By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Ergin Ataman was light-hearted after Efes‘ nearly perfect victory over Bayern that was marked in history by a new all-time high by Shane Larkin, who finished the game with most points scored in a single EuroLeague game (49)!
“Perfect performance. More than this is impossible. We played perfectly. With tonight’s basketball, we will be a candidate for the NBA championship”, Ataman commented after the game.
It was a few minutes before the game reached its end when Larkin found net to make history, surpassing the 41-point club of EuroLeague.
Ataman described the dialogue between him and Larkin before the latter went on to achieve this historic record.
“I think he thinks I don’t know about EuroLeague records. The game was over, I like to put him to the bench to get him rest, to protect him from the injury. But I saw that he started to force the shots and started to miss the shots because he was tired. I put him on the bench just to get him to rest for 30 seconds, one minute, and go back to the game. I told him don’t force it, wait your time, and for sure you will find your score. He said, it is only 4 minutes to go, and I said, 3 and a half minutes will be enough for you, sit down 30 seconds. It was great. Basketball is also a show, everybody enjoyed tonight here.”