Euroleague Update: Olympiacos Files Petition Against Bobby Brown’s Buzzer Beater

So would it have mattered if the clock hadn’t briefly stopped?  Would Brown’s shot still have counted?

Yes, and no.  If the Euroleage does what I did, and uses the stopwatch function on my phone four or five times and takes that average to determine the duration of the halt, they’ll find that the clock was stuck at 10.0 for somewhere between 3.2 and 4.0 seconds.  Since Brown’s shot went in with 1.7 seconds left, it would seem that there’s no question those seconds would not have existed were it not for some poor timekeeping. But remember: it’s when he released the shot that matters, so we can toss the number 1.7 out altogether.

In the video, it looks like there are either 2.4 or 2.5 seconds left when the alleged game winner leaves his fingertips.  This eyeballed decimal is by no means official, but it would seem that even with the help of those additional tenths, Brown’s shot would be waved off.

So let’s say Olympiacos wins this petition. What next?  If a Eurocup precedent is upheld, we might get a replay of not just the last ten seconds, but the entire 40 minutes.

(Or, 40 minutes and 3.2-to-4.0 seconds.)

That’s right.  When Allen Iverson’s Besiktas club was playing Germany’s Goettingen in a 2010 Eurocup game, the clock stopped for two seconds on the penultimate possession.  After Besiktas missed their attempt, Goettingen ran the length of the floor and put up a game-winning runner as the clock struck zero.

It was waved off after an official appeal just like this one, and the two teams had to replay the game from the opening tip at a later date after the Eurocup decided the validity of the game had been compromised.

Frankly, I wouldn’t mind another 40 minutes of Brown vs. Spanoulis, but it would be unnecessarily taxing on the two teams to reschedule an international affair when they’ve already got their domestic leagues to deal with as well.  Also, there’s no need to risk any additional injuries.

Since the score was tied during the seconds in question, a logical mind would settle on a simple five-minute overtime rather than a 40-minute redux.  Still, booking a flight from Italy to Greece to play a game shorter than the warm-ups seems silly, too.

These two teams are scheduled to play again on March 14 in Siena, so my vote is for them to run through the five-minute OT session before the tip.  The obvious issue here is that Olympiacos would have to agree to giving up one of the continent’s best home court advantages, swapping a sea of red for the Tuscan black and green.  Knowing Greek basketball executives and fans, that wouldn’t sit well, especially in the case of an Olympiacos loss.  Any disputed call that went Siena’s way and the Piraeus printers might be spitting out yet another petition.

But no matter the venue nor the bylaws for this hypothetical replay, if Olympiacos plans on closing out the game with mental miscues and physical failure, they’re simply delaying the inevitable.

Other Euroleague Notes

-Seven of the eight road teams won this week in the Euroleague (officially, anyways; Olympiacos might have a shot at a retroactive home win).  The only team that defended their home court this week was BC Khimki (3-1), who whooped a reeling Maccabi (1-3) club 88-67.  It should surprise no one; the Russians are undefeated this season (7-0) at home in the Euroleague.

-Khimki’s Paul Davis took home MVP honors for the week with 16 points, nine rebounds, two steals and a Khimki record five blocks for an index rating of 29.  He did all of this despite not having been paid in three months, along with the rest of his Khimki teammates.  Amidst rumors of a player strike, and even guys like Davis, Vitaliy Fridzon and Sergey Monya jumping ship to play elsewhere (presumably for money), coach Rimas Kurtinaitis has come out and said the Moscow Region government plans on paying down the debt of 174 million rubles ($5.75 million) so that the Euroleague’s most surprising Final Four contender can keep it going.

-Panathinaikos is now 3-0 in the Top 16 in games that their captain, starting point guard and emotional leader Dimitris Diamantidis has either left early or missed entirely due to injury.  After beating Unicaja and Zalgiris in games that 3D hurt himself (ankle, groin), he didn’t even make the trip to Berlin and the Greens still got the win 79-73 over Alba.  This feat might have been less remarkable yesteryear, when the Greek powerhouse was led by coaching legend Zeljko Obradovic and still featured established vets like Mike Batiste, Romain Sato, Kostas Kaimakoglou and Sarunas Jasikevicius. It’s a different story when Marcus Banks and Jason Kapono are in your backcourt and the only guy who played in last year’s Final Four is 33-year-old Kostas Tsartsaris.

-Caja Laboral stayed perfect as they went to Istanbul and did what everyone’s doing these days: making Fenerbahce Ulker look like they belong in the EuroChallenge.  The historic club from Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain’s Basque region won 97-75, and Andres Nocioni led the way with a season-high 19 points.  Fenerbahce’s dual-acquisition of David Andersen and Mike Batiste was supposed to provide unparalleled  experience in the front court, but just looked old and weathered this week (the norm this season) and teamed up for five points in 24 minutes.  Can you believe some moron actually picked these guys to win it all?

-Milos Teodosic went for a Euroleague career-high 24 points as CSKA Moscow beat Zalgiris 87-73 in Kaunas, Lithuania.  Milos’ previous highs were 21 and 22, which he notched during his 2010-11 EL MVP season with Olympiacos.  The most he had scored with CSKA was 19 in 2011 in his fifth game with Moscow.

Nick Gibson, editor of EuroleagueAdventures.com, covers Euroleague and other international basketball developments for SheridanHoops.com. Click here to follow him on Twitter.