All Joey Crawford jokes and half-kidding aside, BallinEurope tries not to fault referees for blown calls too often. Nor does BiE want to get into the habit of blaming the zebras for losses; for a long time, the rant from yours truly has been something along the lines of “Well, your team shouldn’t have been in the position so that a blown call could decide it, anyway.”
However, every once in a while, an exception comes along that even the firmest believer in fair play (or at least fair*ness*) is shaken.
Case in point: Kerem Tunceri’s morphing of a Hedo Turkoglu fumble into last-second layup that bounced Serbia from and got Turkey into the 2010 FIBA World Championship final.
Much indignation was felt in Serbia and rage directed at referees for general home team favoritism and for the Tunceri dagger specifically – every online outlet from Serbia to BallinEurope itself hosted some complaint against the men in stripes. An official complaint was filed with FIBA by Serbian authorities after the game, but such protests are hardly rare or infrequent.
While watching the game, BiE noticed quite a bit of “physical” play allowed by the refs, but nothing necessary grievously in Team Turkey’s favor. However, today, thanks to a fan photo taken from the stands, we can all see that a terrible error was made.
Check out this photo; worth the proverbial thousand words of vitriol.
Please also note the gentlemen with the TV camera working for FIBA – he’s particularly easy to see, as he’s wearing red. Notice the angle on the play that he’s got; has anyone seen this video footage since the conclusion of the game? Did anyone see this shot during the game?
Also of note is the referee at right, who appears to be looking directly at Tunceri.
Also, what about instant replay in these situations? Didn’t FIBA employ replays at the ends of halves, as in the NBA, for this tournament? (BiE believes they did…)
Now look, everybody’s human, not to take anything away from Turkey’s awesome run, it’s all part of history now nothing to be done, et cetera – and BiE does *not* paranoidally believe in any sort of game-fixing or scripting games at this level. But this smoking gun, this Zapruder Film of a snapshot is a bit disturbing to a generally fun tournament, particularly since it seems likely we’ll get the cone of silence from FIBA officials in response to a particularly damningly bad call.
You can understand why Team Serbia backers continue to fume, too; imagine the reaction if, say, Marcelo Huertas had turned a Tiago Splitter miscue into a game-winning layup to give Team Brazil the win over Team USA? Just saying is all…
In lieu of an official apology, here’s BallinEurope’s: All sympathies to Serbia. You may have, in fact, been robbed.
Tags: 2010 FIBA World Championship, basketball referees, FIBA, Hedo Turkoglu, Joey Crawford, Kerem Tunceri, Marcelo Huertas, Team Brazil, Team Serbia, Team Turkey, Team USA, Tiago Splitter
the photo leaves no doubts.
Thank you for saying this.Wee all know that wee are robed it is just not fair that turkey plays the final casue they are much biger,much more economic stabil country then serbia and because they spended 120 milion on the whole championship,many fouls where whistle against serbia that didn’t exicted,they shoot double more free trows then serbia,and they were playing more agresive,does that has any sence??? But anyway Serbian nation is proud our players demonstrated phenomenal games, second in tournament in points per game 90 ,6 in rebounds,3 in asists ,one of the best defenses,teodosic in first 5,wee defeted world and european champion spain,good team of croatia in eight finals,wee also beat turkey and if it was clean game… wee deserved at least silver medal,wee are better then turkey and that would be seen next year in lithuania,and wee are coming back in world elite,wee will be in top 2,3 teams in world for decade to come,and turkey they can only won medal if they are hosts of championship just like in 2001 ,so to all basketball fans bevare casue serbians are coming back stronger then ever!!!!!! Gold in lithuania!!!!!!
Enough of this! since days, these arguments turned a good tournament into racism. Dear Serbians; remember that, it was just a game. instead of complaining, educate your players and supporters against racism. One of the posts here from “Dan” is telling the situation “3. Some of Serbia’s players and fans continue to share sign language used by war criminals”
Serbia has a good team in terms of playing but they are not good enough in terms of humanity. First stop supporting the war criminals in your very near history. Othervise you never deserve to get a medal, even if you have the best team.
whut? u need help mate, u r missing the point… I mean serious help.
Everyone has a different definition of war criminals.
The bombing by NATO in 1999 and the invasion of Iraq and the kidnaping of Haiti president are all WAR CRIMES.
