Ergin Ataman: 'There are many of our citizens who are happy that a Turkish sports figure has reached the final'

EuroLeague Final Four In the first match, our representative Fenerbahçe Beko faced the Greek team Panathinaikos. Our yellow-navy representative lost to their strong opponent 73-57 and missed the chance to reach the final.

Following the match, Panathinaikos coach Ergin Ataman evaluated the victory.

Ergin Ataman's statements are as follows:

Reporter: "Coach, we congratulate you, or rather, we are not congratulating you because there was a Turkish team in front of you, but...

Ergin Ataman: "Whether I am here or not is not important; you can congratulate the winning team, there is no need to be afraid."

“After 51-50, we played great defense. The defense was truly great. If you play good defense, you win every game. We have one more game. We came here to win the cup, not to play against Fenerbahçe.”

"We played a semi-final match exactly how it should be played. We played very good defense. We used double teams on Wilbekin. Saras always switches to 5 smalls in such situations. We switched to zone defense in those moments, which is something we don't do very often. I congratulate my players; it is not easy to play in the Final Four after 12 years and act with such experience. We did not come here to play in the final, we came to be champions. There were 4-5 thousand Pana fans today, but on Sunday we will turn this place into OAKA."

"I know that there are many of our citizens who feel happy that a Turkish sports figure has reached the final, I thank them all."

News Source: 12punto