By Semih Tuna / stuna@eurohoops.net
With its modest budget, Bursaspor eliminated the teams that set sail with the goal of crowning as the champions of the EuroCup, one by one, and managed to be considered highly successful even though it lost to Virtus Bologna in the organization, where it eventually reached the finals.
Bursaspor, which had its ups and downs at the beginning of the season, drew all the attention in European basketball by overcoming a huge obstacle and writing the story that is now engraved in our minds.
But… how did all this happen? We asked the heroes of this achievement about the historical success of Bursaspor…
Forming a family
Not only in the beginning of the season; but also even during mid-season, Bursaspor didn’t exactly seem to be a special force, as they turned out to be towards the end. Whatever happened, it happened after the mid-season and the team found its rhythm while marching to the EuroCup final. But how did the players decide sign for a team with a modest budget with not many expectations? Before moving on to the fairy tale of the Bursaspor, we would like to shed light on where it all started…
Dave Dudzinski: “I really enjoyed it in Antwerp, but I had done everything I wanted to do there and was willing to find my way. I had a desire to go elsewhere in the summer. The important thing for me was to go to a bigger league and prove myself elsewhere. In the early summer, Bursaspor made me an offer. I knew they were playing in the EuroCup, they were building something new.”
Derek Needham: “Actually, I was comfortable in Mornar Bar. I was looking for something new. I played in Montenegro for three years and I remember Dusan Alimpijevic coaching at Crvena Zvezda when Bursaspor called me. We had a historic match-up, where we were playing the playoffs for the first time in Mornar history. Also he called me. He remembered me from that time.”
Andrew Andrews: “When I left Türk Telekom, I went home. I wanted to look after my grandmother and be with my family. I got offers from several teams, but Bursaspor was one of the very few teams that gave the contract I had with Türk Telekom before.”
John Holland: “Of course, the situation in Russia is well-known now. EuroLeague also decided that Russian teams would not play, but I had just arrived at that time, and I was preparing to play, but my first game was canceled and I could not play at all. It was a misfortune. Of course, there is a war situation. When my teammates started leaving Russia, I didn’t want to be the last person staying, so I left. I was wondering what my next move would be because I wasn’t sure if I should go back to the US or continue playing here.”
Onuralp Bitim: “When I left Anadolu Efes, I wanted to go to a place where I could get some minutes and show myself. I chose Karşıyaka. Karşıyaka is both a club I love and a place where I loved the fans and felt loved. İzmir is a place that I can call my home, but now it’s a decision I wouldn’t have made if I went back to that time. It was a mistake for me to go to Karşıyaka. I wasn’t given anything I deserved in Karşıyaka. I have never been able to understand it, nor will I. I know that people in basketball understand everything already. I had a lot of good teammates and experiences. But I definitely got very little of what I deserved.”
Dave Dudzinski: “I think Derek (Needham) had just got on board too. I knew him a bit from the past. It seemed like a good situation for me. I wanted to test myself and see if I could continue my career at the next level, to be honest.”
Derek Needham: “Dusan told me he wanted to do something special this season. He beat me when he was against me. I said, ‘Let’s be on the same side this time.'”
John Holland: “My agent offered me the opportunity from Bursaspor. I had no idea, but I knew they had a chance to advance in the EuroCup playoffs. When I got there, I realized what a really good opportunity it was. You could see how good the team was together. It was already a family atmosphere when I came here. I tried to contribute to that.”
Allerik Freeman: “I already knew Allerik Freeman. Of course, I was very comfortable in Turkey as well. That’s why I thought this would be the most suitable option for me.”
Onuralp Bitim: “A crucial period began for me after Karşıyaka because after a choice I made a mistake, I had to make a choice where I could show myself more confidently, and I sat down with my agent and my family. We talked to coach and Nedim Yücel. This was the right place for me. There were offers from big clubs again, but we believed in a project. At the end of this, not only me, my family, my agent but all the fans understood how good a project it was. My purpose for coming to Bursaspor was that I could show myself in the best way, and besides that, I would be able to show myself in the best way both in Turkey and Europe. It was an opportunity where I could be successful both in Europe and Turkey.”
Dusan Alimpijevic: “We couldn’t win a game for 20 days when I came here. We were dealing with a huge COVID problem when I came. We could only find 6-7 people to do trainings. We couldn’t even play 5v5 in the first month. Despite this, the attitude of the president, GM, board members was always supportive. I even remember this one time when someone from the Frutti Extra came from Istanbul. He told me, ‘Don’t worry, coach, we will build a great future together with you, we already see your contribution.’ He also gave me a Turkish coffee machine as a gift because I’m a coffee maniac.”
Where did the fairy-tale start?
The fact that Bursaspor has achieved a historical success does not mean that the whole season was filled with a huge dream. After all, it is not always possible to achieve success without great struggles. It may even be considered impossible most of the time. We can understand this from the fact that Bursaspor finished the regular season in the seventh place and even played all their games away in the playoffs. So what happened, and this team crossed that border and became the dream team of Europe? The heroes tell…
Dave Dudzinski: “It was a difficult situation because we had the run but we were not stable. We were not playing at the same level in some games. I think the breaking point was the Galatasaray game we played at home in February because they beat us very well on the road. It was the first game after a long COVID break. Our rotation was very limited. We played. At that moment I thought, ‘We’re going to be okay, this team is really starting to gel.’ At that time, we started to surprise everyone.”
Derek Needham: “I said that exactly after the defeat against Cedevita Olimpija, actually. We lost that game, I think, by 20 points. We were away. We lost, but the team played differently, the players in the team seemed to be more bonded. We needed to make a few more changes. If Andrews had played in that game, something really special could have happened. I spoke to Andrew that evening. I said, ‘We have something here.’ I said, ‘You can’t see it probably because we’ve lost by 20, but I think we can win a lot of games if we stick to that and keep that identity.'”
Dusan Alimpijevic: “Actually, we realized at the beginning that something was special about this team, because the training the players did, their listening to what was told, their attention to their obligations at team meetings showed us that. It just took some time. Of course, nobody expected such a big success, but we expected it at the beginning of the year. ”
Andrew Andrews: “When I came here, I really thought the team would be a special team. I looked at the roster and when I got here I saw how hard everyone worked. At that time I thought we would be a special team. We had our ups and downs at first, but after Allerik left, after Egemen left, AB left too. and we played against Cedevita. I couldn’t play in that game. We played very well on the road. That’s when I said, ‘We have a special team.’ We played against a very strong Cedevita team.”
