Hawks v Jets
Napier
Physicality is something Darko Cohadarevic had made handsome allowances for when he packed his bags in Macedonia to ply his trade in New Zealand this year.
Eight rounds into the Bartercard National Basketball League (NBL), Cohadarevic will be the first to admit he's had his share of "ups and downs" in coming to terms with how different things were going to be here when compared with the European leagues.
Nevertheless, what the HBS Bank Hawks import didn't contemplate was "dirty" play - to be more specific, the brand of basketball Dillon Boucher brings as player/co-coach of the Wellington Saints.
"Dillon is a dirty player and he just kept pushing Brian [Greene] in the back," Cohadarevic says of the retired New Zealand Breakers forward who claimed a three-peat of Australian National Basketball League titles earlier this year.
American import slasher Greene was banished from the court after he threw a ball at Boucher in the last quarter during the Hawks' losing NBL encounter against the Pero Cameron-coached Saints on Wednesday night in the capital city.
The referees also sent Boucher to the bench because he had grabbed Greene's throat in retaliation, prompting players from both camps to become emroiled in a scuffle before the game resumed.
"There's an unwritten rule that you don't play like that. If a team's better then they just deserve to win, so you don't play dirty like that," says Cohadarevic before the Hawks tip off at 7 tonight against the Manawatu Jets at the Pettigrew-Green Arena, Taradale, in round nine of the NBL.
While New Zealanders see Boucher as someone who muscles up when the going gets tough, he says the Saints veteran hasn't built a career on compiling points.
The middle son of artist/painter Nada and wood carving businessman Dzemail, Darko Cohadarevic learned his father's art from "the best wood carver in Serbia" from the age of 12.
But that finesse hasn't transcended to the basketball courts here, with Cohadarevic reduced to a "bricklayer", failing to find much traction with the rim and stumbling into foul trouble with some consistency.
Greene, on the other hand, has maintained his envious double-doubles with points and invaluable possession off the glass.
Just as the power forward/centre revealed Serbia doesn't give much to its inhabitants, he's discovered the NBL teams are equally frugal in the courts of contention.
Echoing the sentiments of coach Tab Baldwin, Cohadarevic says the refereeing standards here are substandard.
"Just because you are a referee for 20 years doesn't mean you have experience."
Against the Otago Nuggets, he points out, he had to go off the court to attend to a bloody nose but the whistleblowers didn't do anything.
"Boucher elbowed me on the head and the referees made no call.
"I touch someone on the hand and they call it a foul. It's just ridiculous and it makes no sense."
Cohadarevic accepts he has to make some adjustments and adapt but he's adamant those tweaks won't evolve to dirty play in the physicality stakes.
It still bamboozles the Hawks why they are found wanting when it comes to rebounding but against the Saints Cohadarevic reckons they couldn't afford to send three or four players to the board because of Lindsay Tait and the Saints' ability to execute fast breaks.
Tonight the Hawks have put aside thoughts of making the playoffs at the PG Arena but will simply focus on eking out wins.
Franchise general manager Paul Trass said last night they had paid $1000 to lodge an appeal on Greene's suspension immediately after the Saints' game but had not heard from the NBL board. "If we don't hear from them then Brian is going to play tomorrow night," Trass said, adding the Hawks weren't convinced flicking a ball to Boucher warranted a sending off let alone a match suspension, considering "Dillon grabbed his throat and yanked his threads".
"We've ignored what's happened to Dillon," Trass said, adding injured Everard Bartlett had a 10 per cent chance of playing tonight.
The Jets lost 110-102 to Otago last night in Palmerston North.