{"id":795767,"date":"2026-07-12T16:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T16:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795767\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T16:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T16:04:10","slug":"fournier-on-falls-transfer-to-panathinaikos-seeing-him-now-in-green-seems-strange-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795767\/","title":{"rendered":"Fournier on Fall’s transfer to Panathinaikos: “Seeing him now in Green seems strange to me”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Aris Barkas\/ barkas@eurohoops.net<\/a><\/p>\n

In a long interview with \u201cUpset Media\u201d, Evan Fournier opened up about a season to remember with Olympiacos<\/a>, addressing many topics, including his close friend Moustapha Fall\u2019s move from Olympiacos to Panathinaikos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat was going on\u201d,\u00a0 said Fournier on the matter, having an insight into a very hard decision.<\/p>\n

As Fournier explained: \u201cBut I want you to know that it was very difficult for him. I had spoken to him, and he told me that it took him a week to get used to the idea of \u200b\u200bthe transfer. Even for me, seeing him now in Green seems strange to me. And since he spent five years at Olympiacos<\/a>, it must still seem strange now. He made a choice for his family. Obviously, it is a financial choice. It is not a choice that I can judge\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Fall wanted to stay with Olympiacos<\/a>, if the team also wanted him, Fournier added: \u201cHis goal was also to play, and because we have a lot of bigs\u2026 Look, some people can handle such a change, and others can\u2019t. I hope everything goes well for Mous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fournier also talked about his infamous gesture in the 2025 Greek League Finals,<\/a>\u00a0admitting that he lost control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I love casinos\u201d, he said jockingly about his hand gesture before addressing the issue.<\/p>\n

As he added about Olympiacos<\/a> and Panathinaikos<\/a>: \u201cThis rivalry is incredible. There\u2019s a toxic environment between the two teams, and it\u2019s astounding, frankly. And it\u2019s a pity because Greek basketball suffers from this. The finals are incredible, and they turned out to be a legal battle, a fight on the court, pressure on the referees, and some of their houses were vandalized. That should be a showcase for Greek basketball, and it\u2019s turned into a complete mess\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Fournier admitted that there\u2019s a lot of bad blood between the two sides: \u201cI don\u2019t know where it started. They have hated each other for so long that you don\u2019t really know the problem. There\u2019s a long history that I don\u2019t know. But clearly, their owner (ed.note: Panathinaikos<\/a> owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos) creates an atmosphere that is not good. It\u2019s all about provocations, it\u2019s about insults, and basically, that\u2019s it. The series starts, and everyone is fired up. The fans come and ask us to win, and it\u2019s not about basketball; they want to crush the other team. It goes beyond basketball\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On a personal note, he elaborated: \u201cWhen I made this gesture, my wife was shocked; she told me that she had never seen me like this. And it\u2019s true. To put things into context, it\u2019s you against 20.000 persons who are insulting you, and this is part of the game. And then, there\u2019s a really big mistake against me, and I have lost it. I wanted to fight someone, and I saw the courtside fans who were like, \u201cCome on, let\u2019s fight\u201d.\u00a0 So a fuse went off, and I did what I did. And that happened again with Tyrique Jones. And for me, that\u2019s the responsibility of those who are in charge of the organization. When two players are fired up like this, and they are ready to fight, 90% of the time, they mean it, because they are full of adrenaline at that moment. You have to separate them. You must have someone supervising them. If they meet again, you don\u2019t know what may happen. And unfortunately that happened\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Giannakopoulos responds to Fournier<\/p>\n

Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos responded to Fournier\u2019s comments through a series of Instagram Stories, disputing several of the Olympiacos guard\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n

Reacting to Fournier\u2019s description of the Eternal Derby finals as \u201ca legal battle\u201d that ended up in courtrooms, Giannakopoulos replied:<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t they tell you who keeps going to court and filing complaints, and who actually plays on the court? Learn that first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing Fournier\u2019s reference to pressure on referees and the vandalism of some officials\u2019 homes, Giannakopoulos said:<\/p>\n

\u201cReally? Go look it up. Read about it. Go on the internet and see who vandalizes houses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fournier also described the rivalry as something that \u201cshould be a showcase for Greek basketball\u201d but had instead become \u201ca complete mess.\u201d Giannakopoulos answered:<\/p>\n

\u201cHow could it not become chaos when there are players doing what you did?\u201d he said, referring to Fournier\u2019s obscene gesture during the 2025 Greek League Finals. \u201cAnd they don\u2019t even get punished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to Fournier\u2019s admission that he did not know how the rivalry had started, Giannakopoulos added:<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did it start? Go back and learn how it started. It began when some people imagined they would build dynasties\u2026 We already talked about that. Dynasty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, after Fournier said the two clubs had hated each other for so long that \u201cyou don\u2019t really know the problem\u201d and admitted he was unfamiliar with the rivalry\u2019s history, Giannakopoulos concluded:<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I hate them? I laugh. I don\u2019t hate anyone.\u00a0Well, learn the history first, my friend, and then come and talk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Aris Barkas\/ barkas@eurohoops.net In a long interview with \u201cUpset Media\u201d, Evan Fournier opened up about a season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-795767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}