Let’s not mix your political leanings into this.
The US has bombed and invaded about 35 countries since the end of WW2 (and helped overthrow twice as many) and those are all war crimes. The least said about France and England’s crimes in the 20th century the better.
As for the signage your ignorant buffoon, it is the three fingered salute that orthodox christians use. the greek orthodox offshoots like russians, serbs, bulgarians all use the same symbol as greeks. when you do the sign off the cross, ancient christians use three fingers (for the holy trinity) as opposed to the roman christians which separated from the other christian groups and use their own full hand motion.
Its nice to know that dumb nitwits like you think that they know things but when they open their yaps, their stupidity shines through.
This was a BS call. FIBA will probably admit to it but nothing will be done.
The fact that the home country where bribery is a way of life, benefitted from this blown call where both referees and technology were perfectly placed to pick up the call, will make this screw up the only thing people will remember from this tournament.
Stavros
No doubt, many bad calls have been made – unbelievable! That is not world championship, that is a disgrace
Yikes! Claims of favoritism toward Turkey are hard to prove and sound like conspiracy theories to some, but this is definitely a BLOWN CALL in the biggest play of the game. Yikes. And it wasn’t incidental. Look at the Serbian defender near Tunceri and the angle Tunceri is out. Looks like there was no reasonable way for him to make that play WITHOUT stepping out of bounds. So, Turkey botches a play at the end, Tunceri recovers the ball, but has to step out of bounds to do so, and that should have been “game over.” Instead Turkey goes to the gold medal game. Wow.
While I thought the officiating throughout the first 39 minutes was relatively okay (a little in favour of the hosts, but could have been worse), they had three catastrophic decisions all going against Serbia in the final minute of the game.
1) Phantom foul call on Kristic on Erden’s dunk. His fifth. And one.
2) Failing to call the foul on Velickovic’s layup five seconds from time.
3) Tunceri stepping out of bounds in front of the referee’s eyes.
Spot on, man!
“Gold in lithuania!!!!!!” You mean, FOR Lithuania. C’mon, we’ll be much better than Turkey this year and our fans also will make a total hell for the opponents, so no chance, dear Serbian friends. Probably only Spain will have a chance to beat us, and only if Pau Gasol plays…
Unfortunately in this world championship there was a huge wish from the organizer to have a final between Turkey and the USA and the two teams had received a huge help from the refs troghout the whole tournament. I am very sorry for the serbians that deserved the final and for all the other teams that played vs these 2 teams.
dzoni i agree with you on serbia dominating europe in the next five years (you see i use the word “domination” and it is intentional). your national team has got quite a lot of potential and i did not see it only in this tournament, i also saw this when turkey beat serbia in poland last year.
however your opinions about turkey playing the final just because of its larger economy sounds like a loser’s vague whining. some calls may be on turkey’s favor i also agree on that. but “fiba wanted turkey to play final because they are a big market” is too much conspiracy. i think you need to focus on the game more than these conspiracy theories.
The entire tournament was rigged. Both USA and Turkey had the refs in their pocket in every game they played up to the final. Then in the final it was all for USA with the refs. The entire tournament was a rigged, fixed joke.
Well, at least Turkey vs. Greece game shows that your claim is quite wrong. And although I agree that this is a blown call that has changed the outcome of the game (As a Turk, I’m shocked to see this) there was not a disparity on the blown calls against the either side. If every blown call was a fixed game then there would be no international -hell even national- tournaments!
I think David was being sarcastic. Not the best choice in an international forum with many non-native English speakers.
Shit happens in a one game and done scenario. Serbia lost and would have been beaten badly by the USA even if they beat Turkey.
They couldn’t even beat Lithuania….
who the hell is posing as me up there? I agree pseudop-theo, but don’t steal my bie nickname!
If you look at the picture, it appears that the referee might have blocked the view of the TV camera guy, which would explain why they never showed any footage from it.
