By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
Galatasaray Liv Hospital Istanbul came to justify to 1000% their sponsor, when during the first month of Euroleague they lost not one, not two, but four players. Two of them (Nate Jawai with neck trauma and Jamont Gordon with ACL) for all the season and the duo of Manu Markoishvili and Erwin Dudley, for at least five months. The Georgian guard had a fractured ankle and the American forward broke his left foot.
At Friday’s game, for the 10th gameday of the TOP16, Ergin Ataman welcomed back Markoishvili and he celebrated his return with a marvelous game: at the 66-67 road win Galatasaray, the 27-year old shooting guard had 19 points, with 2/2 2 FG, 5/8 3FG, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 TO and 1 block, in 32.26”.
Eurohoops talked with him few hours later about this night and everything he had in mind before he stepped foot on the court. “Since it wasn’t the first time I injured this ankle, I wanted to find the best possible doctor. I found him in Holland (Nick Van Dyke) and I had the surgery in November”.
The doctors let him know that he would need to work on his comeback till the end of March, but that wasn’t the case for him. “I needed 3 months of rehabilitation and Ι chose to do that in Belgium, at the “Move to cure” clinic. I can say there were long and boring three months, but it was something Ι had to do. And it was me, myself and Ι”, since a problem with visas didn’t give to his family the opportunity to visit him. His will to come back and play at this season gave him all the motivation he needed.
“Considering everything that happened, I am really happy I am back in action. I feel I have many more things to do in basketball, to make myself happy. My teammates did great job in offense so I could score. They found me in the best possible positions and they gave me the best possible passes. Thank God, I was in a good shooting day. Probably cause I was really hungry and fresh to play basketball. Honestly though, I didn’t expect to have a game like this one and I feel super thankful for the opportunity”.
Οf course he believes that Galatasaray can qualify to the play offs “and for that, of course we need to play a great game against Bayern, next week. We have to take advantage of our home court”.