A coach blamed a falling hotel lift for a heavy defeat. His own club says it never happened

By the Data Desk · Published 11 OCT 07:45

“My guys fell three stories”, Gence coach Martin Knezevic wrote after his team lost 92-63 in Istanbul, blaming a hotel lift for five injured players. On Saturday his own club said no player was hurt, four of the five had played, and the next time he does something like this his contract will be terminated.

• Esenler Erokspor beat Gence 92-63 on Wednesday 7 October in week 1 of the FIBA Europe Cup regular season (FIBA).
• FIBA's box score shows four of the five players named played: Jarvis Garrett (23 minutes), Montavious Murphy (22), Latavious Mitchell (27, 13 points) and Fikrat Alakbarov (13); Bakary Camara did not play.
• Gence say the lift had a fault that hotel staff fixed at once, that they booked the hotel themselves and that they never asked to postpone the game.

Knezevic made his claims in a Facebook post on the night of the game, since deleted. As quoted by Sportando, he wrote that his players “fell three stories” in a hotel lift and thanked FIBA “for ignoring our request to postpone this game”. He also blamed the hosts for the hotel, Eurohoops reported.

Gence's reply, published on Saturday and reported by Turkish, Azerbaijani and Serbian outlets (Basketfaul, Offsideplus, Kurir), took that apart. There was a technical problem with the lift, staff fixed it immediately, no player was injured, and the accommodation was chosen and paid for by Gence, not Erokspor. The club says it made no request to postpone. It called the coach's posts false, unauthorised and a breach of internal discipline that shifted the blame for the defeat onto the players.

Behind the scenes, the club chose a warning over a sacking. According to the statement, it took into account his “different cultural background” and an emotional reaction, and gave him an official warning; a repeat means immediate termination. Knezevic, a US coach of Serbian descent, was appointed in July on a contract to the end of the season (Offsideplus).

The game itself was one-sided from the second quarter: 45-30 at half-time, 72-51 after three (FIBA). Kobe Magee top-scored for Gence with 16 points.