By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Turkish Federation president Hedo Turkoglu said that there’s a potential plan for the launch of the 2020-2021 Turkish BSL League to take place two weeks earlier than usual. The previous season began on October 6.
“We have the idea to start the ING Basketball Super League earlier next season,” Turkoglu said to Turkish news agency Anadolu. “There will be national team matches and our clubs will also have European matches. We may have the idea of starting two weeks earlier. We do not want to leave basketball fans too far away from basketball.” The 2019-2020 season in Turkey was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic on May 11 without any champion being proclaimed. EuroLeague also shut down the season on May 22.
In the meantime, the NBA, where Turkoglu played for 15 years, is making preparations to resume the season. Possibly at the end of July.
“The NBA will most likely be played,” Turkoglu said. “If there’s no major misunderstanding of course. Everybody’s concern is human health and how to do this process without anybody getting into harm. After us [Turkish League], the EuroLeague also made the same decision. Since there’s uncertainty regarding travel, it was harder to play the league, operation-wise. NBA is economically stronger and it can make the decisions it wants in some issues.”
Turkoglu also talked about the killing of George Floyd and the protests it sparked in the USA.
“It’s a sad and painful thing that people are still dying because of racism at a time when the world is developing and technology is advancing. I’ve opposed discrimination throughout my life. I haven’t made a distinction because of language, religion, race, color. I’ve been friends of people from many different cultures. I wanted to be with them. I wanted to express my discomfort on social media. It’s really painful for people to die like this. I hope we will never encounter such a thing again. For our humanity, they must end in the world we live in.”