Brawl leaves 2 top teams reeling from suspensions

KAYSERI, Turkey — The brawl between Greece and Serbia in a warmup game has left two of the top teams at the basketball world championship reeling from suspensions that have ruled out some of their best players for the start of the tournament.

Serbia will be without center Nenad Krstic for the first three games and guard Milos Teodosic for the first two. Power forward Antonis Fotsis and center Sofoklis Schortsanitis will miss Greece's first two games for their role in the Aug. 19 brawl.

The tournaments that starts on Saturday in four Turkish cities already is missing a number of top stars for various reasons, including Kobe Bryant and all the Olympic champion U.S., Pau Gasol of Spain and Dirk Nowitzki of Germany.

The suspensions handed out by FIBA on Thursday infuriated the coaches of Serbia and Greece, but the players involved did not seem surprised.

"This is something unbelievable," Greece coach Jonas Kazlauskas said Friday in Ankara.

FIBA's ruling was a blow to Kazlauskas ahead of Saturday's opening game against China. Both Fotsis and Schortsanitis will also be sitting on the bench during Sunday's game against Puerto Rico in Group C.

Serbia's 66-year-old veteran coach, Dusan Ivkovic, noted the brawl at a game in a warmup tournament in Athens took place on Aug. 19 and FIBA was slow to hand out punishment so close to the start of the tournament.

"FIBA could have reacted quicker," said Ivkovic, who led the former Yugoslavia to one of its record five world titles in 1990. "It was buying time.

"We have to react in a very short time, I have to prepare my players mentally," Ivkovic added. "Krstic is our captain, or pillar, our main offensive option. Without Teodosic, we lose a lot of creativity. Our qualification (for the quarterfinals) is now under threat."

Ivkovic said Serbia has lost "two key players" for the games against Angola, Germany and Jordan in Group A in Kayseri.

The fight broke out during the last game of the Acropolis Tournament, which was abandoned with 2:40 remaining and Greece leading by one point. The players from both teams exchanged punches and kicks on the floor and in the tunnels leading to the dressing rooms.

It began when former NBA player Fotsis moved threateningly against Teodosic, who had fouled him. Krstic, of the Oklahoma City Thunder, then grabbed Fotsis by the throat and threw a chair toward Schortsanitis, who was pursuing him. The chair hit Yannis Bouroussis, who had not played because of a hand injury, and left him with a bloody wound on the side of his head.

Fotsis and Schortsanitis said they expected to be punished.

"This is the decision. We can't change it," Fotsis said. "It was very difficult not to punish us. We accept this punishment."

Schortsanitis said he would be ready to help the team when his suspension is over.

"I am not angry," said the Greece center, who is known as Baby Shaq. "We expected it."

Krstic also said he was not surprised by the suspensions.

"We expected something like this. Of course I am disappointed. Now, it's behind us and I don't want to talk about it too much," Krstic said. "We have to look ahead and think about the upcoming games."

The former Yugoslavia won two of the last three world titles and Serbia is hoping to extend the success for the first time as an independent nation. Ivkovic's young team surprised by finishing runner-up to Spain at last year's European championship.

Spain is seeking is to become only the third country to win back-to-back world basketball titles. Yugoslavia was the last team to do it, in 1998-2002, while Brazil managed it in 1959-63.

Although Spain will be without the Los Angeles Lakers center Gasol, who decided to take a break, and guard Jose Manuel Calderon of the Toronto Raptors because of injury, it has plenty of other talent, including 19-year-old point guard Ricky Rubio. Spain is based in Izmir in Group D.

The United States beat Spain for the 2008 Olympic gold medal, but none of the Americans have returned and the so-called "B team" will play in Group B in Istanbul. The Americans dominate the Olympics but have won only three world titles, the last time in 1994.

Six teams are in each group, and four from each pool will advance to the single-elimination round starting Sept. 4 in Istanbul, with the gold medal game on Sept. 12.

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