Speaking at the meeting at Sinan Erdem Sports Hall, the experienced head coach said, “We are starting a new season. Of course, our goals are big, our opponents are strong in every lane. This season, both in the Turkish League and EuroLeagueI think it will be a very big fight. At the beginning of the season, we went through a change in the team compared to previous years. We have 5 new players. I think we mounted them well in the preparation period in the team. On Sunday, we will open the league season with Galatasaray. Next Friday, we will open the EuroLeague season with Red Star. An intense marathon awaits us. Our goals are the same, we will look at the next step by step,” he said.
“IF WE FIND A PLAYER TO FILL LARKIN’S GAP WE CAN EVALUATE”
Providing information about the latest situation of Shane Larkin, who was injured in the national team, Ataman said, “It is not clear when Larkin will return. He has a checkup with the doctor who performed the surgery on October 15 in the USA. It has been exactly one month. Towards the end of November. “But we think that he will be able to play the match. We will evaluate with the board of directors on Monday whether we will make a transfer. We are currently looking at who is idle. If we find a player to fill Larkin’s vacancy, we can evaluate it. I will give my report to the management,” he said.
“WHO DOES GOOD IN EUROLEAGUE”
Commenting on the domestic rotation in the team, Ataman said, “EuroLeague and the Turkish League should be evaluated separately. Whoever is the best in EuroLeague plays. It doesn’t matter to us any Turkish player, French player, Serbian player. Turkish who played a serious role in this team in the past. There were players, like Sertaç Şanlı. If our local players, whom we have assigned in this style, also get good performance, we will also evaluate them in the EuroLeague. This season, Yiğitcan left, he was an important player in the rotation. On the other hand, we added Egehan. Compared to last year, we added Egehan. “I don’t think we have a surplus. There has been a change in position. We used our local players quite often last year in the Turkish League. We will use them again in the Turkish League. Whoever is the best in a team whose goal is to become a champion in the EuroLeague. We will evaluate that as well,” he said.
“OUR PERFORMANCE IS NOT ENOUGH FOR EUROLEAGUE”
Expressing that his technical team continued his camp activities during the pre-season while he was in the national team, the experienced coach said, “We have been working together as a team for many years. Anadolu EfesIt’s our 6th year in . We had worked with many friends before, including Yakup Onaykök. There are new players who have joined the team this season. Many arrived last week. Mbaye and Polonara arrived late due to the national team. I think the team had a good preparation period. Fenerbahce We played well at times in the match, but I cannot say that we are fully ready for the EuroLeague. We made serious mistakes. In time, the team will sit down. We had very serious practice matches. Playing high-level matches may have prepared us better. I don’t think the President’s Cup match is too much. Fenerbahçe is a newer team than us. “Our performance is not enough for the EuroLeague,” he said.
“WE WANT TO TAKE THE CHAMPIONSHIP AT EUROLEAGUE THAT NO CLUB SUCCESS FOR 3 YEARS IN A CONSEQUENCE”
Ataman said, “We are starting with big goals, as we did last season,” and gave the following statements:
“Especially this season, there has been a lot of activity in the EuroLeague. The teams have seriously overhauled their rosters. We are a team that is the target of all teams. We also made some important changes related to the last season. The management made serious sacrifices. We brought Micic and Larkin to the team. We managed to keep it. We transferred important players for the EuroLeague such as Clyburn, Zizic and Polonara. We got Mbaye, one of our favorite players in the Turkish League. It is obvious that there will be a great competition. The most important thing for us to do is we played badly in the EuroLeague last season. “We started off, we barely recovered. We want to start this season well. The absence of Larkin is a disadvantage, but we will not see it as an excuse. We want to win the title of European basketball, the EuroLeague 3 years in a row, which no club has been able to achieve.”
“RIGHT NOW, I’M ONLY CONCENTRATING ON ANADOLU EFES”
When asked whether there is a problem in managing Anadolu Efes with the national team at the same time. Ergin Ataman“I haven’t seen a problem so far. Anadolu Efes didn’t have any matches in the summer period, we had already completed the transfers. We had a good period in preparation for the beginning of the season as the technical staff worked together for years. The defeat annoyed me a lot. I was very low in morale for the first week. The day after the France match, I joined Efes’ camp right away to forget the France match. Right now, I’m concentrating only on Anadolu Efes. The national team has window matches in November. All the players are in their own teams, so am I. Of course, when the time comes, I will concentrate on the national team again with my players.”