John Holland: “Actually the team was already playing well when I came. We lost to Gran Canaria and I was very upset because I was trying to bond with the team, but frankly, the team had already become a family and it felt like I was trying to join the team from outside. I tried to do my best, but they made everything so easy. Everyone played selflessly for each other.”
Onuralp Bitim: “Even though we lost in the Cedevita game, I said that if we do things well, we can reach a point that no one expects from us, but I have to say exactly when I felt really clear, we had a run where we beat Venezia, Bourg, Valencia and there was this crucial Promitheas game for us. We had to win it. We got into such a form that I was sure then that we are a very good team and we would get very good results whether this team goes all the way in the EuroCup or the league.”
Serhan Kavut (Bursaspor assistant coach): “If it was asked if Bursaspor would play the EuroCup final back in January 2022, no one would be able to say this, but it started with the Patras game inside, with the full involvement of the fans. I think that atmosphere was captured after the Patras and Bourg games.”
Buğra Bayazıt (Bursaspor assistant coach): “I got that feeling in the Cedevita game we played in Slovenia at the beginning of February. We lost that game. We played that game with 7 players. It went head-to-head in three quarters and we lost after that, but the reaction we showed there, that mental reaction we gave to each other was something very interesting. It was a spark. We came back from there, we had the chance to take the game to overtime against Fenerbahçe twice, again with the missing players. That week, we said that we are playing with a group of players with a really different mindset in the first week of February. You know what happened afterwards.”
John Holland: “This has been my feeling since I got here. We know how to play together. Everyone in the team is good people above all else. Everyone had the same goal. Everyone knew they wanted to win and we were ready to sacrifice everything to win. This was evident during my stay. The team won and it was a big win. Then everything started to settle down. We lost to Petkim, but in general we figured out what to do after that moment. Everyone had already started playing selflessly before I came in. I was very lucky and happy. It was a perfect fit at the perfect time. ”
Serhan Kavut: “I think in the Partizan game, it clearly showed that we are a very special team. After we won the Partizan game, we started talking very seriously among our own staff for the final. Partizan gave us a lot of confidence. I see the team’s debut game as Patras and Bourg games, but in the Partizan match. I realized we were a special team.”
Before Allerik Freeman vs. after Allerik Freeman
A dramatic turn took place in Bursaspor with Allerik Freeman’s departure for CSKA Moscow, as the team lost its player, who was scoring in loads. However, the positive reflections of this dramatic turn in the team were also clearly seen. Due to the changing roles, different players took more responsibility and Bursaspor assumed a different team identity.
Dave Dudzinski: “Allerik was playing really well and efficiently. His stats were very good. It’s hard to say that was the reason, but when he left it took time for players like Derek and Andrew (Andrews) to take responsibility and show that they can play basketball at the same level.”
Derek Needham: “Allerik was a big part of our offense. He was averaging 20 points per game. It was comfortable for me to give him the ball and get out of his way. When he left, everybody had to undertake more responsibility, including me.”
Dusan Alimpijevic: “We can’t say that one player’s dominance has been broken, but when Allerik Freeman left, we changed a lot. This is a normal thing in sports anyway. When a player leaves, something changes in the club and in the team, some players have to take that responsibility. Of course, their roles are also changing.”
Andrew Andrews: “When Allerik left, I think only the dynamics in the team changed. More was asked of me. I didn’t have the chance to do everything I could have done before with him. Because the team dynamics required this and I was doing what was asked of me. I was also occasionally scoring, but mostly playing the team, passing the ball. I had a fundamental role. Of course, we lost a serious offensive weapon when Allerik left.”
Onuralp Bitim: “After Allerik’s departure, it is very obvious that not only my game, but also the team’s game has improved for everyone. I will not say anything about this, but make no mistake: I had an injury at that time and was trying to come back from it. It was a bit of a painful injury. I was trying to get rid of this injury in the period before Allerik left. With Allerik’s departure, I was able to get to the level I wanted exactly as I regained my own health as well as the chance to use the ball.”
Serhan Kavut: “When you look at it as a full picture, we can say that it is one-man domination. Even earlier, when there was the possibility of his move Allerik, the coach used to tease me about Allerik because he was my man. I was training individually with Allerik, he loved training with me. In general, we were doing the individual training together. Therefore, of course, our relationship was really great, but after he left, the team improved in terms of assists, ball sharing, the team improved. Allerik is definitely not a bad player, he is a very good player. I personally like his game a lot, but while the chemistry was developing in the team, having Andrews-Allerik-Derek together in the team at the same time, something can go wrong there, because all three of them want the ball in their hands.”
Dave Dudzinski: “Of course you can’t say it was his fault, but after he left, the other players took responsibility, everyone came together. We were already going in that direction, but when he left, we had no choice.”
Derek Needham: “When he left, we knew that we had no chance to hand the ball to him and just step away, that we had to take responsibility for ourselves. Without him, everyone took responsibility and in a sense challenged us to get better.”
Andrew Andrews: “Fans in Europe now know that I can score too. So it was easy for me to get into this role. I started looking for my own shots. That was the only thing that changed when Allerik left. I had to be more aggressive on offense.”
Onuralp Bitim: “Allerik is a very good player, but basketball is a team sport. We see it in the EuroLeague, in the NBA and in the league, no matter how good a player is, at the end of the day, the most important thing is team chemistry, and once team chemistry reaches a level, it can only be then success is possible both individually and as a team. I also want to say that this, of course, does not mean that when Allerik left, we became a team. Everyone who came to this team are very valuable people and players. For many reasons, we became a better team after that period. I also became a better player. I performed well. The most important thing for me was my chance to use the ball more. The coach said in an interview that even he couldn’t understand what I could do at that time.”
Serhan Kavut: “Derek and Andrews are players who like to share the ball a little more than Allerik. Of course, after Allerik left, the team was a bit better in both ball sharing, on and off the court. This was very clear. Not every player is suitable for every team. In my opinion, Allerik is definitely a EuroLeague-level player. This does not show that he is a bad player obviously. But you have to take into account different things while signing a player.”