LT fan you can’t be serious about that???? you have great team but not as good as,and certanly don’t have such potencial,your couch should put motejunas to play in this tournament,so he will be unperperd for eurobasket,see what ivkovic does he puts kids of 21,21 years of age to have major roles in team,wee have better fighting spirit than you wee always had ,remeber 1995,1996 when wee beat you every time,you had amazing players like sabonis,marculonis,kurtinaitis but wee always beat you in important games,this will also bee in poland i am not saying your team is great kleiza is phenomenal,jasaitis is good,pocius,kalnetis,maciulis,javtokas all very good players, you also have some younger prospects like motejunas,gecevicius and valaciunas i like the way you play… but there is big BUT look at bigger picture who will be better next year serbia or lithuania?? almost all your players paly for zalgiris and rytas,all our player play in the best european clubs,wee have the best player in europe teodosic,great pf velickovic,always solid tepic,nba center krstic,great shooter tripkovic,amazing fowards bjelica and keselj,savanovic,macvan,markovic great center raduljica the list is long so you will get the medal i think but wee can beat easyly.. And filip whinig is for pusyis ofcurse i am not whining but when such a terible things happend you must say something right?? wee are not gona be silent very little people can understand what basketball means for serbia and for its people lithuania maybe greece and croatia,and that is it ,wee are so pashion about the basketball that when wee see such terible things hapend to our players who give all they heart,swet and blod in that game and whole tournament wee just can’t be silent,and filip wee are not gona dominate europe for 5 years hahaha no , wee are gona dominate the world again and for a 10 years,only one who will be even match will be USA ,so watch out for us in future wee have proven that wee are back,wee deserved SILVER MEDAL,and turks hope you are celebratying casue this is last time that you will see the medal in your lifes so go ahed celebrate ,and watch for us in future!!!
the correct word would paranoically
@ What About Bob: Ah, there’s the correct word. Thanks. I was getting paranoid there…
well, the names in the Serbian team were already much more famous this year, and we didn’t have a homecourt advantage… It’s also not true that most our players play in Zalgiris & Rytas (5 out of 12 to be exact, plus I’m pretty sure that with this year’s roster Zalgiris will beat the hell out of Partizan and quite possibly will qualify to Top-8…) Also, 3-4 weakest spots of our 2010 team will be filled by better guys (i.e. those of 2 x Lavrinovic, Kaukenas, Valanciunas, Motiejunas, Jasikevicius & Petravicius that will play the best at that time), so for sure we won’t be in the situation of having only one serious center, and even that one injured…
But that’s not the most important. The most important is homecourt advantage, which we will use certainly no worse than you guys do it in Belgrade (where you often managed to beat stronger teams in Euroleague playoffs…) So even if Serbia is going to have a stronger team next year (which is quite possible), it doesn’t mean you’ll be the favorites.
hahaha it doesn’t matter anyways, the TEAM USA would have squashed anyone. With Kevin Durant we can’t, and didn’t lose!!!!!!
Whoa, everyone needs to settle down.
1. The photo pretty much confirms that there was a blown call, and likely Serbia should have won the game.
2. But there’s no conspiracy here; it’s just a blown call. It happens in every game, in every sport; it’s just a part of the game. Serbia had multiple chances to take a decisive lead in the closing minutes (Teo uncharacteristically rushed a couple of quick threes), so they really can’t blame the referees for losing.
3. After watching the final, there really shouldn’t be anyone out there who thinks Serbia could have beaten the US in the gold medal match. It would have been a similar game, but no one on Serbia would have been able to guard KD well – just as Turkey didn’t either.
In the end, both Turkey and Serbia should be very proud of their top 4 finishes, especially Turkey who weren’t regarded very highly coming into the FIBA Worlds. If there’s a measure of revenge to be gained, let’s see Serbia do it in EuroBasket 2011.
And let’s all hope that all the continental teams get better over the next two years, because the USA is going to throw out a very talented, experienced group in London. They’re gonna be *very* tough to beat. . .
Whoa, this article certainly brought out the nationalists.
This is clearly a blown call, or lack thereof, but every time a Serbian sports team loses they’re all convinced they’ve been duped.
Serbia is a disgusting country.
Is it now? I am sure your country is quite beautifull and fair with such fine exaple of people who never generalize and give objective informative opinions…
u mate is whats wrong with most of things nowadays – u see the picture yet fail to accept it, instead maintaining slandering which has nothing to do with fact.
I would say u r from Holland or Chezh Republic or some similar country – I never met a person from either who wasnt quite full of shit and totally lacking objectivity…
If one person is generalizing and stereotyping and you note it, then why are also doing it at the end?