“IT IS NOT TOO HARD TO RESOLVE”
After the contention process between FIBA and EuroLeague, the experienced coach evaluated FIBA’s take a step regarding the national team window matches in the past days, saying, “FIBA has had an approach here, and I got the news yesterday. If he changes the Friday games to Wednesday-Thursday, at least the games will not overlap. In my opinion, a positive development, a step has been taken years later. Clearer steps can also be taken. It is not difficult to resolve this. Of course, the national teams are also very important here. World Cup The last four matches in the qualifiers were reached. A very critical juncture. In that respect, I find this approach of FIBA positive. If only the EuroLeague would reschedule the games to Tuesday-Wednesday, everyone would be relieved during the national break. “I see it as a positive development,” he said.
“THE FANS GIVE US STRENGTH”
Underlining that Anadolu Efes fans create a synergy for the team, Ataman said, “The synergy is more important than pressure. All the last 8-9 games played in the EuroLeague last season were sold out at Sinan Erdem. I think this will be the case from the first game this season. Anadolu Efes is a team that is followed not only by its own fans, but also by people who love sports and basketball in Turkey. As the EuroLeague champion of the last 2 seasons. There has been a very serious atmosphere especially in EuroLeague matches in recent years. Everyone who came here enjoyed it. Sometimes we lose matches. “There will be, too, but we want to see that the fans who come here both have fun and create synergy in the spirit of fair-play. I can say that the fans give us strength.”
“WE MADE THESE TRANSFERS TO GAIN DIVERSITY IN ATTACK”
Ergin Ataman, who stated that they made changes in their squads during the transfer period in order to create offensive diversity in the navy blue-white team, said, “We made these transfers to gain some offensive diversity. A very serious man change defense started in the teams. For him, it was more of a 5 vs 5, “We saw that we need to diversify our half-court game. We need to better share the space, the players need to get used to it more. I think our squad is more capable, wider and better in terms of attacking diversity this season,” he said.
GALATASARAY MATCH COMMENT: NOT FAVORITE IN THIS TYPE OF MATCHES
Referring to the Galatasaray match they will play on Sunday, the experienced coach said, “Galatasaray has put a lot of pressure on us last season. The series that started exactly two days after returning from the EuroLeague championship in the semi-final series and extended to 5 challenged us seriously. Galatasaray was a good team, but they also had a serious squad. “I can’t quite predict what kind of game it will be from that point of view. I will start the analysis of Galatasaray tonight, but it will definitely be a good game. A derby match. Both teams will of course want to start the league by winning. There are no favorites in this type of match. We are also good.” Of course, we want to prepare and start with a win,” he said.
“WE NEED TO HELP OUR PLAYERS”
Noting that many players, especially Cedi Osman, were unfairly criticized after Turkey’s match against France in the 2022 European Basketball Championship Round of 16, Ergin Ataman said:
“After the France game, I did not speak for a long time. There was a very serious criticism and attrition in the public, especially on some of our players, especially on Cedi Osman. All our players, who served in the National Team, put up a great fight during the EuroBasket. The most important part of our team. part of Larkin’s hand was seriously injured in the first match, he played injured in the remaining 4 matches in Georgia, and despite the fact that he could not play in the France match as a result of the MR taken in the Spain match, the struggle of our team against a finalist team like France, the character, I think, is the character of all Turkish sports fans. He was a character he should be proud of. We achieved this as a whole team. Cedi Osman’s missing 2 foul shots in the half of the match is something that can happen to anyone. 2 days later, Italy’s best player Simone Fontecchio also missed 2 fouls and removed Italy from a medal You cannot tie the ball to the player if there is a turnover while the ball is being moved off the side, this is why It is a technical team. I think we managed the France game very well technically. Nobody thought that the Turkish National Team would beat France, we were very close to that. We all made a mistake in the last seconds of the match, maybe those mistakes made us lose the medal, the championship, which we didn’t believe in anyone. They worked hard for the success of the Turkish National Team, especially Cedi Osman, throughout the tournament and throughout the camp. We have no right to defame any of our players in this way. We have to protect our players. From the first match, our players are starting to be criticized. We need to create a synergy. We can’t get anywhere with negative thinking. We have a Turkish basketball team with an average age of 24. I think this team will reach a medal in the next 2025 European Championships.”
Ergin Ataman, lastly, was asked whether the posts made by the families of the players on social media caused a stir or not, and said, “It’s getting hot because you don’t follow this team as the press, you’re not with this team. But magazine the press reports the slightest evaluation. How many people were there in the France match? Who was there? From now on, call the tabloid press, not the sports press,” he concluded.
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