European – and indeed global – basketball was rocked by Real’s Game 2 team brawl with Partizan, with Gerson Yabusele’s WWE tackle on Dante Exum causing the biggest shock. However, unfortunately, this is not the first time that world basketball has found itself in this position.

In the recent past, similar scenes have occurred several times – thankfully not too often – in games around the world, leaving fans speechless at the violence.

Sportish recalls 10 typical instances when the basketball world was shocked to see basketball players fighting on the floor. Highlights from Greece, the EuroLeague, Italy, Spain and even the Philippines are included. For obvious reasons, there’s only one fight out of the NBA, the…absolute, as fights on the other side of the Atlantic are common.

Caution: Some PICTURES are hard while some VIDEOS have age restrictions.

Korfa’s punch

It was way back in 1988 when PAOK faced Red Star for the Korats Cup in Belgrade. The tension was palpable and at the beginning of the second half the situation got out of hand.

John Korfas brought the ball down and won a foul from Zoran Radonic. But the foreign guard thought his opponent was playing dirty. As a result, he became irritated and hit his opponent, leading to a general altercation.

The wood of Galis with Prelevic

It’s May 8, 1991 and Aris and PAOK are competing in the finals of A1 (now Basket League). The game ends, which – typically guest, as the two teams share “Alexandrio” – 80-81 and wins together with the championship. And then the bad thing happened.

In the chaos, the teams’ two stars, Aris’ Nikos Galis and PAOK’s Bane Prelevic, took up arms and traded blows. The crowd also joined in the kicking. The attitude, disappointing.

The kick in the Bologna derby

Virtus Bologna’s hatred of Fortitudo Bologna is well known. In 1998 Virtus was still called Kinder Bologna and Fortitudo was called Timsysteme Bologna. But the hate was still there. And in a March 1998 match, he hit his worst point.

In the packed stadium in Bologna, a hard foul by Zoran Savic on Gregor Futska was enough. Fuchsa reacted and Abio – his teammate in the Italian national team – pushed him. The sinking that followed was… expected.

Tomic vs Bodiroga, Olympiakos vs Panathinaikos

It’s the semifinals of A1 in 2002. Panathinaikos comes from winning the EuroLeague but lost home field advantage to Olympiakos who beat OAKA in the first game. The second final smelled of gunpowder and the situation was not long in coming.

In a battle for the ball, Lazaros Papadopoulos powerfully turned his elbow and hit Stefan Rizase. The French guard then asked him why and a fight ensued between the two. Somewhere in between, Dejan Bodiroga also got involved, with Milan Tomic then emerging and beating the Serb. The situation was now out of control, the “eternal” players fell into chaos.

Mancinelli versus Doornekamp

wood in friendly? And yet. And – as people will remember in the future – it wouldn’t be the first and it wouldn’t be the last time. The perpetrators in this case were Stefano Mancinelli and Aron Doornekamp at a friendly match between Italy and Canada in 2009.

In a period that didn’t look like anything was going to happen, Mancinelli went for the steal, with Doornekamp stepping in and trying to stop him from elbowing him. However, the Italian didn’t appreciate it and hit the Canadian from behind, then fell on top of him, leading to a fight.

Greece vs Serbia

It’s one of the most embarrassing moments in Greek and Serbian basketball history. As for the 2010 kick-off at the “Acropolis” tournament, which almost caused a diplomatic episode between the two countries.

The match was a derby as Antonis Fotsis attempted a three point with Milos Teodosic fouling him and hitting him in the genitals. Fotis then reacted and joined Teodosic. What followed can only be described as chaos. Marko Keseli, Kostas Tsartsaris, Sofokles Skortsanitis and especially Nenad Krsic, but also all the players in general were there.

To top it all off, Krstic put it on its feet when he saw Skortsanitis and Bourousis approaching and threw a chair which hit Bourousis in the head.

Mensah-Bonsou against Printez and Begić

In the 2013–13 season, Olympiacos hosted Galatasaray in a regular-season game. Everything went smoothly, Olympiacos had cleaned up the game heading towards their final. However, when demanded a rebound, Red-Whites’ Mirza Begić got angry with Pop’s Mensah-Bonsou and elbowed him in the head. It was clear that this would not end well.

The big man from Galata – and later from AEK – went berserk and beat the Slovenian. Then Giorgos Printezis entered. The fight…extended. The result was – once again – not pretty.

Milutinov versus Nelson

A few years before Nikola Milutinov became one of the best centers in Europe, he played for Partizan. Like any self-respecting Serb, he displayed excessive passion in the Red Star derby. Only in one match did he escape and the result was terrifying for everyone.

When the umpires ruled a foul, the Serbian center stuck his face in DeMarcus Nelson. He grabbed his neck. Milutinov answered. The two got into an argument and others got involved. In the finale of the feud, Nelson used a WWE hold (not like Yabusele’s) to knock Milutinov to the ground.

Sengelia against Todorovic

Bilbao’s derbies with Baskonia don’t stand out. However, they do not stop being local derbies between two Basque teams. 8 years ago in a game between the two teams (Baskonia was then called Laboral Kutsa) it was seen how the situation can get out of hand.

The game was decided and Bilbao prepared to celebrate the victory. However, Todorovic went on to break the unwritten rule that says you don’t attack. Instead he went to the nail. Sengelia wanted to cut him off and ended up fouling him. Todorovic was irritated and pushed him. Sengelia hit him. Everyone is imagining the sequel.

Philippines vs Australia

Before kick-off in Madrid, the Philippines and Australia – comfortably – held the title of the worst conflict in years.

In 2019, not too far away, the Aussies celebrated at a World Cup qualifier in the Philippines. Once, just before the end of the game, Roger Pogoy of the Philippines knocked down Chris Goulding. The Australians came to the rescue.

What followed cannot be described in words. That’s what VIDEO is for. What can be mentioned is that in the end 13 players were sent off (9 from the Philippines and 4 from Australia), the home team was left with 3 players and finally fouled continuously to respond with one player.

Bonus, the ultimate brawl: Malice at the Palace

The ultimate wood. Worst episode ever. It didn’t happen in the European courts, but it changed the NBA’s entire perspective on player and spectator safety. It was November 19, 2004 when the Pistons hosted the Pacers in a game that will never fade from the memory of sports fans.

A hard foul on Ben Wallace by Ron Artest with 45.9 seconds to go resulted in utter chaos, with players climbing into the stands, punching everyone in front of them and viewing a crowd of 22,076 never-before-seen images.

Artest ate 86 matches, Steven Jackson 30, Jermaine O’Neal 15, Ben Wallace 6, Anthony Johnson 5 and Chauncey Billups, Derrick Coleman, Elden Campbell, David Harrison one each.