Sensitive souls refrain. The 17th day of the Euroleague should have, as often, been a huge party on Thursday evening in the boiling Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, especially in view of Panathinaikos’ demonstration against Vitoria Baskonia (104-69). Yes, but only one image will remain of this large Greek victory: the terrible injury to French interior Pana Mathias Lessort (10 points and 6 rebounds in 16 minutes), at the start of the 3rd quarter.
After intercepting a ball in the air, the excellent joker of the Blues during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games landed very badly on his left leg. The first medical diagnosis is clear: leg fracture for the winner of the last Euroleague. The match was interrupted for around ten minutes, until the injured man of the evening came out on one leg, under the traumatized gaze of the Pana players, but also of their opponents.
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An adversary’s prayer to accompany Lessort
At the end of the meeting, we even saw the two teams come together in honor of Mathias Lessort, with a prayer launched by the American leader of Baskonia Markus Howard. In the process, the former Elan Chalon player gave his news on his Instagram account: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Thank you for all the messages and prayers, I love you all! I will come back stronger than ever.”
We wish all the bad things to Mathias Lessort, who will be missed by the French team at the next meeting in February, and perhaps unfortunately also during Euro 2025 next summer. Leaving the Olympic Indoor Hall in an ambulance alongside his son, he in any case provoked surprising reactions from the Greek spectators.
“We didn’t find enough ambulances”
According to Panathinaikos coach Ergin Ataman, the images of the French pivot’s screams of pain were very poorly received by the public. “I have seen a lot of injuries in my 35-year career but this is the first time I have seen any kind of shock in the stands,” said the Turkish coach on Thursday evening. I was told that nine people had heart attacks. We couldn’t find enough ambulances to take everyone to the hospital. »
Our file on the French basketball team
If it was a question of discomfort and not of “heart attacks” (“maybe someone had a small heart attack anyway” insisted Ataman at a press conference), that says a lot about the passion that drives the Greek supporters, and on the love they have for Mathias Lessort. He must undergo an MRI this Friday to determine the precise severity of his injury and the duration of his unavailability.
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