Greek basketball players union Lazaros Papadopoulos said just a short time ago, “Basketball has died in Greece and no one has taken notice.” It’s no exaggeration on his part, but surely soon some will notice.

According to Talk Basket, the Greek players’ union unanimously decided to strike effective immediately – just before the league’s opening tip off – though Papadopoulos denies this. Sort of.

“The word ‘strike’ is not correct,” said Papadopoulos as quoted by Talk Basket. “We are just putting the league on hold until the amendment required is passed by the Government. Last season they told us they would pass it in three months, but it never happened. So we are not falling for it again. We will play basketball in 2011. We are determined to go all the way this time. There is no basketball in this country. What we had here is a league where half of the teams and players whose constitutional right are not respected.”

Ominous use of past tense, eh?

Continued Papadopoulos in the statement: “Basketball has died in Greece and no one has taken notice. We have sent all the interested parties [a total of] 34 letters and didn’t receive even one reply. We received four letters to discuss things and we replied positively to all four. This situation where one orders and the rest follow must end. We hope this time our suggestions are taken into consideration. All Union members are united and we have no strikebreakers.”

Thereby leading BallinEurope to wonder: If it’s not a strike, why is it important that there are no strikebreakers within PSAK?

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