In what seems to be an all too familiar occurrence in Europe, a fan put a players safety in jeopardy. Prior to the Greek Cup Final match between Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, Kyle Hines, who played college ball at UNC Greensboro, was hit in the head by a flare thrown by a fan. According to reports, Kyle had some of his hair burned, but still played in the game. The incident caused the game to also be delayed, but apparently that was the least of the worries.
According to Eurosport things only got worse following the warm-ups incident:
But with Panathinaikos 26-17 ahead 13 minutes into the Athens derby encounter, the match referee ordered the players off the court after fans proceeded to fire flares at each other and rip up seats before spilling on to the court to fight running battles with each other and police.
After a 30-minute delay while authorities got the situation under control, organizers announced that the stadium would be completely cleared out and that the match would continue in front of Hellenic Basketball Federation (ESAKE) officials, club officials, journalists and security staff.
At 20:00 local time both teams reappeared to begin their warm-up for the game to restart, 55 minutes after they were ordered into the dressing rooms.
You can see video of both incidents below:
