By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Harun Erdenay, president of the Turkish Basketball Federation, just announced in a press conference that Ergin Ataman will not continue being the head coach of the Turkish team.
More specifically, he stated: “Ataman chose Galatasaray instead of the national team and we are going to continue our way with a different coach.”
Via twitter, Ataman replied: “ I couldn’t make a choice about national team because of my contract with Galatasaray Odebank until June 2017. As in the past, in the future I’d be honored to have a job with national team. That decision belongs to TBF“.
The 50 years old coach has guided the Turkish national team since 2014. It was a bumpy ride for him with mediocre results and also because of Fenerbahce‘s reaction. The president of the club Aziz Yildirim implied back in 2014 that Ataman has tried to sign Fenerbache’s players at national team camp and that’s why Fenerbahce has threaten not to let its players compete for the national team. Of course, Fenerbahce’s players were never withdrawn from the national team and during the last two years at least in public the rivarly between Fenerbahce and Galatasaray didn’t include the national team in any way.