By Semih Tuna / info@eurohoops.net
Anadolu Efes coach believes that the not so distant future of Euroleague will transform the championship to something similar to the NBA: A closed league with even four games a week.
“I think EuroLeague will soon become a closed league like the NBA and become a big-show organization with 3-4 games per week,” Ataman told Eurohoops when asked about the increase of EuroLeague clubs to 18 and the games the teams will play and how it will affect the intensity of the game.
“What’s tiring is us not playing games,” Ataman said. “There are some other things that tiring. The NBA has five games a week. But after the games, the teams travel with their own airplane. They don’t enter passport lines as we do, or travel in economy class. Travel to Madrid with a four-hour flight and you may get stuck if you can’t find a place. You go to Barcelona and after the match is over, you get up at 5 am to board the scheduled flight at 7 am. These are things that make tired players.”
There has been a parade of former NBAers signing with EuroLeague clubs in offseason, such as Nikola Mirotic, Jonas Jerebko, Jimmer Fredette, Shelvin Mack, Wesley Johnson or Omri Casspi. Ataman thinks there’s a specific reason they choose to continue their careers in Europe.
“EuroLeague has now become one of the most-watched and enjoyable sports events after the Champions League and NBA. Instead of sitting in the NBA or taking 10 minutes, players want to win a similar amount of money and play as leaders. EuroLeague has been recognized all over the world. It has a serious audience in the NBA. EuroLeague teams also started to become attractive to important players. This is, of course, a very important phenomenon in terms of technique and audience. However, the clubs are also very financially challenging. We can see that. The financial income of this must necessarily change over time. NBA has a lot of money, but they have very serious income sources. I don’t think this is the case in EuroLeague right now.”
A few months ago, Ergin Ataman led Efes towards the EuroLeague Final for the first time in the history of the club. Was it the most successful season of his career?
“Each team has its own story. It was a big thing for me when I played Final Four with Anadolu Efes at the age of 34. It was a big thing for me when I won the Saporta Cup in Italy. When I won EuroCup with Galatasaray… there were many different stories. In terms of the career in a basketball sense, of course, the Final in the Euroleague is above all.”