By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The recent quotes of Derya Yannier about NBA Europe and the opportunity that provides the NBA presence in Europe were considered by many a sign that Fenerbahce is leaning towards the new US-led project.
However, this is not the case and that was evident in an interview given to the Greek edition of “Sportal”, in which the Fenerbahce GM clearly presents his hopes for all basketball stakeholders in Europe to collaborate.
As he said: “My dream would be to see all stakeholders in our ecosystem exploring a collaborative way out of today’s challenging picture. At the end of the day, we have to accept that in today’s world, our sport has too many other competitors, not only as other sports but also as other entertainment elements. In such a fierce competition to take as big of a slice from the cake among all these other elements, it is just sad to see main basketball stakeholders actually losing time against each other rather than trying to purely grow the sport that we all love. And to me the way to do that lies behind clearing this conceptual mess that we have in European basketball landscape and making it much simpler for our fans to purely follow their passion”.
This is clearly connected also with the fact that Fenerbahce is still trying to break even, despite being the reigning champs. The basketball branch of the Turkish club is clearly moving towards this direction, but this need changes to the European basketball model and also to the EuroLeague’s revenue distribution model.
As he explained: “I would not directly link the revenue distribution topic with our long term commitment. We brought this concern up probably over more than 18 months ago and back then the licences issue was not even on the table yet. We strongly believe that a modern company like Euroleague has to review its governance model – meaning how to take important decisions inside the board – and the revenue distribution model if the real goal is to grow and become a worldwide brand. There is a clear intention to adopt the governance since a while but up to now we still haven’t seen a concrete proposal to change the revenue distribution model. This is a very critical matter, not only for all the licenced clubs to feel respected but also for being fair to the non licenced clubs, as we are trying to grow the competition. No matter how sensitive an issue can be, we believe that we should have the maturity to be able to talk about anything on the board level and take decisions for the wellbeing of the organization’s long term vision”.
Speaking directly about Fenerbahce, he added: “When I start in a new position I always ask my superiors, in this case it was our branch president and the club president, to set me clear goals. Five years ago when I was offered this challenge, the clear goal was to create a system where the team consistently will be a Final Four contender again and hopefully play to win, whereas while doing that the branch will become financially sustainable. Of course this has a lot of breakdowns and in-arena entertainment, digital revenue projects etc come along together. Bottomline, as of today, leaving the sports side aside which is for everyone to evaluate, happy to say that we will be reaching almost a financial breakeven at the end of this season. I give the whole credit on this first to the two presidents I had the privilege to work with during my five years, then the two branch presidents, and then starting from the centralized club employees who support us continuously to finally the great office people who work with me 24/7 to make this happen”.
Biberovic, Ataman, Nigel Hayes-Davis and Saras
Derya Yannier also addressed the recent quotes made during the FIBA Qualifiers window from Turkish national team coach Ergin Ataman about Fenerbahce’s local star Tarik Biberovic, hoping also that Biberovic will not be considered a naturalized player in the future.
According to Yannier: “First of all Tarık is a huge asset for Turkish basketball. Leave aside his growth as a basketball player and what he does on the court, his sense of belonging to both Fenerbahce and Turkey is unbelievable. So I am sure he will continue contributing at the highest level to Turkish basketball and as Ataman said, hopefully as a regular Turkish player, not as a neutralized player any more. Before the national team windows, he had a shoulder injury during our semifinal cup game and the doctors actually recommended him to rest for at least a week. But as I said his sense of belonging is at the highest possible level so he wanted to play in both our games and the national team games. Of course we had dialogues with the federation officials and with their cooperation as always, tried to manage the situation the best way we all could. At the end I am really happy that Turkey won both games and Tarık contributed well”.
The Fenerbahce GM also had only good things to say about Nigel Hayes-Davis despite his decision to join Panathinaikos after his NBA adventure: “As I said numerous times in the past, Nigel is one of the best professionals I have ever worked with and he had a tremendous journey with us. With all the ups and downs, all the different emotions along the way, this club has given him the opportunity to flourish as a top level player and he gave it all back by being a key factor of our historical success last year. So I fully respect his perspective and decision. As simple as that. And wish him the best for the rest of his career”.
This stance is also explained by the way Yannier is thinking about his role as a GM, specially during the season, keeping a distance from day-to-day locker room life: “I am not claiming that it’s good or bad but this is my style and the way I like to operate. I know that other GMs or sports directors might have different approaches so I don’t criticize any of that. Even back in the days that I was playing, I always thought that the locker room is like the bedroom. You should be feeling 100% comfortable and secure there, both in good and bad days. And I mean both the players and the coaches. That’s their area and the coach should be the only boss there with no excuses or room to escape for the players. That’s simply why I prefer to stay outside and observe from distance. They all know that my office door is always open and they are always welcome with any issues that they need support or guidance with. As well as the coach always knows that I will be there for him in the locker room in case he needs my support with anything. If everything is rolling in place, no need for me to step in and the stage is always theirs to shine”.
Of course, this is made even easier, when your coach is Sarunas Jasikevicius: “I remember saying this more than a year ago, before actually having the historical results last year that for me Saras is currently the best coach in Europe. I did not say this purely because I enjoy working with him and I like him as a person, but because I saw the qualities he represents, the unmatched passion he has towards this profession, and most importantly the day and night hunger and humbleness he has towards the game itself. When you have these qualities and of course when you can complete the package with the technical part, sooner or later you will reach your goals. Coming to the team, I believe we have a very talented group but for us the priority is always to have a good balance inside the locker room and to have a healthy chemistry. I can say that this has paid off for the past seasons and hopefully will help us get the results that we want at the end of the current season”.