Βy Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv got a big road win over Anadolu Efes and coach Ergin Ataman explained in the press conference that many of his star players are simply not fit to perform.
Vasilije Micic returned to action but played just for nine minutes scoring five points. As Ataman said: “Micic hasn’t been training with the team for five weeks. In fact, he would not play in the game today. But last night, I asked him because the match was very important. He said I don’t want to play without ever going to practice, but he didn’t reject my request. But unfortunately, he is not ready at all”.
The situation was quite similar with Shane Larkin: “Larkin was taken to the hospital on Monday with appendicitis suspicion. After two days of staying in the hospital, the operation was avoided at the last moment. He was discharged on Thursday. He wasn’t even in the Belgrade game as you know. Psychologically, he was not in a position to play either, but we asked him to play, and he played”.
French guard Rodrigue Beaubois was also hurt: “Beaubois suffered a serious ankle injury in the last 4-5 minutes of the Red Star game. However, he also stated that he wanted to play due to the importance of the match, but the injury recurred in the first half, and I think it became more serious. Micic has been working by himself for five weeks, but he has a problem with his knees. We expect him to play every week, but he cannot reach that level. The biggest surprise for us was of course Larkin’s appendicitis at the beginning of the week. Because of that, an abnormal load was placed on Elijah Bryant and Will Clyburn”.
The bottom line is that with Efes‘ EuroLeague season in danger, Ataman asked for the upcoming domestic league game of his team to be postponed.
This didn’t happen and he knows that his team is facing an uphill battle: ” There are two very important matches next week. We are not completely far from the playoffs at the moment, we have four more home games. However, we asked the Turkish Basketball Federation to postpone the league game on Sunday. They did not accept. On Sunday, we will play a league match with Bahçeşehir. Then on Tuesday, we will play a postponed match with Real Madrid, then there is the Partizan match. Frankly, I don’t know at the moment what kind of roster we will have in those matches”.