Between Asik’s cowardly ice-baggery and this missed call, I feel for Team Serbia. That said, it seems like the ref either missed it or wasn’t confident enough with what he did see to make a game-deciding bucket wave-off.
Just take consolation, Serbia fans, that you’re not Cleveland.
What a bunch of crybabies. It’s hard to respect the feelings of the complainers when:
1. Serbia’s 5 players were all sooo far from the basket on the last play of the game. Horrible defense or coaching put Serbia in a position to lose on that play. If there was a fix, it must be those 5 Serbian guys decided to give Turkey an easy hoop.
2. Serbia’s fans complain the refs have been bought in every international competition Serbia loses in
3. Some of Serbia’s players and fans continue to share sign language used by war criminals
4. Serbian fans complain about every call or no call, not just the questionable ones, i.e-
5. You hear complaints about Nenad fouling out—that was a physical foul. 4 of Ilyasova’s 5 fouls were less physical than Nenad’s 5th.
6. You hear complaints about Omer Asik’s acting job after all the acting jobs Serbian players have done throughout the tourney. By the way, the replay clearly shows he was indeed poked in the eye. He likely exaggerated, but since his replacement only hit 1 free throw and Turkey didn’t have their best inside player for defense at the end, it’s hard to see the big advantage Turkey gained
Just to tell you for bullet #6 I completely agree with you. We are not quite successful with scheming, and it almost blew in our face. I also believe Omer exaggerated the foul and the potential injury but the little trick gave us nothing, in fact its cost was probably higher. And I can show quite a few clearly blown calls that went in favor of Serbia, especially fouls in the first half. Most people in Turkey thought that the refs were biased in a few games against us, Greece and USA for example but it does not matter. You have a great and young team, don’t whine just enjoy. Meanwhile we must look for a serviceable SF and SG.
3. “Some of Serbia’s players and fans continue to share sign language used by war criminals” – the signs you are referring to are older then the wars criminals you are talking about. According to you military saluting is a war criminal sign because they were also using it. If I were you I would not flaunt my ignorance around.
6. The reason why CryBaby Asik did not play is the “Hack Shaq” approach that would have definitely be used in the last 2 minutes. What CryBaby Asik did is obvious cheating and he should have received a technical for it. Turcoglu ripped Savanovic’s head off and Savanovic still shot the free throws.
LOL. THis photo shows nothing. How can you decide from this angle that Tunceri’s foot is stepping on the lines. His foot was not straight at that point, instead he was accelarating towards the basket. We cannot see the position of His HEELS but the logical assumption is since he is leaning towards the basket, his foot cannot be in full contact with the floor, making this thread totally worthless……
Jeeeeeeeez, relax, guys, it’s over anyway
[...] open letter.9th: Hot Hot Hoops. Of course Erick Dampier wants to join the Miami Heat.10th: Ball in Europe. Looks like Turkey shouldn’t have been playing for a gold [...]
I learned that SErbia goes to FIBA for complaints. I had a good laugh. Are they man enough to give their golds they ROBBED in ’95 Eurobasket and ’02 WBC back ? Also, Serbia goes to Fıba? Say what? Oh, they ARE Fiba already. WTF? ’nuff said.
- Everybody knows the Greek Loby, Yugo Loby and their dominance over FIBA.
Serbian lobby? How many Serbians are in the FIBA and FIBAEurope board? 0!!!! Actually to be precise 1 but he is an honorary member and retired so he is not participating in it. And just to mention basketball superpowers like Gibraltar, Iceland, England and Luxemburg in Fiba Europe and Congo, Mali, US Virgin Islands in FIBA. Chairmen’s are form Iceland and Switzerland, do they play basketball there?
nuff said
Man, something is badly wrong with you.Get some help,seriously!
