Braves Guard Patrick Gameli in action at the 2017 Africa Club Championship

Braves of Customs will compete in the best of three games against Adenta Leopards to decide the team that wins the 2019 Accra Basketball League (ABL) Men’s Division I.

The team beat close rival Tema Youth 87-72 to qualify to the finals but it turned out to be an unpleasant experience for fans at the Lebanon House Court in Tudu earlier today.

Midway through the second quarter, Braves veteran Guard Patrick Gameli walked off the court and slapped a fan twice in the face for what Gameli deemed as verbal abuse from the fan.

Based on a first person report basis, the fan who declined to mention his name or grant an interview to Basketballghana.com uttered words that were far from vulgar or overly abusive .

After a long deliberation, Gameli was ejected from the game but the incident overshadowed what was turning out to be an interesting game between the two rival sides.

It should be noted Gameli was involved in an on court physical altercation with then Ghana Fire Service Small Forward Farahat Tamimu a couple of seasons ago.

In the aftermath of the pitiful and utterly ghastly incident, fans were indifferent and the ambience changed to a dull nonchalant one devoid of the excitement that usually characterizes this big game.

Tema Youth v Braves (yellow)
Braves Guard Gameli

Further worsening the plight of fans, one military personnel at the venue verbally threatened vociferous fan “Majoor” on the sidelines after the latter continued to voice his displeasure about the aforementioned incident.

The military personnel ordered Majoor to keep his mouth shut; this and other bully tactics by the personnel at the venue had several members located at midcourt leave the court long before the end of the game.

Braves v Pythons in the 2019 Basketball Africa League qualifiers Photo Courtesy: FIBA.com

By Yaw Adjei-Mintah

@YawMintYM on Twitter

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