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BasketNews referee consultant Todd Warnick offers his breakdown of the officiating in the final in this Give Me Control column. He discusses why Hezonja may have a point about "some weird (officiating) stuff in the end", but also shows that the "weird stuff" lasted throughout the entire game. Read why Warnick came away shocked by the number of missed calls caused by poor referee positioning and incorrect court coverage. He also discusses the incident involving Olympiacos' Shaq McKissic and Real's Facundo Campazzo, and what the outcome should have been, rather than the double technical fouls issued after the review.
In summary, the number of officiating errors climbed into the mid-20s, with roughly two-thirds favoring Olympiacos, including a physical altercation that appeared to be handled incorrectly. Too many of the mistakes also resulted from referees failing to take full responsibility for their primary coverage areas and failing to properly protect shooters. Overall, this was simply too many officiating errors for any game, let alone a EuroLeague final. It would benefit the referee department, league management, and the teams themselves to start asking "why" and learn from these mistakes moving forward.
Raul Neto: It is something I think about, but I cannot say I would have done it differently after having done it. I am happy. I think that if I went back five or six years, I would not change anything. Now, knowing how things turned out, maybe I would have liked to play two or three years in the EuroLeague, because I would have had a different role than the one I had in the NBA. Maybe I would have played more games and competed more to win things, because in the NBA sometimes you are just playing to play. But when you are there, my dream since I was a kid was always to be in the NBA. Whenever you have that opportunity, you try. We saw it a little with Campazzo. People said to him, “Why are you leaving Europe if you are in the NBA and you are not playing, or whatever? You could even earn more money in Europe than in the NBA.” But in the end, you have a dream. And the truth is, the NBA is something that, if a young player has the opportunity to experience it, I tell him to go. Because the doors to the EuroLeague, to Europe, will always be open if you go there.
Facundo Campazzo: "I’ve seen teammates wearing headphones while the coach was talking. During the team talk! Maybe they were listening to music. It made me uncomfortable, especially because the guy was sitting right next to me. That only happens in the NBA. In Europe, they’d kick you the f* out."**
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Several players will be heading to Zagreb, including an extensive representation from Real Madrid, the last European stop for Drazen before shining in the NBA. “Alberto Herreros and Alfonso Reyes as well as three players of the current team. Mario Hezonja will play for Croatia, and Walter Tavares and Dzanan Musa will play for Team Drazen,” Petrovic referred to Los Blancos, “Facundo Campazzo was supposed to be there, but his wife is in an advanced stage of pregnancy and he had to miss the game.”
The buyout clause was quite large -- and he let me pay it over several years,” continued Campazzo, who considers his time in the NBA to be over. "I think this is a closed stage for me. I would say yes. My contract with Madrid ends when I am 37. I feel at home in Madrid."
Facundo Campazzo: Imagine, I had to defend Stephen Curry and Trae Young, and when they were scoring a couple of points on me, there were these rappers sitting in the front row. They were saying to him, "Attack him, he can't defend you! Look, look, he doesn't know how to defend!" And I could hear them because they were right there in the front row, and I was thinking, "Please don't attack me, please don't attack me, please don't attack me! Or don't fall so you don't end up in the top 10 of the week." And it was the same when I was defending Stephen Curry. Draymond Green would come up to me and say, "No matter how you defend him, he's going to score 30 points on you, so ask your coach to switch you out."
Facundo Campazzo: "I had to reinvent my way of playing. I was used to having the ball all the time in Madrid, calling the plays, being the one in control. But here [in the NBA], it was like, ‘Grab the ball, run to the corner, find an open spot, and shoot.’ It was a huge adjustment, and I had to learn to be effective in that role, which was completely different from what I was used to."
Facundo Campazzo: "Without Luis [Scola], I wouldn’t have fully transformed my professionalism. He taught me how to take care of my body, how to eat, how to sleep, how to recover. He was the one who drilled into me the idea that there’s always something to improve, no matter what. Without him, I wouldn’t have become the player I am today."
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Facundo Campazzo: "Social media is what consumes you the most mentally. It’s the constant need to check, to see what people are saying, to feel validated or criticized. It’s draining, and it can affect your performance on the court. I’ve learned to manage it better, but it’s still a challenge because it’s everywhere, all the time."
Facundo Campazzo, 33, also remembered the trash talking exchange between him and Draymond Green during a game against the Golden State Warriors. "He told me, 'No matter how you defend him, [Stephen] Curry is going to score 30 points. So, ask to be subbed out and have someone else defend him."
During the more than 60-minute conversation, he 'normalizes' his "magic potion," humanizes Real Madrid ("when they are on the court it is very difficult to beat them, but without Campazzo or Tavares, they are a normal team"), contextualizes his relationship with Juancho ("he has had problems this season, but I believe in him"), and leaves the door open to the NBA: "It used to be my dream, now it's not, but if they want a star coach from Europe, here I am." If the opportunity arises, he is confident that his style fits: "Why would I be afraid to coach NBA stars?"
Christos Tsaltas: Facundo Campazzo means magic. He refuses to lose and he proved it in the semi-final of the #FIBAOPQT. 19 points 12 assists 4 steals 28 efficiency Chile - Argentina 79-87 #Argentina #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/jQCZFBexH0
