Spanish National Team Allegedly “Destroys” Hotel after Finals Loss to USA

Robert Deutsch-US PRESSWIRE

It appears the Spanish men’s national basketball team might just be a bunch of sore losers.

According to the Guardian (a British newspaper), Team Spain checked into London hotel in the Olympic village and allegedly destroyed a few of their rooms after their 107-100 loss to Team USA in the Gold Medal round of the Summer Games, costing over $14,000 in damages.

“The leaving parties are usually a regular thing when players finish a tournament,” a source sited from the news site.  “After living together for six weeks, preparing and competing, they have it.  But it has never led to this.”

The Spanish Basketball Federation has denied all indications that there was such a claim, nor has it received any “official” complaint regarding the situation.  Still, the federation will “begin a process … to clear up the facts regarding the incidents attributed to the selection’s players.”

The federation has said the team, which highlights such NBA stars as Pau and Marc Gasol, has always shown the utmost of respect for the games and their value of sportsmanship.  It is hard to see the usually even-tempered Gasol brothers tossing chairs and ripping bed sheets after the hundreds of games they’ve lost over their career in the NBA.  If you’d like to point fingers, I’d start with Rudy Fernandez, swingman for the Denver Nuggets.  He can be a real hot-head at times.

Coincidentally, it hasn’t been the first incidence of hooliganism by the Spanish basketball team.

In 2008, both the men’s and women’s Spanish teams were in hot water for an advertisement that showed them stretching their eyelids to look more like Chinese players in a sponsored deal by a company named Seur.  As you might expect, the incident didn’t sit right with the public eye.

The Spanish team finished with the silver medal, thanks in large part to the Gasol brothers, who combined for 28 points.  It was, however, the closest Olympic final since the Americas beat the Soviet Union 51-50 over 40 years ago.