France's Nicolas Batum— whose basketball team was about to be eliminated from Olympic play— threw a flagrant fist into the groin of Spain's Juan Carlos Navarro's after France's Ronny Turiaf sent Rudy Fernandez into the sidelines with hard foul in the final minutes of play.
The France team believed that Spain lost on purpose to Brazil the other night speculating that they dumped the game to keep Spain on the opposite side of the bracket from the U.S..
Spain has not lost an Olympic game to anyone but the U.S. since 2000 and the France squad was insulted that it may have been considered the lesser team.
"I wanted to give them a good reason to flop," Batum said after the nut shot.
If you can't hit your shots, you might as well hit 'em where it hurts suddenly seems to be the mantra of these games.
The France team believed that Spain lost on purpose to Brazil the other night speculating that they dumped the game to keep Spain on the opposite side of the bracket from the U.S..
Spain has not lost an Olympic game to anyone but the U.S. since 2000 and the France squad was insulted that it may have been considered the lesser team.
"I wanted to give them a good reason to flop," Batum said after the nut shot.
If you can't hit your shots, you might as well hit 'em where it hurts suddenly seems to be the mantra of these games.
The players from both teams had to be separated after Batum's low blow. Navarro made one of his free throws after the foul and Spain went on a 12-0 run before the frustrated French team scored again.
Marc Gasol finished the game with 14 points, but it was defense that won the game for the usually high-octane Spain team.
The Spanish kept hopes alive for the gold-medal rematch against the Americans— who beat them 118-107 in Beijing in 2008.
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