Buğra Bayazit: “Maybe it was very, very unlikely that everything would find its place like this with Allerik gone, but it did. Because there was a certain responsibility, and that responsibility was not required to be taken by one person anymore, it had to be distributed to everyone.”
Onuralp Bitim rises
Bursaspor’s rise as a team, Allerik Freeman’s departure,different players undertaking the responsibility, the converging team structure and Dusan Alimpijevic’s superior game mind… While all this was going on, Onuralp Bitim continued to make great contributions to the team, but at the same time, he wrote his own fairy tale. Youngster, from whom there were high expectations early in his career, has now reached a level that will prove that he is ready to meet those expectations. How did Onuralp’s development come about and what awaits him?
Dave Dudzinski: “He didn’t have much of an opportunity before. Frankly, I didn’t follow Turkish basketball much until this season. I didn’t know who he was, but when we came here, we saw that he is a very athletic player before the season. We talk about it all the time. He worked on his decision making. He has always been able to find a solution for himself because he’s very quick. He can fake it and take action right away. I think he had to find the right solution at the right time.”
Derek Needham: “He’s amazing. He’s too young to know his way around. (Laughs.) But he’s incredibly talented. Sometimes he does something, we look at each other as players and say, ‘How did he do that?’ He’s very athletic. He has no ego. That’s perfect. He and coach talk all the time. The coach is constantly trying to explain to him: ‘You’re so young. You have the ability to go anywhere you want. You need to refine your skills. You don’t need to be so aggressive all the time. Once you figure that out, nothing else will matter.’ He’s such a talented player.”
Dusan Alimpijevic: “Looking back at that time now, we can say that it was the best fit for both sides. It was the right time to find each other. I think it helped the team a lot. First of all, it helped him. We helped him find himself and the right way to be successful. Why the best fit? Because it came at the right time. He plays more maturely. He will be more mature in the future. We accept that he is not a child anymore. Onuralp is a talented player, but it wouldn’t make any sense if he just stays at this stage.”
Andrew Andrews: “I played against Onuralp during his tenure in Karşıyaka. I thought he was very athletic back then. He showed that this season as well. He always showed some things from time to time in previous years. It showed that he had the potential. Am I surprised after the season he had this year? No. He showed his athleticism. ”
John Holland: “He’s probably the best Turkish player in Turkey. He’s incredibly talented. He can do anything. It’s even more impressive to watch him, considering his age. I think the coach has done a great job in his development as well. It was visible in everything and the steps he took as a player. He’s done amazing things. I’m excited for his future because I think there’s no limit to what he can do if he keeps it up. It’s really amazing.”
Onuralp Bitim: “I’ve been expecting for this breakthrough performance, I’ve been anticipating it. I’ve been predicting it for years. People who have known me for years, my family, or open-minded people who really understand basketball enough to realize my talent were not surprised by this. I was not surprised either. I have a lot of confidence in my ability, I have a lot of respect for it, and every time I show something, I realize that there is more. After each game, I feel ready and I believe I can do more.”
Serhan Kavut: “I was expecting this kind of development from Onuralp because it was known from the lower age categories, maybe he hadn’t showed it in statistical terms after coming to the top level, but everyone already knew that he had a huge potential. Everyone knew that he would have a very important place for Turkish basketball as well. This club has been an ideal place for Onuralp to reveal his qualities. Generally, he used to take take the court with the idea that he would defend a player on the opposite team better due to his athletic qualities, defensive energy, but he also brought out a very serious offensive potential in our team. ”
Buğra Bayazıt: “I can say that he has improved outside the court on the basis that he is a kid who lives basketball every day with 100%. I can explain it with his interest in watching the games outside of training, our opponent analysis and the strategy we created, the game preparation. For example, the third meeting we hold about the game is a meeting to go over the details. This happens on the game day or the day before the game. In those meetings, the coach asks some details one by one. I don’t remember a single time when Onuralp skipped the answers to these questions. He is concentrated on this.”
Dave Dudzinski: “He’s still very young. It’s really strange. He’s going to get better. For example, he was better in February than in December, and later in the season than in February. That’s why he will always get better. I think he is one of the best, if not the best Turkish player right now.”
Derek Needham: “When Onuralp started believing in what the coach said, he already leveled up. We’ve seen it in the EuroCup playoffs as well. He can do anything on the pitch. The coach has also done a great job in managing him. I think he needed an opportunity and the coach was the perfect fit for him in that sense.”
Dusan Alimpijevic: “I was lucky to have him maybe in the best period of his life. He is aware that this is the time to change some things, because otherwise it might never come to him again. Obviously, there is also a mutual trust situation. He trusts me, and I trust and respect him. He’s showing me that too. I think it’s all connected, and as a result of it all, he gave a great performance. Of course others can say that’s to be expected. He’s a player with great talent. That’s a special case for him. I’m very happy to have him on my team.”
Andrew Andrews: “I think he was right behind Luka Doncic in high school. Now he’s 23-24 and it’s reasonable that things are starting to go the way he wants. I can’t wait to see what he does in the future.”
John Holland: “He does such things in games, in training that you are surprised. 360 dunks… He is a great player. He is a great basketball player. He will get better when he develops and learns more about the game. He is my favorite player in Turkey. My favorite Turkish player. Maybe one day he leaves and goes to the next level or to the NBA. I think there’s no limit to what he can do and he has the opportunity to do anything.”
Onuralp Bitim: “When I started this season, I really focused very differently. I had a lot of ambition inside of me. I prepared myself to this season looking at it both success-wise and frankly for revenge. This season was kind of a revenge season against some people to show how wrong some people are. I showed myself and it’s not over yet. At the end of this journey, the most important thing is that I leave a legacy about myself to both my family, myself and my loved ones, but other than that, to show some people clearly. I definitely believed that I would have such a season. Even next year I believe I will have a better season than this one. I’ve already said that.”
Serhan Kavut: “I think the chemistry of this team and the fact that the American players are good people both in terms of character and sportsmanship were also factors. If there were two wrong American characters next to Onuralp, it would surely have worse effects on Onuralp, but the foreign players next to him were helped Onuralp a lot. He should not compromise on this pace of work until the end of his basketball life. I also watch Onuralp’s interviews. His speaking style, fluency in forming sentences, comfort, feeling self-confident while speaking and reflecting this on his speech, his relationship with the staff, the management, with the fans… These are the things that always make a player a good one. It should not be considered only as a talent, as a player. He has the right character to be a good player also outside the court.”
