Olympic Spillage #10: A violent coach, a basketball Nazi and sideburn transplants

A basketball coach gets violent, a Nazi shows up in London and the Bradley Wiggins love-in goes one step too far.

Don’t mess with the Tunisian basketball coach

Playing the United States men’s basketball team at the Olympics is one of the toughest assignments you can get. Their team is packed with the cream of the NBA so you are probably on a hiding to nothing trying to stop them.

Tunisia were the latest side to face the might of the US and in their recent game they stayed with the super stars for the first quarter before the US eventually won by a very comfortable margin of 110-63.

But Tunisia’s coach Adel Tlatli was not taking defeat lying down and during one time out he got so frustrated with one team member that he slapped him. Hard. It didn’t work, and we don’t advocate violence as a solution, but it was certainly a strange thing to do.

Nazi at the basketball

The basketball arena seems to be the home of weirdness in London but this is a bit more serious than the previous story. During the game between Nigeria and Lithuania one Lithiuanian fan was arrested for giving the Nazi salute during the game.

The Guardian reports that Petras Lescinskas, a 36-year-old accountant from Lithuania, was arrested and found guilty of an aggravated racial offence and fined £2,500.

The court prosecution said that Lescinskas was seen to make a Nazi salute while he added to this by placing his finger across his lips. Nice.

His defence was that it was common practice in his country to celebrate this way. The court didn’t buy it, calling his behaviour ‘despicable’. We couldn't agree more.

Sideburn surgery?

Bradley Wiggins is probably the most famous, and popular, man in Great Britain right now. Seven Olympic medals, including a gold yesterday, on top of his Tour de France success makes the Londoner the unbackable favourite to be voted the Sports Personality of the Year across the water.

But even with all that popularity, we do wonder about this story in the London Evening Standard which claims that men are getting transplants so they can recreate Wiggins' famous sideburns.

Hair transplant surgeon Asim Shahmalak tells the paper: “Lads want to look like their sporting idols but sometimes nature needs a bit of a helping hand.

“Many men have patchy beards and can’t grow a fine pair of mutton chops like Bradley Wiggins.

“We have noticed the Wiggo effect at the clinic ever since Bradley started getting mega popular – and particularly in the last month with the Tour de France and Olympics. We expect lots more now he has won Olympic gold.”

We dearly hope this isn’t true.