LT fan i am not saying that wee are favourites i am saying that wee can win gold,that wee can beat you and spain,you can also win gold especially cause you have home court adventege ,and i sick of this stupid morons commentig that wee are bad country wee are your countrys spain went home casue wee defeted them,and especially i am sick of morons for GB,switcerland,polan and that type of countrys where are you in basketball???????????? you can put 2 good players so shut up!!!!! you don’t have right to talk about serbian basketball watch your own pathetic teams playing qualifications to eurobasket as wee are beating spain in WC quarter finals,so shut up please you don’t belonge here,go and see your countryies get beat by 50 points in eurobasket 2011,and watch big,great teams fighting for gold: serbia,spain,lithuania,greece…
Just listen to Dzoni. If your country is not a major basketball power than you can not comment. Serbia iz da biggaz bezt bbal contry ever and it is sick of otherz steeling its medalz!
all tournament long i hated the tv pictures we got to see.
these stupid guys didn´t gave a good replay in 90% of the important scenes!!!!
who´s responsible for that?!?!
but u guys should remember that the refs make mistakes too…there is no tv proof for them in the sport of basketball.(but even i think that this was a clear out of bounce and the ref had an excellent point of view! ).
anyway…i also think that money is far too important in any pro sport but come on did you ever expirence such an intense crowd at an event of this importance?
clearly an high pressure moment for the refs!
so think twice before u call it some kind of conspiracy!
Well there is not just the picture.Theres is video were u can clearly see him steeping out off bounds.Serbia robing medals?Funny.Its not just this call…There were 3 times when Turkish player slapped serbian player in front off the ref and nothing was called???
5. You hear complaints about Nenad fouling out—that was a physical foul.
I have to ask you did u even watch the game?If u did you would saw Krstic backed away from Erdan and didn’t even touch him.
Are they man enough to give their golds they ROBBED in ‘95 Eurobasket.That year Serbia didnt even finish in top 4!So i ask u are man enough to admit that u don’t know thing about basketball and are here just to spit your hate?
His photo shows nothing. How can you decide from this angle that Tunceri’s foot is stepping on the lines. Let me ask do you really don’t see his heal or even half off his foot on the line?But if u watched the video in which they zoomed u would clearly see it.
serbia would win over usa, that is for sure. THAT HAD TO BE PREVENTED BY ALL MEANS! judges were bribed by USA not Turkey. When Turks (they hardly could breath on the court against Serbia and would have been happy with bronze) saw what judges are doing in second half they started to smash faces of serbian players and hit them hard. Instead of Asik shooting the free throws judges allowed the best turkish player to do that?! WTF?! This is a stick-up of the century. I SPIT ON THE FACE OF BORA STANKOVIC, SERB FIBA EXECUTIVE WHO DID NOTHING TO PREVENT THIS MOCKERY OF FIBA.
AND ALL OF THAT HAPPENS TO AVOID DISASTER OF USA TEAM (THEY CONSIDER DISASTER IF THEY DO NOT WIN GOLD. WTF. SHOW ON THE COURT IF YOU ARE BETTER. BRASIL COULD WIN 2 OUT OF 4 AGAINST THIS USA TEAM)
FIBA IS DEAD, DEAD. THIS LEADS TO NOWHERE.
KD would be held under 10 baskets against serbia and its 2.09 forwards.
LOL! KD would be held under 20 points by Serbia’s 2.09m forwards – of which they only have one, Bjelica.
Now somehow, Bjelica is going to stop Durant when Turkey had just as much size at the position (Ersan, Hedo) and couldn’t really slow down his perimeter shooting??
Be more realistic and hope that Serbia’s players get better in the next year so they can mount a strong gold medal challenge in Lithuania next summer.
Hhahahaaha!!!!! Best post yet.
I hope you are not serious. I have many Serb friends and I hate to think any one of them would even remotely think this way.
thanks for the laugh.
I believe Serbia was killed in the semis, and definitely had a bigger chance against the US, but let’s not get carried away here. Durant is the single most talented scorer to have come out in the past 10 years, basically Kobe’s successor, but taller. Serbia struggled with both Croatia and Spain, and they would win FOR SURE against the US?
The Serbian players are pretty lucky. They played awful defense for the last few minutes, and yet their fans only blame the referees, FIBA officials, and aliens (maybe next?).
yo philaeus fuck off !!! pretty lucky??? wee played worste defense last minutes casue refferes back them in the game,if not of that discrase wee would won7,8 points easliy,and go to finals,i am not saying wee would win against USA but would have much more options and chanses then stupid turkey,bjelica 2 09 and keselj 2 06 could do something against durant on defense they could stop him not the whole game ,but in some period of time sure,wee would defenetly lose with far more less points then turkey did,they only shot 3 pointers… And to talk about fufure a little wee are coming in lithuania for gold i am not hiding that,wee have great,young,courage team with great potencial,on WC wee were without our best shooter tripkovic and great center raduljica expect them in lithuania and expect better shooting ,and better game in the paint with raduljica,and if you took that all our palyers are very young and that they will be better next year wee have great chance of wining gold,and as for distant future wee will rule the world again in the next 10 years you will look serbia takes gold medals for many years to come like or not!!!!!