Buğra Bayazit: “He comes to training and reveals what he wants to do. He stays physically alive. He has a certain talent, of course. He continues by trying to put some things on top of it. Sometimes the rhythm of the 5-on-5 match-ups we do in training can drop due to the pace of the match. Everyone starts slowing down, but even after playing for 30-32 mins in the game against Andorra, Onuralp tried to create something in the open field with an extra effort, re-displaying his athleticism in the last two minutes with a different energy. It’s not actually a surprise or coincidence. It seems like a surprise, but it’s not. He can already maintain his energy level. He was already doing it at the end of training in our 5-on-5 match-ups. He only reflected that in the matches.”
Dusan Alimpijevic’s trademark
Onuralp Bitim has made great progress and became one of the important stars of the team, with the influence of coach Dusan Alimpijevic visibly. But Alimpijevic’s effect was not visible only on his youngster. We asked about the coach, who is highly respected in his team, to the people who worked closely with him…
Dave Dudzinski: “We have a very, very good relationship. He gave me and my teammates a chance at Bursaspor. That’s why I’m grateful. I really enjoy playing in his team. It takes us to another level. I think it’s really important that someone does this for you. If it were only up to us as the players, we probably wouldn’t have trained as much, we wouldn’t have prepared that much. These little preparations really pay off at the end of the season because we knew what other teams were going to do and we were much better prepared than most teams. That helped us a lot.”
Derek Needham: “Of course it took some getting used to for the team. The coaches in the former Yugoslavia region have a different style. So I understand this process of getting used to. I think once we got to know and trust each other, the team understood his approach too. He showed that we have to do these things to play at EuroLeague level, to play against EuroLeague teams. He always said that. EuroLeague, EuroLeague, EuroLeague… Reaction timing is also very important to him. He always talks about 0.3 seconds, 0.5 seconds. The guys were like, ‘What are you talking about? How can we react so quickly? It is impossible.’ As the time goes, we realized that it is the difference between million dollar players and lower level players. Dusan was saying things like ‘You reacted in 1 second, it should have been 0.5 seconds. If I can prepare you well for the EuroLeague level, we can reach the top of the EuroCup level even if we can’t reach that level. But if I prepare you for the EuroCup level, I will prepare you for the level of the lower leagues.’ He always wants us to reach the stars. If we can’t reach the stars, we land in the clouds.”
Andrew Andrews: “We have a good relationship with the coach. It was like that from the very beginning. It’s been like this since he called me to bring me to Bursa after Türk Telekom. We sat in his office. He told me what he expected from me. I told him what I wanted. This year I wanted to show Europe that I am not just a scorer. I think everyone was used to seeing me only as a scorer.”
John Holland: “I had a great time with the coach. He’s a very demanding coach, but he’s also very fair and lets you play your own game. He manages the game and the players greatly. He knew what to expect from me. I got him as well. We had a great relationship. He’s a great coach. He’s climbing the ladder. He’s always learning something. He’s always building and improving.”
Onuralp Bitim: “Coach Dusan is one of the special people who touched my life. Both on and off the court. He is a person who has a special place for me and will always be special. We are really lucky to have found each other, but speaking for myself, I can say that I am very lucky and happy. Because, of course, as he mentioned in the interviews, we first made a start by getting to know each other and spending time. After that, he saw my full potential and contributed a lot to me being me and being better. It both taught me a lot and gave me the opportunity to learn about my own game, which is something we rarely see for young and domestic players at this level.”
Serhan Kavut: “We were a little more distant when he first arrived. He was also distant, I was distant too, but of course, people can be more comfortable and feel more secure after getting to know each other. When he first came, we did not have much communication, but this year we have a very good communication. People who see us can see that our team gets along very well. Dusan is normally 5 years younger than me. I’m 41 years old, Dusan is 36. But I can say that I learned a lot from him. Now as an assistant coach, as a person who aims to be a head coach in the future, what do I do? The more knowledge I can fill myself with, the more I can learn from someone, the more advantageous it becomes for me.”
Buğra Bayazıt: “I can say that he is a special man with whom you want to work as a head coach. He can somehow establish a very interesting communication with his own team and keep that communication intact throughout the season. We spent a lot of time outside as a team, we do sports together a lot. It’s not that we’re spending a lot of time together what connects us. As a coach, he has his own work schedule, and he has a division of other things to be done that he distributes to the assistant coaches. It’s what he repeats all the time, so I don’t mind repeating it. One cannot do this job alone. He needs to get a certain support in certain details so that it will be complementary to it, and then let’s make those decisions. This is his approach. There is a certain division of the things to be done in the team. He does not directly interfere with our work. There is a certain order that we do the things, we have a certain way of working. For example, the work in training belongs to him and there he is in control. is. Video meetings are 90% mine. He makes the introductory speech and the rest of the meeting is mine, or if we’re going to be working on the field against the opponent, it’s up to me to explain it. After we shared this work, we distributed a certain responsibility to everyone, and after that, we became a team with much more chemistry.”
Dave Dudzinski: “This was one of the main reasons I wanted to stay in Bursa and continue to develop. I think this situation is noticed in Turkey and Europe as well, and they want to come and play in Bursaspor because Dusan can take players from one level to another level. This is also the case with many players this season.”
Derek Needham: “We did our analyses for the games. We watched every detail of every step on the basketball court. At first it got tiring. The guys were saying, ‘I don’t want to watch this anymore.’ At one point we stopped watching ourselves, but then one day he came back and said we had to watch these videos. The guys were upset, of course, but then I said to the coach that I would talk to the team. I said, ‘As much as we hate it, this is our reality. No matter how bad we look, that’s what everyone sees and that’s what we need to see. It’s not bad for us, it’s just good. Let’s just try to improve.’ After that, we started watching those videos all the time. After a point in the season, the improvement in our game was already seen.”
Andrew Andrews: “I wanted to prove that I could pass, I could defend, I could rebound. I wanted to show that I was a more versatile and winner player. The coach had the same goals in mind. I think what makes him one of the best coaches in Europe is that he realizes this in his players.”
