By Buğra Uzar / info@eurohoops.net
Anadolu Efes‘ GM, Alper Yilmaz, spoke to Eurohoops about how the team is going to deal with the FIBA World Cup “windows” interfering with its EuroLeague schedule.
Some Federations have chosen to call EuroLeague players, while some others haven’t. Here’s Yilmaz’s take on this controversy: “As Anadolu Efes, we can’t have a situation like sending players to national teams. We are going to face Zalgiris Kaunas after both national team games, while the Lithuanian federation didn’t call EuroLeague players to the national team. Aren’t we representing Turkey in Europe? Or don’t other EuroLeague teams do the same for their countries?”
The dilemma for the players is real, as Efes‘ GM states, as they are under pressure to either join the NTs or not, while he brings to light the problems the Federations are facing as well: “The players have to decide between staying in their clubs where they receive money and go to the national team. I have to think how can I win without my national team players. Federations have to think what if they do if they don’t call EuroLeague players. Now Cedi and Furkan, our national team’s best players are in the NBA and they won’t play in next 4 national team games. And probably they won’t play in June either. Now I do not know how it makes sense to take the players from Europe’s best league and put them on the national teams without any preparation without NBA players.”
The Turkish club’s GM indeed notes that whether the players join the NT for the windows or not will be decided by them: “We will leave the decision to our players. If they want, they can go to the national teams. It is not easy for them either. Their clubs are giving them money and their club performances that will set their money for next season.”
Yilmaz expresses his disappointment at the turn of events, as he highlights that when building a roster, the teams should now focus on American foreigners to avoid such problems: “With the current system, when I am building a roster, I must take all my foreigners from the United States in order to prevent national team problems.”
He concludes by expressing his wish to reach a solution, while at the same time he stands in favor of EuroLeague’s proposal to FIBA, which was rejected: “To me, EuroLeague had a very logical calendar offer. All the players, including NBA players, could play on this calendar, but it was not accepted by FIBA. I hope that this problem will be resolved as soon as possible and we will take minimum damage from that. After all, we represent Turkey in Europe. How can we win a match without five major players?”