Ergin Ataman: Everything is a scandal here. Korkmaz attacked by Shengelia, Sanadze and Bitadze

FIBA
FIBA

Turkey’s NT head coach Ergin Ataman spoke with media the day after the loss to Georgia about the fight in the tunnel and the 22 seconds less played in the game

Turkey’s NT head coach Ergin Ataman spoke with media the day after the loss to Georgia about the fight in the tunnel and the 22 seconds less played in the game.

Per Basketnews, “The biggest organization in European basketball, EuroBasket… what happened on the court and in the locker room is a scandal. After Furkan Korkmaz was disqualified, he went to the locker room with one of our staff members, but three Georgian players… What I’m told is that it was [Tornike] Shengelia, [Goga] Bitadze, and the ejected player (Duda Sanadze), who directly attacked Korkmaz in the locker room.

And our staff member also got hit. He went down. When the game finished, I went to my locker room, and I saw that Furkan Korkmaz was in the coach’s locker room. They protected him in the locker room and put him there. This is a scandal. Everything is a scandal here, starting from our arrival in Georgia. Every day, especially on the first and second days, we came there with 40-45 minutes of traffic in the practice or on the game day.

At the hotel, there is no special food for the athletes. Okay, that’s fine, but FIBA must protect the players in the game. What happened yesterday is a scandal. At the end of the game, when my players were going to the locker room, local police attacked my players. They tried to push us into the locker room, and they attacked our [federation’s] vice-president. Everything is incredible.

That’s one part. The other part, during the game, we played 22 seconds less. It’s a basketball game. If the game is in overtime and we have the last ball, we had the ball for only two seconds.

We tried to complain to the referees during the game, and they said, ‘No problem.’ Then, immediately after the game, we make our official protest because 22 seconds is a long period of time in a basketball game. Now we are waiting for FIBA to put a strategy to cancel the game or to let the game play for 4.5 minutes.

If not, it’s something really ridiculous. About my ejection from the game, the referees gave an unsportsmanlike foul to Cedi Osman for a small tactical foul, and it’s also ridiculous. I deserved to get disqualified because I made a long protest for this call that you call in the second overtime, in this kind of game.

It’s a ridiculous unsportsmanlike foul. I complained about the call, this is what happened here. This is big damage to world basketball because these players came here to play basketball.

We came here to enjoy sport, not come here to make war with anybody. Also, it’s a big surprise that players who have such careers as Shengelia, Bitadze come to the locker room and attack my player, Korkmaz. It’s a big surprise for me,”

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