Head Coach of A National Basketball Team Ergin Atamanin an interview with Vole Galatasaray made important statements about
Here are Ergin Ataman’s statements:
We are enjoying ourselves very well, our preparations for the European Championship continue intensively. World Cup There will also be qualifying matches. 3 weeks intense National team will be the period. We will play 10-12 matches. We did not use some of our players in the Great Britain matches. That process went well for us. We passed without any accident, with a clear victory. We have a good squad and we laid the foundation for the basketball that this squad will play.
As you know, the teams now play with the full squad in the qualifying matches we will play against Latvia and Serbia. A very tough match series awaits us, but we are also a good team. This season Anadolu EfesWe played 85 official matches. If we think that this team will play in the final, for example, Larkin will have played 100 games. We now prepare trainings such as NBA training in the camps and ensure that the players enjoy the game.
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“My DREAM AND MY TARGET IS EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP”
How did you find the status of the players from the European Championship and the NBA?
Furkan, Cedi and Alperen both came very willingly. Cedi Osman maintains his stability in the NBA. The European Championship will be played in the harshness of the conference finals in the NBA. You have to play the European Championship in 5th gear. My dream is clear. I came here to win medals for my country. My dream and goal is to become the European champion and we will be champions.
What is your comment about Ömer Faruk, who plays in the NBA, not to join the national team? You said you couldn’t reach?
Ömer Faruk made a very good contribution to us in the England game. Ömer Faruk is a smart boy. He played 15-16 minutes in the England game. How is he going to play in the NBA if he didn’t come to this championship thinking he had little time? I think that there is mostly a manager effect on Ömer Faruk. We were very surprised when the information came that Ömer Faruk would not join the squad. We tried to reach him but he didn’t get our calls.
Mehmet Okur, who has been following them all season in America, also tried to reach them, but he directed us to his manager. Ömer Faruk’s manager stated that he will spend an important year in Miami this year for his player and that he will not be able to play in the championship. It would be a great loss for him to come to the National Team and not play in the European Championship. We used Ömer Faruk as a trump card while making strategic planning. Two days before the start of the camp, Ömer Faruk called President Hidayet Türkoğlu and told us the same things he told us.
The President said that this was an unacceptable reason. Look, this is not a club team, this is the National Team. Emotions always come to the fore in the national team. As you know, people in Turkey make great sacrifices to protect the Turkish flag. What we had to do as basketball players was to give the best for Turkey in our field!
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It is natural that an American manager does not have these national feelings, I hope that important sanctions will be imposed on that manager as well. The manager doesn’t care if this is the case and Omer doesn’t come! He must suffer from it too! They should also consider what they will lose here. I want this type of manager not to do business in Turkey from now on. If Ömer were a confident player, he would train in Miami instead of saying ‘This is the National Team and I will show that I am better here’.
“THEY SHOULD ASK THE TURKISH PEOPLE”
So, has the national team door closed for Ömer Faruk?
Ömer Faruk needs to come out and apologize to the Turkish people. Because that’s not an excuse. Look, American Larkin happily plays for the Turkish National Team. This is the National Team! The door of the Turkish National Team is closed to the man who says he can come when I want, not when I want.
You can’t say ‘I don’t want to talk’ talk to my manager. The American manager is not my interlocutor. His family, close circle and society will teach Ömer Faruk the necessary lesson. This community is proud to watch them play in the NBA in the morning. Names such as Antetounmpko, Jokic, Doncic, Dragic are the best examples. If they say ‘We are not coming’, nobody will say anything, but they are coming. The absence of Ömer while playing these names is also a loss for him! And he was an important part of this team. We thought we needed him strategically. I am not angry with Ömer Faruk, I am offended. He should admit his mistake and apologize to the Turkish people. Then we will gladly invite you back to the national team.
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Do you think that belonging to the National Team and love for the jersey have decreased?
In the absence of success, the belongings of the players are lost. The national matches played during the season are like the B teams of the teams. FIBA has also made mistakes. Here, the coincidence of FIBA and Euroleague calendars has a big impact. We need to reinsert that value.
We need to create that excitement again in the National Team. National Teams are the flag of the country’s sport.
How was the process of accepting the offer of the National Team?
It was not difficult for me to accept the offer of the National Team. It is out of the question to refuse such an offer. Going to the national team is actually a risk for me. We won the Euroleague 2 years in a row. I could have been hosted as a ‘champion coach’ wherever I went this summer and had a holiday.
This is the National Team, this is a national duty. I am ready to make any sacrifice. And as a matter of fact, Tuncay Özilhan, our president of Anadolu Efes, who is also a nationalist, basketball and sports lover, also showed great sacrifice and gave permission. Because at the beginning of the season, I will not be able to prepare my team.
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Will Ergin Ataman return to Galatasaray one day?
As a coach, it is very difficult for me to return to Galatasaray. As a professional trainer, I can’t say no to that. If an offer comes in, I can consider it. Galatasaray club has some progress to make in basketball. A fuse has burned since the middle of last year and this needs to go further. First of all, Galatasaray needs to think about the formulas that will throw itself into the EuroLeague side as soon as possible.
Galatasaray fans and community want this. First of all, Galatasaray needs a gym. When we won the Eurocup in 2016, we visited our term president Dursun Özbek and our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. A hall project was put forward during that visit. It was a 15,000-seat hall project. Permissions have also been granted. But for 6 years, only the sign in front of the stadium has been standing. Gym is a difficult thing to do. But Galatasaray needs this. Because who is Galatasaray’s biggest rival in Turkey? Fenerbahce… Fenerbahçe has become a brand in European basketball in the last 10 years. He made this brand with the teachers he worked with, the players he brought and his salon. Galatasaray did not do this, could not.
Just as the Fenerbahçe community found a sponsor and built that hall, we are a very large community, and we must build and build that hall. Also, Galatasaray has a young Greek coach. I hope this season will be very successful in Europe. Not in the league, but (Laughs!) I am a sportsman who is from Galatasaray wholeheartedly and I am a member of the general assembly who always has a love for Galatasaray. I support Galatasaray in every branch. I would like to thank Galatasaray fans for their unconditional support for me.
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Do you have a Galatasaray presidential dream? Or did the recent expulsions etc. distract you from this thought?
I have been a member of Galatasaray general assembly for 6 years. I have 4 years left to qualify to run for president. Look, my goal of the presidency in Galatasaray, my dream was not a joke! You know this too. The thoughts of many of my friends who are members of the general assembly made me dream of this. I am a brave, unafraid person. But I need to be frank. I’m passing the one held in July at Galatasaray, the last general meetings scared me. That painting is out of Galatasaray. I saw it turn into a seat fight there. This disapproval, groupings in the general assembly, trying to control the entire community with 20-25 million supporters by a certain group does not coincide with the ‘Great Galatasaray’ structure in my dreams! There is a very large silent majority in Galatasaray. I dream of a Galatasaray in which large masses are in with a management style that everyone is in. As a sportsman who has proven himself in Europe, as an Ergin Ataman who has studied economics, as a person who has worked abroad and studied sports clubs, I dreamed of being a coach at Galatasaray. But I saw that it is not! The system does not work like that at the moment in Galatasaray. This general assembly understanding will not be behind me when I set out for the presidency 4 years later. For this reason, as long as this understanding in the General Assemblies continues, I set aside this goal, my dream, the idea of Galatasaray Presidency. Let’s leave it out for now. There are 4 more years. We’ll see what happens! Currently, as a Turkish sportsman, I want to do better in my own profession, in the biggest and most prestigious basketball club in Europe, in the National Team. I am currently the coach of the most prestigious basketball club in Turkey and Europe.
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