Game 5 of the Euroleague quarter-final between Olympiakos and Monaco was played in an incandescent atmosphere in Piraeus.
Behind the name of the Stade de la Paix et de l’Amitié hides one of the most electric atmospheres in European basketball, incandescent, deafening and of course sometimes hostile. It is this atmosphere that Kevin Durant, one of the best players on the planet, discovered on Wednesday evening in Greece.
Already present in Monaco last Friday for match 4 of the Euroleague quarter-final between ASM and Olympiakos, at the invitation of his friend Mike James (Roca Team star and former Brooklyn Nets player), Durant prolonged the pleasure – and his discovery of another facet of his sport – by also attending the decisive match 5 between the two teams. Obviously, the Greek public had understood that “KD” had come to encourage Monaco, since he was greeted by a line of whistles.
Kevin Durant got booed by Olympiacos fans at Peace and Friendship Stadium ?? pic.twitter.com/mgzb9nGdLh
— BasketNews.com (@BasketNews_com) May 4, 2022
Durant was not the only American star in the stands, since the Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone, passing through Athens to promote her latest film (“Bleat”, directed by the Greek Yorgos Lanthimos), was also present. part.
That one got the Emma Stone seal of approval ? #EveryGameMatters pic.twitter.com/JTszy184jn
— Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) May 4, 2022
At the finish, and while Monaco had been leading the race for a long time, Olympiakos snatched their qualification for the Euroleague Final Four in the last minutes of the match. The match ended in a crazy atmosphere, with smoke bombs lit by the Greek ultras, and the beginning of an invasion of the field. « L’apocalypse »reacted Durant, who immortalized the scene.
The apocalypse pic.twitter.com/uYdeAS24Mw
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) May 4, 2022
It is certain that the fervor of the Greek, Turkish or Serbian fans has no equivalent in the NBA, where the spectacle offered is of a different type. To a user who imagined such scenes in the United States, Durant replied: “Bring a smoke bomb to an NBA game if you want, but you’ll end up at Rikers Island”dropped the Brooklyn star, in reference to the great New York prison.
Bring a flare to an nba game if you want and you might be in rikers https://t.co/ZK3UwReq5s
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) May 4, 2022