@ rivaldo eurobasket 95 serbia didn’t finish on top 4??? they were the champ.!!!beating LTU.thanks to the U.S referee.sabonis quickly got 5 fouls! who is the coach?oh yea IVKOVIC i guess!
What happened to the photo? could it be that they had it removed
On the ESPN feed of the game there was an overhead shot of the layup. From that angle almost directly above the play it did not look like he stepped out of bounds.
You can watch that replay on ESPN 3 for the Yanks on here and those who are internet savy.
There has to be a torrent of that game in HD floating around as well. That overhead shot was definitely used at least once in slow mo on replay.
serbia is the last team all world who complain for referee and fiba…(spain for uleb)…in last 20 years, all championships …whatever…
This is a useless argument. Even if there was instant replay, it would only apply in a situation similar to NBA. 3 point or 2 point decision, shot decisions at the end of the quarters or at the end of shot clocks. There is no example of instant replay being applied to an out of bounds situation even if it is at the last 5 seconds of the game.
cvd said:
“(THEY CONSIDER DISASTER IF THEY DO NOT WIN GOLD. WTF. SHOW ON THE COURT IF YOU ARE BETTER. BRASIL COULD WIN 2 OUT OF 4 AGAINST THIS USA TEAM)”
——————————————————————————————————-
And didn’t team USA show to be better on the court? Wasn’t team USA the only unbeaten team in the tournament? Didn’t they beat all of the teams they played, including two of the top teams in the world such as Lithuania in the semis and Turkey in the gold medal game, before a crazy pro-Turkey crowd no less. What the hell do they have to prove now? They beat all of the teams they had to face. End of story. Grow a pair.
And it’s funny how there are some people who keep saying Team USA made it to the gold medal game because of the referees (nevermind I have seen a phalanx of bad calls going against them). Just goes to show those people aren’t true basketball fans because if they were they wouldn’t make absurd statements like that. Aside the Brazil game, the US team easily won every single game and played stellar defense. Re-watch the games in an objective way and you’ll see it. Just stop embarrassing yourself.
[...] 1. Serbian suspicion confirmed: Photo shows Tunceri stepped out The 2010 FIBA World Championship was a fantastic edition of the international tournament – even if Team USA did bring too much Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook for very serious competition from the rest of the planet – and BiE is loath to cast aspirations on great memories. However, Team Serbia was right to be indignant about the semifinal match against hosts Turkey, specifically the last-second play fumbled by Hedo Turkoglu and recovered by Kerem Tunceri in time for the game-winning shot. Except that this photograph appeared online the next day. [...]
[...] the Group E no. 4 seed would be determined with the outcome of the Turkey-Serbia game (by the way, nice grudge match there, eh?): Winner takes the last ticket to advance. Should Lithuania lose to Germany, there will be one of [...]
[...] In case you’ve forgotten, this game also represents a virtual rematch of the 2010 FIBA World Championship showdown. After an incredibly hard-fought, evenly-matched battle, Turkey emerged with the right to take on Team USA for the title after a second-half comeback and last-second heroics by Tunceri – heroics that probably should have been whistled dead before they happened. [...]
[...] two major international tourneys in a row is cause for panic? Plus, if you want to talk miracles, Serbia was on the wrong end of one in 2010; would the feeling be different in Serbia now had the team taken the silver in Turkey? More [...]
[...] Bill kralovec, an American living and working in Belgrade, wrote about the recent World Basketball Championships in Turkey: Serbia had a great tourney despite the heartbreaking loss to the hosts. If Miloš Teodosic could ever play some defense, they might have won that game. I think the US would have been too much for them in the finals, but they deserved to be there. Of course, I agree with him. Serbia deserved to be in the finals. Serbia played better than Turkey, and thanks to a fan photo taken from the stands, you can all see that a terrible error was made. Serbia was just robbed of final spot by referee. [...]