Spanish media criticize Sreten Radović after the EuroLeague final over decisions in the closing stages
Croatian basketball referee Sreten Radović found himself at the center of discussion after the EuroLeague final in Athens, in which Olympiacos defeated Real Madrid 92:85 on May 24, 2026, and won its fourth European championship title. According to the official EuroLeague game sheet, the game was played at Telekom Center Athens, and the officiating trio consisted of Sreten Radović, Robert Lottermoser and Olegs Latiševs. Real Madrid thus remained without its 12th title in Europe’s elite club competition, while Olympiacos lifted European basketball’s most important trophy again for the first time since 2013.
After the game, the discussion was not limited only to the sporting outcome. Spanish reports particularly emphasized the officiating in the final minutes and several decisions that, according to claims by some media outlets there, went against Real Madrid. The most attention was drawn by the foul that Radović called on Facundo Campazzo against Thomas Walkup with the score at 82:80 for Olympiacos, one minute and 22 seconds before the end. According to the chronology of the game published by El País, after that decision Walkup made both free throws, increasing the Greek team’s lead to four points in the most sensitive part of the contest.
Three decisions that caused the strongest reactions
In some Spanish and regional media after the final, three refereeing decisions from the closing stages were singled out and described as controversial. The first was the aforementioned foul by Campazzo on Walkup, which was called at a moment when Real Madrid had the chance, with a defensive stop, to get an attack for an equalizer or a turnaround. The second concerned the battle under the rim and decisions on contacts in the possessions that preceded Olympiacos’s breakaway. The third concerned the criterion in the very finish, when free throws followed one after another on both sides, but Spanish commentators assessed that Real did not receive the same treatment in key contacts.
It is important to stress that these assessments represent media interpretations and reactions after a defeat, not an official EuroLeague conclusion. According to the information available as of May 25, 2026, EuroLeague had not published a separate statement either disputing or confirming the claims about mistakes by the officiating trio in the closing stages of the final. The official game sheet records decisions, fouls, free throws and the flow of the score, but it does not offer a public explanation of individual refereeing judgments. For that reason, the discussion has so far remained within the sphere of media analyses, fan reactions and expert comments on the officiating criterion.
The controversial finish gained additional weight because the game entered the final two minutes completely open. El País stated in its report that the score was 80:80 a little more than a minute before the end, after which Real Madrid fell into a series of mistakes, and Olympiacos made the key run. The official chronology of the game states that after Campazzo’s foul, Walkup made two free throws, then Mario Hezonja missed a three-pointer, and Evan Fournier increased the lead with new free throws. Real came back to within one possession, but Andrés Feliz missed a three-pointer 11 seconds before the end that could have tied the score.
Olympiacos turned the game around after Real’s strong start
The final had several major swings in the score, which further strengthened the impression of a dramatic evening. According to the El País report, Real Madrid opened the game very firmly and had a 12-point lead in the first half. The first quarter ended with the Madrid team leading 26:19, and Olympiacos then had to stop the opponent’s rhythm and look for solutions against an aggressive defense. The Greek team, led by Georgios Bartzokas, raised the intensity in the second quarter and used its advantage in the paint, especially because Real entered the final without important big men.
At halftime Olympiacos led 46:44, but Real Madrid did not collapse. Sergio Scariolo’s team found its rhythm again in the third quarter and entered the final ten minutes with a 65:61 lead. That meant Real, despite injury problems and a shortened rotation, had put itself in a position to fight for the title until the very end. However, in the final quarter Olympiacos found more attacking solutions, and official data and reports record that the key points in the closing stages were delivered by Evan Fournier, Thomas Walkup, Alec Peters and Tyrique Jones.
According to EuroLeague’s official website, Fournier finished the game with 20 points and four assists, while Mario Hezonja scored 19 points for Real Madrid. Reports from Athens also highlighted the role of Trey Lyles, who carried Real’s offense and kept the Madrid team in the game in the closing stages. Still, Olympiacos had more depth and physical strength in the decisive moments, particularly in the paint, which Spanish media also cited as one of the key sporting reasons for the defeat. The discussion about officiating therefore intertwined with an analysis of Real’s real problems, as the team played the final in unfavorable personnel circumstances.
Real without three important interior players
One of the reasons why Real’s defeat gained a broader context was injuries. AS reported after the final that Real Madrid went through the closing stage of the season without Edy Tavares, Alex Len and Usman Garuba, that is, without three important players in the interior line. The same outlet stated that Tavares, for years one of the most important centers in Europe, was sidelined because of a knee problem, while Len had a foot injury. Garuba was injured in the semifinal against Valencia, and on May 25 Real Madrid announced that medical examinations had confirmed a complete rupture of the Achilles tendon in his left leg.
That situation significantly changed the balance in the final. In its analysis, AS stated that Olympiacos would have been among the biggest favorites even with full rosters, but that the absence of Real’s centers further opened space for the Greek team. Olympiacos had a strong interior rotation throughout the season, and in the final that advantage came to the fore in rebounding, contact and pressure toward the rim. Because of that, Real had to play with unusual solutions, and Scariolo tried to compensate for the lack of height with the aggressiveness of his perimeter players and outside shooting.