John Holland: “There is no one who works harder than him in Europe. Watching the game videos, preparing for them… He wants to make sure we are ready as a team. We went into every game believing in our game plan. We understood what we had to do. We understood everything they were going to do against us. It gave us a huge advantage.”
Onuralp Bitim: “I never considered myself as a young and local player. I always had talents and it was a great chance for me to work with a coach who was so confident in my game and taught me better. Our relationship with him is very good not only on the court but also off the court. He is the person who contributed to my success this year, perhaps more than anyone else. That’s why it was really nice for me to play for him. The biggest reason for me to stay at Bursaspor is to work with coach Dusan again. Because what we have to achieve about each other is not over yet. I hope we will continue the same way next year.”
Serhan Kavut: “He is a very promising coach. His way of thinking on the court, his approach to the players, his approach to management, his approach to us is exemplary. It has been a good relationship. It looks like a relationship that will increase even more next year. We had such a conversation at the end of the year. He made me his first assistant. There is no such thing as a first or a second between us. There has never been such a thing in our team, but Dusan said that he had such an opinion. And I thanked him. He trusted me and gave me that task. The stronger you keep the communication between two people, the more I think the trust gets enriched.”
Buğra Bayazit: “Because the coach attaches great importance to things like going out to eat together and spending time in a different place when we have time, a chemistry that comes with being together has also emerged over time. In fact, we reflect the chemistry on the cour and off the court with the joy of working together. The coach can call me easily at 2 am because if he is working at 2 am, I don’t have the luxury of sleeping. He has a nice advantage. There was a chain of command like ‘you will do it this way because I said it this way’ style in the old-school coaches. In the past, the players used to accept this, but now there are players who know much more, are aware of much more, and have a lot more control over a lot of things, and their mindsets have changed with the internet age. You have to convince the players with information that you can prove you know the job you are doing. There is no such thing as you will do it because I said it like that. Now you have to present the logic. We say something, the coach says something, and after seeing it happen on the court, the player is convinced of it and starts to deal with it in a completely perceptual manner. He has to see it. You should be doing this with an example. It bears fruits both on and off the court. We are very lucky to have such a group of players. We never had to bring anyone here an hour in advance because everyone was already there. For example, we have workouts at 11 in the morning and some player arrives at 9.45. He would do his own individual training for an hour, then go ahead and do the workout, and then we would add 40 minutes of shooting after that. He comes here and spends 2.5 hours only in the morning. Then after going home and resting, he comes back at 6pm for a much more strenuous workout. After working with this type of players, what you do is like a puzzle piece. It ensures that you don’t have to take someone down a very different path. This is also important to us.”
Historical game in Belgrade
One of the biggest stories of the season for Bursaspor was the Partizan game that went down in history… Nobody expected Partizan, which set sail with the goal of EuroCup championship and took firm steps under the legendary coach Zeljko Obradovic, to lose Bursaspor at home, but Bursaspor fought for the win by giving a great fight throughout the game. Despite this, Partizan somehow came back and led by 5 points in the last 1 minute. But Bursaspor did not give up and finally that historic victory came in overtime…
Dave Dudzinski: “Especially in Turkey, people understand what it means to win against Zeljko Obradovic because he coached Fenerbahçe for many years. It’s as if we were playing with Partizan at the same time as Zeljko Obradovic. He is also Dusan’s (Alimpijevic) hero. He’s the greatest in Europe, Europe’s Phil Jackson. Kevarrius (Hayes) had a foul problem and came to the bench. I got into the game but I was having cramps. There was an incredible atmosphere. But at that point we’d been playing in incredible atmospheres for two months because it’s always packed gyms, loud arenas. So we knew what we had to do.”
Derek Needham: “The Partizan game is like torture for me, actually because the draw was decided. And as everyone knows, coach Dusan is also Serbian. He said to us, ‘If you want to play, this is the place to play. You have to play on the biggest stage, not on a small stage. But you will have to play under the noise of the fans. You have to get used to it.’ We went to practice. Everything is quiet. We were warming up, we started to stretch. He made a sign to someone on the stands, and the guyturned on Partizan chants that made the whole arena a very loud place. We could not hear anything even while we were stretching. He did this for two weeks. We are playing the Turkish League game, but we are listening to Partizan chants that make the arena loud. ‘You have to be ready’ he was saying. We’re doing 5v0 offensive training, but we can’t hear anything. We communicate only with eye contact and hand signals. We come to the bench and talk to each other, then we go back in. In front of 20,000 fans, we were even ‘comfortable’ in a way.”
Andrew Andrews: “That game was presented as one of the game we should have lost. If we had lost that game, we would have lost it ourselves. Most of the game was under our control. As a team, we were better. We were better that day. As a basketball player, I love having more fans. It’s better for me if the fans are louder and wilder. At that point, it’s not just basketball anymore.”
John Holland: “For me it doesn’t matter who the opponent is. It could be Obradovic or anyone else. After all, they’re playing us. That’s all that matters. The greatest coach in history… Nice but you still have to play. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, I’m just saying what happened. We’re great too. We have a great coach too. We had threats in every position. It was very special to play against Partizan and 20,000 people, especially for our coach, who was Serbian. It was also very special to shoot that shot that silenced 20,000 fans… It was fun. Really. I love things like that.”
Onuralp Bitim: “During the time before the Partizan game, when we entered the court, the coach turned up the chants of the Partizan fans. We were shocked. I was wondering if there was some other game. When we entered the court, it was empty. The chants were non-stop and we trained that way. At that time, we still had an Efes game. Of course, we were preparing for them as well, but the importance of that game was different for us. After all, it was one of the matchups we call a matter of life and death, and the really strange part of the job was that when we went there, we were all familiar with the chants of their fans at a level that we could accompany them. When I went out to warm up on that court, there was a really incredible atmosphere, but I shut myself down. And I realized the presence of the fans only when it was clear that we won, just one minute before the end of the game. I said to myself, ‘Wow, great fans, how many people are here?’ It really was like that. I think we wrote the story of this season as the single best game in European basketball. I think it is a game that will not be forgotten for a long time. Because, both in our country and in Europe, I received a lot of messages of support for that game.”
