Mike James shouted at Saša Obradović’s time-out
Serbian expert Saša Obradović clashed at his Monaco match with the team’s biggest star, Mother James. While Oradović called a time-out and sat calmly with the scoreboard in his lap, the angry American shouted, in a tone that created an extremely unpleasant situation. It seemed as if James was yelling at Obradovic, who is known as a strict and authoritative coach, but in this case he was unexpectedly cold and calm.
“Barcelona deservedly won. I am satisfied with how we defended in the second half. I think we depend on ourselves at this point. What happened with Mike James at the end of the game was internalr”, said Obradović after the game in which his Monaco lost to Barcelona 70:80. James finished the match with 14 points and has long gained a reputation as a player who is difficult to coach. Between the lines, Obradović also said this after the defeat against Partizan in Stark Arena this season (80:100).
After James shot 2/12 from the field in that match and had several huge misses, reporters asked Obradovic to comment on his poor game that he endured all evening, but The Serb just laughed sourly. “Eh, if you only knew… Those are things that we all know who are inside, some things are not easy to accept, especially from the coaching side and you have to accept something to be there,” Obradović said in Stark Arena.
The American and the Serb this time had a public disagreement and it will probably be resolved within the club, like many similar things, but once again Obradović showed that with James in the squad, he still does not have complete control over the team. At least not the way he was used to during his coaching career and certainly not over all the players.
However, despite that, Monaco is still “pushing” firmly through the Euroleague season this season and is currently in fifth place, with a score of 15-10 and with two points more than Partizan, which is sixth and at the head of the group of five teams with the same score. It also includes Baskonia, Maccabi, Valencia and Žalgiris.