the decision, the game was stopped. After the announcer warned the fans about a possible match interruption, Crvena Zvezda's captain Branko Lazic personally addressed his team's fans.

Moments later, the game continued, but the conflicts were not over.

Nemanja Nedovic hit a three-pointer with 7 minutes and 26 seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter, which forced Zeljko Obradovic to take a timeout. As an act of revolt, Partizan fans now started throwing things onto the court. That's when the refereeing crew decided it was no longer acceptable and left the court.

It took almost 30 minutes for the officials to come back and resume the game.

Both Lazic and Partizan's Danilo Andjusic then addressed the fans at the same time. To no avail.

2. Selective ignorance

The previous point brings us to item number two.

As briefly mentioned in the first item of the list, a protocol is usually followed when fans start throwing things onto the court. First, a warning is issued to the fans. Then, a second warning usually comes, after which referees leave the game if the incidents continue.

With the officials not present on the court, the stands or several tribunes, which were the most active offenders, are usually cleared. When the procedure is finished, the game is usually resumed, but only with one caveat - the fans are being warned that if the incidents continue, the entire arena will be emptied, and the match will continue without a single fan in the venue.

That's what happened in the first semifinal match between FMP and Mega. That was also supposed to happen in the second semifinal, and yet it didn't.

I witnessed selective ignorance to be a much bigger issue than the actual incidents of fans throwing stuff onto the court.

If things were enforced equally all the time, the probability of incidents repeating one after another would decrease. Now, even when the warnings about emptying a single stand or even the entire Hala Cair are issued, they're not being followed through.

After the referees came back to the court, a line of heavily armed military police - the Gendarmery - came to the side of the arena where Partizan fans were concentrated.

It didn't stop anything.

The fans were still throwing things on the court, it was just ignored this time. As Nova.rs write, that may have happened due to an administrative reason.

Neither of the fan stands was emptied as they should have. The Serbian outlet writes that both the referees and the game's delegate were reportedly told that the local police just doesn't have enough manpower to deal with such a large amount of people effectively.

The match simply continued as if nothing had previously happened. Even though a warning was issued that the entire arena would be emptied if the incident persisted, nothing happened even though the fans continued throwing things onto the court.

Stuff flying on the court was just ignored for the rest of the game. Most notably, it happened with 1:15 left on the clock in the fourth quarter.

Numerous things were on the court, and the refereeing crew just ordered the volunteers to help clean up the floor. Several players joined in, kicking the stuff to the sidelines.

The ignorance repeated in the final between Crvena Zvezda and Mega.

Some of the fans were throwing things onto the court multiple times throughout the game, but everything was ignored, although it happened right in front of security's eyes.

Multiple things landed in the press section as well. I highly doubt that the refereeing crew didn't see it happening, and yet not even a warning was issued.

1. The reaction to the conflicts

The craziest thing from the derby is the reaction to everything that was happening.

Basically, the overwhelming feeling about the situation is that it's common in Serbia, and you just have to deal with it. Neither of the teams addressed it neither during the game nor after it. The official broadcaster Arena Sport didn't include the incidents in any of their coverage online.

Serbia has two top-level EuroLeague officials - Ilija Belosevic and Milivoje Jovcic - in its arsenal. However, none of them was here in the city of Nis to referee in the Radivoj Korac Cup.

Being at the helm of an eternal derby comes with immense pressure both on and off the court, and both Belosevic and Jovcic would rather refuse to participate than have to endure the consequences of being in the spotlight.A former referee even suggested they would pay just not to be included in the mess.

Sadly, the situation is mostly being regarded as 'it is what it is'. Even Nikola Jokic shared similar thoughts.

"To be honest, it's been part of our culture for so long that it is what it is. I think it's really sad that they're stopping the games, and I think we need to start rebuilding from the ground," Jokic shared his reaction with BasketNews.

Having been to the two previous eternal derbies in the EuroLeague this season, I can personally attest that it can be done. Fans of both teams can be in the same arena without any conflicts, stoppages, or interruptions.

It sometimes feels like complacency is roaming among the local basketball community. "It's always been like that, what can we do?"

Partizan's head coach Zeljko Obradovic has been a vocal critic of the status quo this season.

"Why do we have problems when the competition is in our country and not in the EuroLeague? We always behave the same, it is solved on other levels, [and] neither I nor the players, nor anyone else can solve it. You have to write about who is heating up the atmosphere. You know that very well," Obradovic appealed to the journalists in the press conference. "Don't pretend like we're whistling and don't know what we're talking about. It is very well known."

Like in other Balkan countries, things in Serbian sports are often intertwined together. Sport usually doesn't exist without politics and vice versa.

Serbian fans are enormously passionate about the sport of basketball. They can bring an atmosphere that every single other fanbase around the world is jealous of.

This is not a flashy no. 1 pick to end the list. Still, I think that it must be addressed because Partizan and Crvena Zvezda battling their hearts out on the basketball court with thousands of fans behind their backs is a spectacle that every single lover of the sport has to witness at least once in a lifetime.

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