Dusan Alimpijevic: “I was proud of my team before and after the game, but my pride after the gamewas no more than before the game. Another advantage for us is that I come from this country and city. Who can prepare them better than me in terms of what awaits them in the arena, how to act the right way and who can explain how they will concentrate only on basketball in this arena? In that respect, I think we had a really good game preparation.”
Serhan Kavut: “In the last period of the match, we felt that the game was coming to us, especially in the last 4-5 minutes. We also talked about this among ourselves. We are in front of 20,000 people against Partizan, we talked about it for a week, it would be a very nice atmosphere, ‘Let’s enjoy the moment’ we said. But you can also understand when you will lose a game. Some games go head to head. Sometimes you don’t have such good thoughts about the end of that game, but I can say with the utmost sincerity that in the last 4-5 minutes of the Partizan game, our faith skyrocketed.”
Buğra Bayazıt: “We couldn’t understand what was happening that much in the 48 hours after the game. We came to the locker room after the game. Then I sat by the wall. Something had happened but I couldn’t understand what happened. Our team walked into the court at the Starks Arena. 16,000 people started booing, but it was so normal for us.”
Dave Dudzinski: “We actually had control of the game, but we gave it to our opponent. We were ahead for most of the second half. I thought we deserved the win. We made a great shot after a great offense in the end. It’s a moment I’m really proud of. That game brought our season to a new level. Despite the cramp I resisted as much as I could in that game. Of course, this can happen when you enter a big environment after such trips. It’s okay. We train as well as we can, but one of the problems we had at the end of the season was that many of our players got many minutes throughout the season and we didn’t have much depth on the bench. We used to use Egemen (Guven) normally, but when he left, we had no players to come from the bench. We had to play 35-36 minutes instead of 25-26 minutes.”
Dusan Alimpijevic: “We had to try something at that point because of the foul problem. We played with the shorter guys. We put Metin Türen or Dave Dudzinski next to the four guards. Moreover, Dave had 3-4 cramps throughout the game. It was like getting ready for a game like this where he ‘fought like an animal’. Can you imagine how much energy it consumes? It’s not just him. So do Derek (Needham), Onuralp (Bitim) and Hayes. Everyone is like that. So are Metin, John Holland and Ömer. He came out, fired four free throws in a row in the packed arena. I definitely need to talk about this. He went on the court and made four free throws in front of 20,000 fans. It takes balls to do that.”
Derek Needham: “That noise in our ears was something we’d been hearing for two weeks already. When we got on the court right before the game in the arena, I said to the team, ‘Look, we belong here. We are not here by accident. Let’s go and show these 20,000 people that we belong to the playoffs.’ They started the game with a dunk and the fans went crazy. Our ears were in perfect condition for this situation. Congratulations to the coach for that. He was more than ready for the game.”
Andrew Andrews: “Of course, considering Zeljko Obradovic’s success, this win became even greater. I think we deserved to win that game, even though we were behind by 5 points in the last minute. We were ahead by 6-7 points with 3 minutes left. The Partizan game was very strange for me because I think we deserved to win that game.”
John Holland: “In all the games we played away, it was as if we were playing against the whole world. Bursa against the world. Every time we went on the court, we played in incredible atmospheres. I think that brought us closer as a team. Our fans are incredible. Bursa fans, probably one of the best in Europe. They are at the top with their passion and support. It’s a special taste. Especially the support we saw after the win.”
Onuralp Bitim: “During the game, I looked at Obradovic unintentionally. There is one moment in particular, I found my rhythm in the game, so I did a step-back and made it. He did something there, it was like telling his players ‘how can you not defend him?’. You see him out of the corner of your eye and that gives you a different pleasure. He is an extremely esteemed coach. We both loved and learned about basketball by watching his teams, his players. In such an atmosphere, it is very valuable that a coach like him reacts to your game like this.”
Buğra Bayazit: “We were talking with John Holland. You can’t kill this team. You think you hit it like a cockroach, you think it’s dead, but you turn your head and it is not there anymore. We were down by 5 in the Partizan game, but we never played like we would lose. We could have lost by the way. We could have lost if Aleksa Avramovic had decided to throw a layup instead of dunking at that moment but somehow we wouldn’t give in. We would try things all the time. We were going to take an extra timeout or we were going to press full-court, which we did. John Holland drew an offensive foul as a result of that pressure, and we don’t have a full-court defense under normal conditions. In that moment, it was something that came with a little adrenaline, a little faith, a little bit of supporting each other. After that, the game went to overtime. The pressure was all on them and we were very comfortable. We remained incredibly calm. We have a chance to evaluate win against Partizan as if the games we lost at the end of the first half were placed on top of each other and given as a compensation.”
Dusan Alimpijevic: “At the end of the game, we knew all eyes would be on Andrew. When it comes to him, there is no need to explain too much to someone with such qualities as a person and player. It was enough to say, ‘Andrew, Zeljko and Partizan are very focused on you. Get ready to share the ball’. He finished the game with 24 points and 10 assists but he was ready to share the ball and he enjoyed it too. That showed his greatness.”
John Holland and “The Half-time Interview”
One of Bursaspor’s opponents on the way to the final was Cedevita Olimpija and Bursaspor once again put up a great fight in the game that was played in Ljubljana and managed to get ahead at halftime. John Holland, who came to the halftime interview, gave one of the most interesting live broadcast interviews in history and gifted us those unforgettable moments… Of course, the members of the team could only watch this interview after the game was over, but their feelings were not that different from the fans.
Dave Dudzinski: “We were on the bus after the game. We watched that interview together. It was an amazing moment. People from other teams kept sending me the video. He didn’t actually plan that moment. He finds his mood in this type of situations, he gets a lot of excitement. It was a tremendous moment. It was a great moment. In a sense it helped us find a definition for what we had been doing till then. We also caught a bond with the fans. People stopped him on the streets of Bursa. It was a really fun move. People think he’s crazy but he’s really nice. Sometimes one gets caught up in the magic of the moment. We all have moments like this. Fun moments… It’s really nice that the team defined that era like that.”
