By Semih Tuna / info@eurohoops.net
Tbilisi, Georgia – After a heartbreaking defeat against Georgia and unfortunate off-the-court events, Turkey managed to defeat Belgium 78-63 in the fourth game of Group A.
The team bounced back and Furkan Korkmaz, who was at the center of the controversy with Georgia, was back on the court scoring 16 points.
And as he said to Eurohoops, the whole incident in Georgia which is now under investigation may end up helping his team.
“This kind of situation brings the team closer more than ever. As we witnessed today, since the preparation games, this was the game in which our squad clamped together the most. We forged a wall from the beginning of the game in defense, which led us to victory.” stated Korkmaz about the game and the incidents that happened.
Still, Korkmaz thinks Turkey can play much better basketball and have a lot of things to improve: “I think we are still far from what is expected. This basketball clearly doesn’t fit our talent and character. Thinking about ‘How will this game take place? What will happen today?’ before every game is not the kind of thing that fits us. But of course, we are in a tournament and everything can change in one game. I think we had glimpses of that in this game”.
NBA stars Luka Doncic and Evan Fournier had their complaints about the tight schedule and back-to-back games in EuroBasket 2022. Korkmaz, who plays for the Philadelphia 76ers, shared his own thoughts.
As he said, at least in his case, the habits from the NBA schedule help: “Of course the schedule is hard, but this is part of our job. I don’t want to complain about the schedule. I can only state that this organization has flaws. Other topics should be perfect too. Food, travel between the hotel and the arena… Our coach, Ergin Ataman, talks about it since the beginning of the tournament. This organization failed on these elements. I think this situation leads to injuries too. Experiencing a 50-minute ride before every game feels like we travel across cities. Of course, these elements are part of the tournament, but they must be pointed out.”