That's Mr. Batiste if you're nasty
An otherwise fantastic match between Union Olimpija and Panathinaikos last night was marred somewhat by the beyond-naughty antics of Mike Batiste. With an already tense game at 57-55 in the fourth quarter, Batiste tangled with Saso Ozbolt while ostensibly going for a rebound (though the ball was clearly going off the other side of the rim). Batiste appeared to knock Ozbolt over – though some floppage may have been involved – but the worst part came thereafter.
Half-heartedly trying to make it appear as though harmlessly running upcourt, Batiste essentially performed a modified curb stomp on poor Ozbolt; too bad for Batiste the incident was perpetuated well in view of two referees – not to mention about a half-meter or less away from Ozbolt’s teammate Kevinn Pinkney.
Batiste was ultimately assessed a technical foul, made to apologize to Ozbolt immediately by PAO coach Zeljko Obradovic, and sat until the overtime period. It is to Obradovic’s credit that he reprimanded Batiste despite hurting his team’s chances. Much of Panathinaikos’ offense play in the second half depended on going through Batiste in the low post and his counterpart in Ozbolt had been held to five points on just two jumpers and no free throws before the flagrant.
One wonders if the Euroleague and/or Panathinaikos will take any sort of action against Batiste, but the truth is the man hurt his team in the fourth quarter and probably ultimately can be faulted for giving Olimpija just enough edge in the 7½ minutes he sat to win the game and thus take the Group D lead – and neatly neutralizing Dimitris Diamantidis’ MVP performance and Batiste’s own week-high four blocked shots.
Tags: Dimitris Diamantidis, Euroleague, Kevinn Pinkney, Mike Batiste, Panathinaikos, Saso Ozbolt, Union Olimpija, Zeljko Obradovic
that was nasty! what was he thinking? lol at him having to apologize. In the nba he would have been in big trouble. especially with the new technical foul rules. for an interesting article on the new tech rules check out: http://www.lowpostnews.com/nba/technically-speaking-the-new-rules-of-the-nba11052010/
Damn, that is criminal behavior right there. He should be banned for the rest of the regular season in Euroleague at the very least.
lol its funny that the video was posted by a olympiacos blog
but really not beautiful what he did, but to be forced by the trainer to appologized in front of thousands of people is kind of punishement for him also i think
Hi, here is a link to a longer video where you can see how the incident unfolded:
http://www.sport.gr/default.asp?pid=69&vid=33231
They were not going for a rebound. Actually, Batiste went for a layup/dunk knee first, but Ozbolt got into his way and drew an offensive foul. Apparently that got Batiste angry.
He did apologize once again at the press conference.
This wasn’t his first frustrated unsportsmanlike breakout at all, although by far the worse (I also remember him bodychecking Pablo Prigioni last year in the halfcourt without any intention to even make it appear like he was going for the ball). He’s been plainly commiting this kind of behavior, sanctioned only by techical fouls.
I only hope Ožbolt presses charges, because I strongly doubt EL will sanction this guy in any way.
[...] to Ballin Europe, Batiste was called for a foul on a play where it appeared Ozbolt may have flopped a little. Panathinaikos coach Zeljko [...]
[...] Rather than just a random potshot – though it seemed as though the coach really wanted to apply the epithet to journalists asking what he considered repetitive questions about meaningless scandal – Obradovic was answering a query about Batiste’s infamous headstomp of Ozbolt earlier this season. [...]