Derek Needham: “We won the game. Everyone in the locker room was already freaking out. Andrew came over and said, ‘Did you see the interview?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘What interview?’ He said, ‘John’s halftime interview.’ I hadn’t seen anything. The whole bus cried with laughter. I had tears in my eyes. John was behind me, and I said, ‘This is a legendary interview.’ I said, ‘It will spread everywhere.’ By the time we reached the hotel, the interview had already appeared everywhere. ‘I told you that moment will live forever,’ I said. I must’ve watched it 10 thousand times.”
Dusan Alimpijevic: “It was an amazing halftime interview. I was in the locker room when he gave the interview. Of course, I didn’t know he was giving such an interview until the end of the game. After the game ended, it had already turned into something incredible. Everyone started sharing it. It was hilarious. We all laughed a lot.”
Andrew Andrews: “When I think of John Holland, the first thing that comes to my mind is what a great person he is, how much energy and charisma he brings to the team. I think John has a special talent for bringing people together, making strangers feel like family to each other. As you can see, he did this with that energy.”
John Holland: “I always stand by my friends. I was listening to DMX before the game. He had this growling song. He was even barking. I remembered that. I believed in us. I really believed. I believe. Because we played that way. I’m a passionate person. If I feel that way, that’s how I feel. That’s how it felt at the moment. We were fighting like dogs and it was showing. We were like a great team.”
Onuralp Bitim: “We saw that on the bus. I got on the bus and everyone was talking and laughing. When I asked what happened, they said, ‘Have you seen John’s interview?’ He is a wonderful, colorful person, a very ambitious person. I think that interview will remain as one of the most memorable and iconic interviews in the history of basketball.”
Serhan Kavut: “We were on the bus after the game when I first heard it. I watched it about 50 times in 1-2 days. I normally don’t like to post things on my Instagram, I’m not a very active person there, but I shared his video on my own page. Everyone loved it. I enjoyed it the same way each of the 50 times I watched it. I wasn’t shocked because John is like that. John is once a very sweet guy. He is a guy who always gets along with his friends and has very good relationships.”
Buğra Bayazıt: “I saw it on the bus after the game. At first I couldn’t recognize the arena, I couldn’t recognize the background, so I thought it was something from the NBA before, something he did when he played elsewhere. I said it’s not possible. Then I look at the jersey, it was our jersey but I was not sure how we could have missed that. Then I looked back and a few more players were watching the same thing. It was the same sounds from there. I saw Derek Needham. ‘Isn’t it the same thing, I didn’t hear it wrong, right? I said. We had already known that he was such a joyful character. He just showed it off.”
Dave Dudzinski: “He showed the feeling of togetherness in the team. We were already performing at a high level, but we needed someone else to come and take responsibility, especially after Tolga (Geçim) was injured. Regardless of the role, he immediately threw himself into the team. He wanted everyone to continue in the same way anyway. Everyone has been seeing each other every day for 7-8 months. So it was nice that someone new brought fresh energy. I think his contribution is really underrated.”
Derek Needham: “I had already watched it seven times on the bus before I could even leave the arena. Then we put it on speaker. We wanted to hear every detail until we got to the hotel. I said to John, ‘You’re only going to hear that for the rest of your life.’ That interview also tells about the unity in the team, but he is the one who brought us that ‘underdog’ identity. This is the result of him merging with the team. It is a structure that makes us play more aggressively. It has brought us to a form that knows we can win every game, even though not invincible. We didn’t have it before he arrived.”
Dusan Alimpijevic: “Of course we’re laughing now, it sounds so funny but it would have been very bad for us if we had lost that game because everyone would have made fun of us. I told him that too. I said, ‘You’re not quite normal. It is incredibly funny, but did you think even for a moment how it would have been and how they would have made fun of you? John Holland has brought something very special to this team in a very short time. We were really lucky to have him in this team with such a charisma and sense of humor. He is like that. I respect that too.”
Andrew Andrews: “As a team, organization, city, everyone adopted this Pitbull mentality. This mentality took off after that. When he said it, I laughed and thought, ‘John is being John’. After the game, I had to do a doping test. That’s why I couldn’t join the team celebrating this interview together. Then I joined on the bus.”
John Holland: “I believed in us at that moment. I will always believe. My teammates didn’t make fun of me. They know me. They know what I’m talking about. That’s how I am. I trust myself, I thought the team should trust themselves. At that moment, when I believed in ourselves, I thought we were like that. We believed. Maybe it was a little funny. People talk about it, but at the end of the day, that’s what happened. If you watch the team during this process, you’ll see that we fought a lot. We really played like dogs. We played right. We played at a high level.”
Onuralp Bitim: “We made fun of it a lot. Although it was not actually making fun of it, I’m really saying it honestly. I think it’s very valuable to give that interview with such confidence, but of course, we made a lot of jokes among us and Hayes also snarled in the interview on top of that. When we won and made a move, we started snarling at each other. It was really a nice joke among us.”
Buğra Bayazit: “After the game, everyone started shaking each other. They were saying ‘You didn’t do anything like that? Gotta be a lie’ to Holland. We talked about it for 3-4 days. For a while, only that interview was spinning in my head. After the game, we returned to the hotel. We are in the room, preparing to return. I put it on my phone and left it play, and while I was getting ready, it was constantly playing around. He is a type that drags others along as a character. That’s why maybe he had such an impact. Maybe if another player had tried to do that, it wouldn’t have created such a hit.”
The final against Virtus Bologna
When Bursaspor qualified for the EuroCup final against Virtus Bologna, one of the biggest favorites of the season, the heavy favorites of the game were of course the Italian team. Although Bursaspor had difficulty in staying competitive in the game when they had major foul problems at the very beginning of it, they did not give up and remained close in the score despite the blows they received. Despite this, the Bologna team reached the championship. If they had the chance to play that game again, what would Bursaspor’s heroes want to do differently?
Dave Dudzinski: “Derek got three fouls in the first half. Kevarrius had two fouls. Virtus Bologna had been preparing for that game for three years. We had been preparing for that game for 1-2 weeks. It was a very difficult game. A lot of things had to go right to win that game. We were winning such games, but we played four rounds in a row away. Our rotation was tight. It was a difficult game. It didn’t go the way we wanted. Virtus Bologna showed that they wanted to win in the finals as they did throughout the playoffs. They beat Valencia by 15 points. In our game, they did what they wanted. Congratulations to them. It was not our evening. It didn’t go the way we wanted. There was no problem with the fairness of the officiating. Our rotation was tight.. Of course, we were deprived of our point guard who was selected for the EuroCup team of the year when two fouls were called against Derek. We don’t have an NBA player who will come from the bench like they do.”
