By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Fenerbahce captain Melih Mahmutoglu, Turkish national team captain Sinan Guler, naturalized guard Bobby Dixon (Ali Muhammed), Egehan Arna and Baris Hersek, issued a joint announcement, explaining why they won’t join their national team in the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers.
In their statement, they say that: “The ones who made this arrangement, which causes the Qualifiers to be held without EuroLeague and the NBA players, must revise their decision by taking the players’ opinions into consideration.”
All players have shared the statement via their social media profiles.
The full announcement is as follows:
As it’s well known, the change in the schedule made by FIBA for the 2019 World Championship Qualifiers has been occupying the agenda for quite a long while and has put the players in a difficult position.
We would like to inform the public of the fact that playing for Turkish NT is an inutterable pride and pleasure for us. And our biggest goal is to keep serving for Turkish NT’s journey, as we have done with pride so far. However, this schedule arrangement made by FIBA, which prevents the EuroLeague players from playing for their clubs during the regular season games, shall put our club, which is founded thanks to great sacrifices and aims to reach the greatest success as a representative of Turkey, in a difficult position.
As the first Turkish team to ever make it and to please the Turkish nation, the reigning champions Fenerbahçe Doğuş are working towards making our country feel the same pride by reaching the same success. As it is a sublime service for us players to put our national team’s jersey on, to realize our obligations towards our club is a necessary responsibility, as well. The National Team competitions will have a great importance for us, as it has been so far. Yet, the ones who made this arrangement, which causes the competition to be held without EuroLeague and the NBA players, must revise their decision by taking the players’ opinions into consideration.
On behalf of Fenerbahçe Doğuş’ players, our biggest desire is to serve for Turkish basketball both in NT and club levels. Yet, as we stated before, because of the schedule, in which the NT and club games are convergent, we are sorry to announce that we will not be playing in Qualifiers.
We hope that this arrangement, which put us in this difficult position, shall be revised by the authorities.
To the public attention,
Melih Mahmutoğlu
Sinan Güler
Barış Hersek
Ali Muhammed
Egehan Arna