Monaco held off Nanterre in the French league thanks to a late comeback. However, the reason Elie Okobo was ejected from the game didn't go down well with coach Vassilis Spanoulis, who bashed his player.
As AS Monaco were trailing by as many as 10 points (54-64) to Nanterre with eight minutes left to play in the French league Round 15 game, Vassilis Spanoulis decided he had had enough.
"You are uncoachable!" he lashed out on his players, who responded with a big comeback that allowed them to overcome Nanterre 81-73 when all was said and done.
However, what made Spanoulis even more furious was Elie Okobo's ejection.
The French international was sent off with an unsportsmanlike foul and a technical foul in the fourth quarter. The latter came as a result of showing referee Freddy Lepercq his middle finger, after the game official had just sanctioned the player with a flopping violation.
Sent back to the locker room for the last 210 seconds of the game, when the score was 70-71, Okobo could not see the final run of his teammates.
But Spanoulis was irritated, despite the positive outcome for Monaco.
"It is unacceptable," he said in remarks reported by the journalist Clement Bigois.
"Although he may be right about a few whistles, he must not do that! He's a role model for young people, he can't respond like that when he's pissed off," the Greek tactician noted.
"He understood that it was wrong, but it was too late. He has to control his emotions more. Elie must understand his mistake because he is a great player, a good guy in the group, a hard worker," Spanoulis concluded.
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