A EuroCup basketball game in Turkey between Israeli team Bnei Hasharon and a Turkish team was suspended after violent fans started making both verbal and physical threats towards the players on the Israeli team.
Two American players on the team are Shawn James, who attended Duquesne University and Sean Munson, who attended Wagner.
The Bnei team players had to flee under police protection to their locker room, and have had to stay there for a length of time for their own safety as uncivilized, violent fans took political anger and applied it towards innocent basketball players who are simply trying to engage in friendly sports competition.
The team from Turkey also left for their locker room, to avoid getting caught in any violence.
UPDATE: My source who is at the game tells me the players are now safe and back at their hotel.
UPDATE: Sean S. Munson exclusively to InsideHoops.com: “We are all good and safe. We are in the hotel right now with police out side protecting us… We were in the locker room for 3 hours waiting for the police escort to clear the street back to our hotel. They were throwing coins, pens, lighters, and one shoe during the warmups. We finished the introduction of players and shook the other team’s hands and then it got quiet in the gym for about a minute. Then the crowd rushed the court. The game was seconds from starting.”
–InsideHoops.com editor Jeff Lenchiner
