Sunday, October 24, 2010

Things get violent during players' strike in Greece

It was only a matter of time.

It started yesterday and today the police special forces intervened, in order to remove the protesters from the game of AEK vs Ikaros, the 1st day of the regular season(2010-2011) in Greece. A group of members of the  Hellenic Professional Basketball Players Association(PSAK) gathered in the middle of the court in order to delay the game or stop it if possible. 

Police special forces were already present at the scene and tried to forcefully evacuate the group of 20 or so players that were sitting in the middle of the court. After about 15 minutes of "prodding" by the police special forces the players decided to leave themselves. Eventually the situation diffused and the game started but not before things got slightly out of hand as you can see in the video found at the end of this article.At the moment the Greek league is being ridiculed around the world because the people who run the league, directly or indirectly, are still doing nothing. Another member of PSAK resigned today, that was Demos Dikoudis, who had a heated debate with the president Lazaros Papadopoulos. One might say that things will start moving towards a certain direction when it serves someone's agenda.

What will come out of all this is yet uncertain. The players' association is losing members, its unity has been compromised and the powers that be are still waiting for the dust to settle before they just pick up the wreckage. Basketball used to be the number one sport in Greece once upon a time. It's the only team sport that gives Greece medals consistently yet it has been abandoned in such a way that created one of the most corrupt pro leagues in Europe. It managed to find its way back to the limelight again, but this time through conflict and violence. However they say that there is no such thing as bad publicity.





Basket episodeia no2
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