Panathinaikos want points taken from Olympiacos. Olympiacos answered with Lessort's surgeon

By the Data Desk · Published 9 OCT 10:00

Last November, Mathias Lessort's ankle was operated on by a surgeon who works exclusively with Olympiacos in Greece, and it took the Olympiacos owner's personal approval to make it happen. Olympiacos made that public on Thursday, hours after receiving a fourth complaint in a few days from Panathinaikos, one of which asks for two points to be taken off them.

• Four complaints, by Olympiacos' count: three against coach Giorgos Bartzokas, one against the club with a request for a 2-point deduction.
• The EuroLeague judge cleared Bartzokas over the Bologna incident on Thursday.
• On court Panathinaikos are 4-0 in the EuroLeague; Olympiacos are 2-1 and host Anadolu Efes tonight.

Olympiacos listed the complaints in a statement on Thursday. One went to the EuroLeague over Bartzokas pushing Virtus players who were celebrating Marcus Carr's buzzer-beater in Bologna on 1 October, when Olympiacos lost 96-94. One went to the Greek ethics body over last season's game in Dubai. The third, to the Greek league judge, is about Bartzokas at Iraklis in the Greek league opener, a game Olympiacos won 78-68.

The fourth is the one with teeth. Panathinaikos ask the Greek league judge to take two points from Olympiacos, because a case was filed in the ordinary courts against their owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos over his entry onto the court at OAKA during last season's finals, and league rules ban taking such disputes to the ordinary courts. Olympiacos won that final series 3-2, a few weeks after winning the EuroLeague at OAKA.

Olympiacos answered in the evening. "Κατανοούμε την εμμονή της ΚΑΕ Παναθηναϊκός και του ιδιοκτήτη της κατά του Ολυμπιακού" (we understand the obsession of Panathinaikos BC and its owner with Olympiacos), the club wrote, before explaining that Panathinaikos, Lessort and his agent had asked for Dr Niek van Dijk last November, and that president Giorgos Angelopoulos "immediately granted his approval". Giannakopoulos replied on Instagram that Olympiacos were congratulating themselves for doing "το απολύτως ανθρώπινο και αυτονόητο" (what is entirely human and self-evident).

The EuroLeague side of it is closed: the competition's judge cleared Bartzokas of all charges after video showed Virtus players moving towards him. Olympiacos host Anadolu Efes tonight at the Sunel Arena at 21:15 Athens time (19:15 UK, 20:15 Madrid). Both clubs already carry a July ruling by the same judge that took two points from each over last season's finals.