Midnight statement, Red Star responds to Mitrović: 50 free throws should have been attempted

The Red Star basketball club made a statement last night around midnight, following a statement from Cedevita-Olimpija coach Zvezdan Mitrović.

After his team's defeat in Belgrade, in the quarterfinals of the AdmiralBet ABA League (95:86), Mitrović said that it was a defeat for sports.

"This is not a defeat, this is a big victory for me and for our team. Anyone with eyes saw what happened on the field today, this was a defeat for sport. I congratulated the boys as if they had won a trophy. For me, they are champions and I am very proud of them. They showed a great game, it was fantastic. We are ending the season as the greatest gentlemen, I enjoyed this game," Mitrović said after the match.

Cedevita had 20 fewer free throws than Red Star (35 compared to 15), and after the Montenegrin coach's statement, the Belgrade club also spoke out, deeming Mitrović's statement inappropriate.

"KK Crvena Zvezda has advanced to the semi-finals of the ABA League - completely deservedly after the masterclass played in Belgrade on Friday. However, we consider the statement after the match by the coach of the visiting team, which attempts to diminish our triumph and placement in the semi-finals by stating "that this was a defeat for sport..." to be extremely inappropriate, and most importantly, as such it does not correspond to the truth and the events on the field," Red Star announced.

The "Red and Whites" add that they should have been awarded at least 50 free throws.

"We believe that all the spectators in the hall, even on the small screens, saw the way in which the Cedevita-Olimpija basketball players played the second game in Ljubljana, often exceeding the limit of fouls for which they were not sanctioned (after which we congratulated the opponent in a sporting manner without any mention of the referees). They played the third game in Belgrade in an identical manner, in which our team should have been awarded at least 50 free throws, instead of 35. We want to believe that such statements, which actually represent a defeat for the sport, and not the events on the court according to which our team should have ended this series back in Ljubljana, are not preparing the 'field' for what our team expects in the rest of the competition, and are obviously creating an atmosphere in which our team will not be provided with equal playing conditions," reads the statement from Red Star.

Red Star will play against Partizan in the semi-finals.