By Antonis Stroggylakis / AStroggylakis@eurohoops.net
“I’m sure that this team will finish the history we started to make last year and somebody stopped our history. We will make it on the court this season if nobody stop us again.”
This is what Anadolu Efes head coach Ergin Ataman had said after his team’s away win over Barcelona in the EuroLeague regular season back in February. Over the next period, the Turkish coach continued making similar comments and going viral with his overly optimistic remarks. He was just always confident to the extreme (maybe overconfident according to his critics) about his team’s bright future and the fact that they will be champions when all is said and done.
A couple of months after that victory in Palau Blaugrana, Ataman’s prophecy was fulfilled. Efes beat Barcelona again, this time in the championship game, to claim the first-ever EuroLeague title in the history of the club.
Throughout the season, Ataman never let any shadow of doubt infect his fierce certainty that he and his men we will champions. And, in a way, he spoke the title into existence.
“I’m afraid to give up or to say [something like] ‘OK, we’ll see,” or “Maybe, we’ll win,” or “It’s important to play in the Final Four.’ This is not honest with me because I want to win. And people were waiting for us to win the title,” Ataman said in the post-game presser after receiving the customary shower by his players who stormed into the conference room.
There was a momentary scare in the playoffs, but nothing that truly shook him. “I was afraid only in the last three minutes of Game 5 against Real Madrid. Because were were very close to win 3-0 but we lost these incredible games in Madrid in the same way. In Game 5 they came back same way. In that period, I was afraid. But [we were] lucky also. Krunoslav Simon made an incredible shot. Maybe the luck comes to people who deserve it, the people who think about it, who believe it. I believed it.”
“But I never lost my confidence all season,” he added.
Ataman, who became the first Turkish coach to win the EuroLeague, was overflowing with faith in his team’s capabilities. He has been oozing this insane amount of confidence, transmitting it to his team and injecting it into his players’ veins. All these words and phrases that were coming from his mouth about Efes being bound to become champion were also – maybe especially – for his guys to hear even when wasn’t directly speaking to them.
Efes’ players absorbed their coach’s positivity like a sponge, embraced his steel-clad belief and made it a part of themselves. “He’s the most confident coach I’ve worked with,” Shane Larkin mentioned in March.
“I take the courage to say this. My players believed in this. My family, the club, the president everybody believed,” Ataman said. “And I believe that this is synergy. It’s the energy that also the Turkish people gave us. I believe in energy. I always think positive.”
You have to at least try and understand Ataman. After losing to CSKA Moscow in the 2019 EuroLeague Final, he kept the same core of players and added all necessary touches to transform an already powerful team to an unstoppable juggernaut. He had Shane Larkin, a nuclear warhead of a scorer who was shattering records, pulverizing all opponents and making people wonder if he has become the best American ever in EuroLeague. He had Vasilije Micic delivering the complete playmaking package, being the “ultimate point guard”. Veterans who were the perfect glue guys. Defensive warriors. He cooked these fine ingredients to Michelin perfection, creating a squad that simply couldn’t lose. A team that was widely considered the grand favorite to win it all and no one would dare to bet against them.
Efes was at the top of the EuroLeague standings with a 24 – 4 record when the 2019-2020 season was canceled. And Ataman, who was pursuing true EuroLeague greatness for ages, saw his masterpiece not reaching its full potential. He was clearly upset and perhaps even bitter when he was vocally expressing his thoughts and emotions about the season ending in such an unceremonious fashion. His dream being over.
It hurt but Ataman had to recover from this disappointment, shut down the negativity, and rejuvenate that famous confidence of his. Apart from getting this group performing like a championship team once more in the next season, he had to keep repeating to himself and others again and again that there was no way they are not winning it. It was their destiny, their kismet.
They were fated for it.
“Two years, we talked that we could make it and we did,” Ataman said. “I’m proud of my players. We never gave up. We started the game with a lot of stress and made a lot of mistakes. Then we found our rhythm. I said in the press conference that Shane Larkin is one of the best players and this was his time with Micic. Congratulations to all my guys. We maybe missed Larkin in the semifinals, but today he won the game with Micic. Excellent, I’m proud of my players.”
Photo: Getty Images