FIBA investigating after court conditions in European U18 game led to protest - ESPN

A FIBA U18 European Championship game in Nis, Serbia, ended in controversy Saturday as members of the Polish and Turkish junior national teams refused to compete for the final five minutes of their game in protest of playing conditions, an unprecedented event at the national team level and one FIBA says it is investigating.

Heavy rains produced extreme humidity in an already sweltering Mika Antic elementary school gym with little to no air conditioning, creating a dangerous environment that caused injuries to several participants, resulting in the players' decision to not meaningfully compete for the final minutes of the contest.

Early in the third quarter, Turkish guard Yagiz Aksu slipped and suffered a groin injury while casually bringing the ball up the court, causing him to collapse in pain, miss the remainder of the game and knocking him out of his team's subsequent contest Sunday.

With five minutes remaining, Polish power forward Jakub Szumert lost his balance pursuing a loose ball on the wet court and landed violently on his chest, rolling over several times in pain. While making his way to his team's bench, he fainted and lost consciousness and was later rushed in an ambulance to a local hospital where he spent the night, «per protocol/precaution since he is in a foreign country,» according to FIBA.

Players began to shake hands following the incident, anticipating the game would be called, but referees and officials elected to continue the contest. Players were visibly upset with the situation. Instead of continuing to compete, the two teams passively moved the ball back around the 3-point line to teammates and opponents while incurring multiple shot clock violations and intentional turnovers to avoid the risk of