Derek Needham: “I don’t think the officiating was equal for each side, but I didn’t expect it to be. We went to Bologna to play the final. They’ve been trying to play in the EuroLeague for three years. They spent a lot of money to come here. We knew we weren’t the favourites. I guess I wouldn’t have changed anything. In some fouls I committed, I was like ‘Did I foul?’ Everything happens with a reason. I am happy that we reached this stage, that we tested the top of the mountain, that we saw what it means to play against a team of $20 million budget, I’m happy to see what it’s like to play against these players, to play against thrown elbows, against grapples.”
Dusan Alimpijevic: “This is a very easy question for me because I wouldn’t change anything. Of course, after a losing game, every normal person says, ‘I would change this and that’ but it was very clear to me what I could change. My two main players had to come out within three minutes. First of all, we needed to be able to play as a full team to see what I could change. We missed our point guard and center, and those are some of the most important positions on our team. We had a lot of difficulties. Three minutes later our guard had to come out. Derek Needham got two fouls at 2:50 minutes. Kevarrius Hayes had the same problem.”
Andrew Andrews: “I don’t really like to talk about the Bologna game because whatever I say it will look like an excuse. Bologna was also a very good opponent. Derek took 3-4 fouls in the first minutes. Bologna also took advantage of it very well. They sent a lot of double teams. They forced the ball out of my hand. I think I could have shot better personally, because I had some open shots and some got out of the rim. I played aggressively, I got my teammates involved, I had a bit of a hard time with my ankle sprain.”
John Holland: “I wouldn’t change anything. We had the opportunity. Something happened. I won’t go back and try to change things. I have no regrets. It happened. That’s how the game went. They won. It’s a fair result. Every game, there can be something to complain about. At the end of the day, they won. Sometimes that’s all. We didn’t play our best game, we had foul trouble and something happened, but basketball is like that. We went out and played, it didn’t turn out the way we wanted.”
Onuralp Bitim: “As an individual, I would have liked to mentally prepare myself for a game with a lot of contact. No matter how much I prepared, in that game, the contact at that level was really different. I believe I did my best. I would have definitely liked to make my missed shots. I have two missed shots that I have in mind, shots that I was very sure got but couldn’t get. I would have definitely liked to give them a lot more attention. I have one rebound position in mind. I wish I could tear myself away more in that rebound position. Again, maybe I wouldn’t get it, but I would have known more of its importance.”
Serhan Kavut: “I wish the EuroCup management had done it, not us, and the final would have been a round-robin. At least if the final game was a a home-away round or was on a neutral ground. Frankly, I would have liked to have double games and see the final in Bursa. Technically, there are so many variables in basketball… We watched the final twice after the game. We even sat and watched together. Of course, we could have been allowed to use a little more contact by the referee in that final game. I never say this as an excuse, but Needham’s three fouls suddenly forced him to the come to the bench. Hayes had the same situation. They defended Andrews very hard. They took all sorts of precautions against Andrews, but of course the referees didn’t call 3-4 fouls that were made on Andrews. Could we explain this to the players a little more? I think we told the players very clearly that the game would be tough, but of course, there were events that developed beyond what we thought. From a tactical point of view, maybe we could have moved the ball a little further away from Andrews and shared the ball a little more with other people. After the game, I thought about this.”
Buğra Bayazıt: “Other fouls could have occurred in the first 2-3 minutes if the players hadn’t committed the fouls. Hayes’ second foul was a foul that we couldn’t resolve throughout the season. He felt that moment there, he thought he could steal and made the move, the foul was called. I can’t say if they hadn’t fouled because there weren’t any other fouls. We would have liked to play the first quarter completely again.”
Derek Needham: “We have tasted this atmosphere and this will be an experience for us wherever we go. We played the EuroCup final. We played against players like Toko Shengelia, Daniel Hackett, Milos Teodosic, Marco Belinelli in front of the packed arena in Bologna. We played that and it will always stay with us. We wouldn’t change anything.”
Dusan Alimpijevic: “Maybe I can say, ‘I would like to play a full roster in more time’, but I am still very happy with our performance. At the moments when everyone thought the game was over and we could not return, when even I did not see the possibility of coming back, we came back and came very close to our opponent. We made them feel nervous, despite all this. So there isn’t much to change.”
Andrew Andrews: “I got an injection right before the game. Of course, there are many different components of that game, but we do not have an excuse. Bologna is a very good team. If I had to change anything, I would just want to play as a full roster and see how we would play if we had another chance. But Bologna must be given credit. They played a great game. They were the better side that day. We can’t change anything about that game, we can’t say anything. They have to be congratulated.”
Onuralp Bitim: “Individually, at the end of the day, I can comfortably say that I did my best, but I definitely could have done better if I played again right now. As a team, we could not afford to start such a game this way. I would suggest that we warn each other more about this and come out more vigorous and more prepared. We could have used a few rebounds and a few offenses better at the breakout. At the end of the day, are they a better team? Many fans would say ‘yes, on paper.’ It’s an answer that I can respect, because they have a very valuable squad, but I think they were better than us in terms of team basketball after all? If we look at it so clearly, I don’t think they were. But if we look at that game specifically, they definitely deserved it more than us, it was a well-deserved win, but it was definitely our worst game in that EuroCup playoffs.”
Serhan Kavut: “Actually, the story is very good. At the end of the year, we played the EuroCup final, but still not everyone could fully grasp it. It was a good experience for us, but let me say this: If another team from outside played the EuroCup final, we could have appreciated it more because we were outside. But we are in the event. We were upset after the Bologna game. We were really sad. We were sad that we didn’t win the cup.”
Buğra Bayazit: “We can go back a little further and change things before we get to the final game. At the end of the regular season, we would have finished higher in the scenario where we played the game away from Bologna better, we didn’t lose to Buducnost last week. Therefore, with different matchups, maybe it’s very unlikely, but there could be a chance to play the final at home. If we consider a very different scenario, of course. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think we gave our all after the game. We’ve come this far, and we had many players that had final experiences in their careers? At a point, it comes to a competition of experiences. It’s not only about talent or the form achieved so far.”