By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
Riga, Latvia – Turkiye is expected for one of the country’s biggest games ever at EuroBasket, playing in the Semi-Finals against Greece.
Shane Larkin and the whole team are “very ready for the challenge”, also going up against Giannis Antetokounmpo. “He’s one of the best players in the world, and it’s not easy to stop him no matter where you’re playing,” he said on the game’s eve after practice.
“We are just as capable as a team. We have a lot of guys on our team who are also great players. At the end of the day, we have to do our best job to try to stop him, and they have to do their best job to try to stop us. It’ll be a challenging game for both sides, and hopefully we can come out on top,” Larkin added.
On his side, he will have Ergin Ataman, with whom he won back-to-back EuroLeague titles. The two make an experienced and well-oiled duo. “It’s a high level of confidence,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we know what it takes to win in this kind of pressure-filled situation, the kind of mentality the team needs to have to go into these games, the aggressiveness and focus that you need.”
” Having a coach who’s been there at one of the highest levels in Europe, and being a player who’s been in many of those stages, as well as other players on the team, I think we have a strong confidence going into this game and knowing what we need to do in order to win,” Anadolu Efes‘ captain shared.
What would reaching the final mean for Turkiye? Shane Larkin is aware that history could be made tomorrow with a win over Vassilis Spanoulis’ team.
“It would mean everything. For us to be able to come out here as a team, not many expected us to be in a situation when the tournament started,” the experienced playmaker commented.
“To go out there and prove to everybody that we’re growing, that we’re capable, and that we have just as much quality as the rest of Europe, would be good for us. I think we’re very motivated on trying to continue the journey that we’ve been on thus far.”
PHOTO CREDIT: FIBA