{"id":492251,"date":"2026-04-10T16:17:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=492251"},"modified":"2026-04-10T16:17:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:17:53","slug":"mario-hezonja-sparks-euroleague-fan-debate-then-defends-real-madrid-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/mario-hezonja-sparks-euroleague-fan-debate-then-defends-real-madrid-crowd\/","title":{"rendered":"Mario Hezonja sparks EuroLeague fan debate, then defends Real Madrid crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong data-start=\"1769\" data-end=\"1786\">Mario Hezonja<\/strong> sparked debate on social media after writing that in the recent games against <strong data-start=\"1865\" data-end=\"1879\">Olympiacos<\/strong> and <strong data-start=\"1884\" data-end=\"1898\">Fenerbahce<\/strong> he noticed \u201ca lot of empty seats\u201d and atmospheres that were not as strong as they were 10 years ago. The <strong data-start=\"2004\" data-end=\"2019\">Real Madrid<\/strong> forward\u2019s post quickly drew strong reactions from fans and media across Europe.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">These last 2 games against top fan bases Olympiacos and Fenerbah\u00e7e I notice a lot of empty seats and the atmospheres are not as good as they used to be 10 years ago when we played against them. Something has changed. Thoughts?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mario Hezonja (@mariohezonja) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mariohezonja\/status\/2042373528289411208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 9, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Later, replying to a user who criticized Madrid\u2019s arena, Hezonja defended his own crowd, saying that in his building \u201cpeople always come\u201d after work to support the club. That exchange pushed the conversation even further, turning it into a wider discussion about attendance, atmosphere and identity in Europe\u2019s biggest basketball venues.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"es\">En mi pabell\u00f3n SIEMPRE viene la gente despu\u00e9s de su d\u00eda y trabajo para APOYAR su club que gana y disfrutar de su dinero invertido(nuestra parte). Que no somos como los otros? Tampoco lo necesitamos ser. Lamentable es opinar tonter\u00edas aqu\u00ed sin saber absolutamente nada. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pGuv1ZMJEn\">https:\/\/t.co\/pGuv1ZMJEn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mario Hezonja (@mariohezonja) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mariohezonja\/status\/2042555430241443939?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 10, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>His comments come at a time when fan engagement in the <strong data-start=\"2571\" data-end=\"2585\">EuroLeague<\/strong> is again a major talking point. In the end, Hezonja\u2019s words mixed criticism with pride and reignited a sensitive conversation around Europe\u2019s top fan bases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mario Hezonja stirred discussion with a post about the atmospheres against Olympiacos and Fenerbahce<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":492250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[305,199,249],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-492251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acb","category-euroleague","category-greece"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/04\/Mario-Hezonja-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492251"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=492251"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=492251"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=492251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}