By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Ergin Ataman, head coach of both Panathinaikos Athens and the Turkish national team, shut down recent rumors and reports that the latter is trying to recruit Greens superstar guard Kendrick Nunn for the naturalized player position.
“The [Turkish] national team’s U.S. player is Shane Larkin,” Ataman said to HT Spor. “We aren’t in contact with any other player at the moment.”
Several outlets reported that the Turkish Basketball Federation approached Nunn to offer him the spot of naturalized player on the national team. Similar reports had appeared last August, ahead of the 2025 EuroBasket Qualifiers and were denied by Ataman.
Ataman has mentioned multiple times that the plan for Turkey in the 2025 EuroBasket is the return of Anadolu Efes superstar Shane Larkin who has been the national team’s naturalized player since 2021. He actually confirmed the American guard’s comeback while visiting Larkin’s and Elijah Bryant’s Off the RECourt podcast earlier this season.