Rick Pitino Is Sick Of Fans Smoking And Setting Off Flares At His Games, Rick Pitino Forgets He's In Greece

“I think all this stuff with shooting flares — somebody is going to get burned and somebody is going to get hurt — to me, I think it’s nonsense,” the former Kentucky and Boston Celtics coach said. “I think the fans should pay attention to the team’s players and try to get them to play better.”

But you’re in an arena, and 10,000 are smoking and the players are choking. So, sooner or later, you’ve got to say: ‘Hey, man, we’re at an athletic event and I’m going to discipline myself and we’ll wait until halftime. And I’m going to go out and blow my brains out with cigarettes.’ That’s your option. But not when there are athletes and there are little kids who want to come to the game. … But they don’t care about young people and the athletes who are breathing it in.”

Hey, Rick. Just a real quick remind here. You’re in Greece, man. You know what happens over there? Let’s look at a few headlines:

This isn’t a surprise, man. You had to know what you were getting into when you went over to Greece. It’s what makes European basketball so goddamn outrageous. You never know what you’re going to see when you turn on a game. You never know what sort of riot can occur. Hell look at this

Imagine playing in this environment? I mean we hear things about crazy college hoops venues and rightfully so. But I don’t see fucking fireworks going off. I don’t see that chanting. I have no idea what they are saying but I’m pretty sure it would make me piss down my leg immediately.

And the smoking? That’s just normal in Europe. Damon Stoudamire recently talked about Arvydas Sabonis smoking during halftime. Toughen up, Rick.