By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Cedi Osman entered the list of players to skip Round 11 of the 2024-25 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season and instead boost their national team in the 2025 EuroBasket Qualifiers.
The latest overlap of the club and international schedules forced the issue on several fronts. Over recent days, the involved parties have been making decisions on which players will feature for which teams at the end of the week.
In this case, Panathinaikos Aktor allowed Osman to follow head coach Ergin Ataman to Istanbul, instead of preparing for the next EuroLeague game and heading to Kaunas for a clash with Zalgiris on Friday. In contrast, fellow Turkish international, Omer Yurtseven will remain with the Greens before moving to the national team of his country at the bottom end of the international window.
Seeking one of three available tickets for Group B of the Qualifiers, Turkiye is 1-1, tied with Iceland, behind Italy’s 2-0, and ahead of Hungary’s 0-2. Moving deeper in the six-game double-legged round-robin sprint, the schedule features a home contest against Hungary on Friday and the reverse fixture in Szombathely on Monday.
In the EuroLeague, the Greens are tied for second behind a 7-3 W-L tally, trailing leading Fenerbahce Beko by one game. Besides Ataman and Osman, Kostas Antetokounmpo (knee) and Marius Grigonis (back) are also unavailable for the game in Zalgirio Arena. A fourth sidelined player, Dimitris Moraitis will join the senior national team of Greece for a home-and-away series versus Great Britain in Group F of the EuroBasket Qualifiers.