After the incidents and the threats of withdrawal of Omer Onan, vice-president of the Turkish federation, Ergin Ataman tempered things in front of the press. For the coach, there is no question of leaving the competition following the attack suffered by Furkan Korkmaz and a member of the staff in the corridors of the Tbilisi hall.
“No, we are not thinking of leaving the tournament. Of course, if it continues like this, we won’t be able to play.”, he reacted in remarks relayed by Eurohoops. “We have spoken to other teams, and everyone is complaining about the situation. Everyone complains. I spoke with the organization of Montenegro, I spoke with Sergio Scariolo (the coach of Spain). Everyone complains. “
For the Anadolu Efes coach, the most important thing is the safety of his players.
“If security is not guaranteed, we will have to think about it with our federation and our government. Today, our government called me and the president of the federation, (Hedo) Turkoglu. Everyone is involved, our embassy too. We need security for our players here. The police cannot come into the locker room to attack our players and our staff. When it comes to basketball, if we deserve it, we’ll go to Berlin (for the final stages). We are here to play basketball. That’s all. “
“There was no security when I went to the locker room. When we got there, three players from the team, including Sanadze, along with two security guards, started chasing us.”
The selection of Turkey still has two games to play in Georgia (Belgium, Spain) before normally joining Germany for the 1/8th finals. Provided that the players manage to put the episode behind them.
“The mental state of my players is not good at the moment, especially that of Korkmaz”confirms Ergin Ataman, who explains however that the rear / winger of the Sixers was not injured during the fight, unlike a member of the staff who tried to protect him. “Think about what would happen if that happened in the NBA. “
Furkan Korkmaz for his part explained that he had only responded to provocations from Duda Sanadze.
“He started bullshitting me first, and I’m not one to get insulted. I’m not going to let that happen. As part of the game, he can say something and I can say something back. I reacted like a human being, like a man, I just displayed a reaction. “
He then detailed what happened in the hallways.
“There was no security when I went to the locker room. When we got there, three players from the team, including Sanadze, along with two security guards, started chasing us. We started punching each other. Five people attacked us, we defended ourselves. It was such a scramble. There were players from Georgia. The intention of the security guys was not good. They did not try to intervene in the events” he concluded.