That is precisely why some Spanish analyses emphasize that two stories merged into one. On one hand, Real had objective roster problems, especially against an opponent that is physically dominant and was playing in an almost home atmosphere in Athens. On the other hand, the closing stage in which several refereeing decisions changed the rhythm of the game opened space for accusations that the Madrid team did not get the chance to finish the contest under an equal criterion. Such a combination of sporting weaknesses and controversial moments often creates the fiercest reactions, especially in finals in which one or two possessions can change the history of the competition.
Radović as an experienced EuroLeague referee under a special microscope
Sreten Radović is not an unknown name in European basketball. He is an experienced Croatian referee who has officiated top-level games for years, and his appointment to the EuroLeague final in itself shows that the competition considers him one of its most reliable arbiters. According to the official game sheet of the final, Radović was one of the three referees of the game, alongside Lottermoser and Latiševs. Still, in public reactions after the contest, it was his name that was mentioned the most, primarily because of the decision on Campazzo’s contact with Walkup.
In the closing stages of major games, referees are regularly under special pressure because every decision has greater visibility than during earlier phases of the contest. Contact that in the first half might pass as part of the game’s rhythm becomes, in the final 90 seconds of a final, the subject of multiple slow-motion replays and analyses. In this case, the reactions were further amplified by Real’s history in the EuroLeague and the fact that the club was chasing its 12th title. Real Madrid is the most decorated club in the history of the competition, and the defeat in Athens meant it remained on 11 European titles.
Radović’s status in the discussion is therefore twofold. On one hand, he is a referee with long experience and EuroLeague’s trust for the biggest games. On the other, the closing stages of the final in Athens showed how thin the line is between professional authority and public criticism when a decision is made at the moment when the title is being decided. Spanish media base the sharpness of their criticism on the impression that several decisions went in the same direction, while the official data so far contain no confirmation that the officiating trio made a mistake.
What decided the final apart from refereeing decisions
Although reactions to the officiating took up a large part of the space after the game, the sporting flow of the final shows that Olympiacos also reached the title because of its own stability in key moments. According to EuroLeague’s official report, with the 92:85 victory the Greek club ended a 13-year wait and won the fourth title in its history. Georgios Bartzokas’s team managed to survive Real’s strong start, then take control in the second quarter and come back again after the Madrid side gained the advantage in the third period. Such resilience was one of Olympiacos’s main characteristics during the final tournament.
Real Madrid, according to Spanish reports, showed character in Athens, but did not manage to withstand the rhythm until the end. El País described that the team had a chance in the closing stages to bring the game back to the beginning, but three-point misses and the lost rhythm after 80:80 allowed Olympiacos to pull away. AS added in its analysis that Real had serious problems on the road during the season, citing a weak record away from its own arena as one of the signs that winning the EuroLeague under such circumstances was not a realistic expectation. That analysis does not diminish the controversies, but places them in the broader framework of a season in which Real often fluctuated.
The balance in the final quarter was particularly important. Real entered it with a four-point lead, but Olympiacos found more composure down the stretch. At 80:80, a run by the Greek club followed, driven by free throws from Walkup and Fournier and by Real’s misses. After that, the Madrid side threatened once more, but failed to hit the shot that would have taken the game into a more uncertain finish. Alec Peters confirmed the victory with free throws in the final seconds and set off Olympiacos’s celebration.
The discussion about the criterion will not disappear quickly
Defeats in finals almost always open questions about decisive details, and this case is particularly sensitive because it involves Real Madrid, the club with the greatest European basketball tradition. Spanish media emphasize the refereeing decisions, especially Radović’s whistle against Campazzo, while other reports give more space to injuries, the absence of interior play and Olympiacos’s quality. Both perspectives can exist simultaneously: one deals with concrete decisions in the closing stages, and the other with the overall reasons why Real did not manage to win the title.
For EuroLeague, this kind of discussion is a reminder of the importance of transparency in the most important games. In top-level competitions, the public increasingly seeks explanations of refereeing criteria, especially when the closing stages include several decisions that strongly affect the rhythm of the game. For referees, meanwhile, finals remain the hardest test because they are required to show consistency, courage and the ability to separate real contact from play under pressure at the same time. In Athens, that test ended with a great Olympiacos celebration, but also with an open discussion that will continue in Spanish sporting circles.
After the defeat, Real Madrid turns to the closing stage of the domestic season, but the impression from Athens will remain strong. The club was one step away from its 12th European title, had the lead in the final quarter and a shot to come back in the final seconds, but was left without the trophy. Olympiacos, on the other hand, won the title it had been waiting for since 2013 and confirmed a season in which it belonged to the very top of European basketball. Sreten Radović and the officiating trio will remain part of the story of that final, not because they were officially declared guilty, but because their decisions in the closing stages became the central topic after the game.
Sources:
- Euroleague Basketball – official game sheet of the Olympiacos Piraeus - Real Madrid game and data on referees, score and player statistics (link)
- Euroleague Basketball – official live blog and report on Olympiacos winning the title in the 2026 EuroLeague final (link)
- El País – chronology of the final, flow of the score and description of the closing stages of the game in Athens (link)
- AS – analysis of Real’s defeat, injury context and problems of the Madrid team during the season (link)
- AS – confirmation of Usman Garuba’s injury and medical context after the EuroLeague final (link)