2023-05-20 13:21:40
Basketball professional poisons referee on Twitter – despite victory
Brandon Paul contributed six points and a referee debate to Ulm’s victory
Quelle: dpa/Andreas Gora
Ratiopharm Ulm wins at Alba Berlin and takes the lead again in the quarter-final series. Ulm professional Brandon Paul is still dissatisfied – with the behavior of a referee. Publicly, he accuses the referee of a lack of respect.
Brandon Paul actually had every reason to celebrate. With his basketball team Ratiopharm Ulm, he won the third quarter-final game at Alba Berlin with 93:81 (53:46) and thus regained the lead in the best-of-five series. Ulm is now leading 2-1. But Paul was only concerned with one thing on Friday evening: the behavior of referee Gentian Cici.
The American first wrote on Twitter how proud he was of his team and thanked the Ulm fans. Then he swung to the scolding. “In all modesty – I’ve played in every top league in the world. Respect to all referees in the world. You have a job that is sometimes thankless. Tonight was the first time I saw a referee behave disrespectfully towards coaches and players,” wrote the former NBA pro (2017/18 with the San Antonio Spurs).
At the heart of the criticism: referee Gentian Cici
Those: pa/nordphoto.GmbH/nph/Rojahn
He had never been “treated so disrespectfully”. Without getting specific at first, the shooting guard said: “If I had said to him what he said to me, I would have been excluded from the game.” According to his own description, Paul tried to remain calm, “but if an opponent Player tells me to stay calm, then something is fundamentally wrong.”
Paul was also enraged by the decision against Ulm’s head coach Anton Gavel, who was sent off the bench after just six minutes with his second technical foul – obviously for complaining. “He said ‘He was pushed!’ called. That has nothing to do with real life. At that level it’s just an example of someone wanting to be the center of attention.”
“I then repeated several times how unprofessional that is.”
In his last tweet, Paul then made it clear that he meant Cici with his criticism. And also writes what specifically made him so angry: “Referee Gentian Cici tells me, ‘I can do what I want. I’m the boss here. I can send you home if I want. I make the rules here.’ I then repeated several times how unprofessional that is. ‘Anyway, I’m the boss and you do as I say. And there’s nothing more to say’.” Serious allegations against the referee, who has been whistling in the BBL since 2019. Neither he nor the league has commented so far.
It’s not the first time Paul has dished out to referees. Already after the last game of the regular season against Bonn (83:85) he had mobbed in the social networks. At that time he had severely criticized two decisions by the referee team Martin Matip, Christian Theis and Dominik Bejaoui.
On Wednesday (8.30 p.m.) Paul has to concentrate on the sport again. Then Ulm has the chance at home to make the surprise perfect and move into the semi-finals with a win. Defending champion Alba Berlin, on the other hand, wants to prevent the early end of the season. “It’s a tough situation right now and we have our backs to the wall,” said Berlin international Johannes Thiemann.
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