Ataman: “Someone from Maccabi told me “you’ll see what the Zionists will do to you” – The Euroleague’s announcement is strange”

Outburst Ergin Ataman at the press conference after Game 2!

His coach Panathinaikouwho saw his team, with Kostas Sloukas to make a legendary appearance, to beat Maccabi Tel Aviv, doing so 1-1 in the Euroleague Playoffs series, he referred to the victory of the “clover”, but also to what has happened after the first game against the Israelis, on the occasion of the announcement of the League!

Among other things, the “green” coach wondered “when have you ever seen such a large organization criticize a coach’s attitude?“, characterized “very curious» the announcement of the Euroleague, while revealed that someone from Maccabi’s staff approached him in the dressing room and said: “You will see what the Zionists will do to you»!

What Ergin Ataman said in detail:

For the win: “We didn’t start well. Maccabi is a very good attacking team, in the first quarter we didn’t put pressure on the ball and especially on Brown. In the second quarter, Slukas started to play good defense, put pressure on Brown, he was not only good offensively. Papapetrou played good defense on Colson and we started playing with confidence and controlled the game without the stress and anxiety like in the first quarter.

At some points, when Slukas was out, we made embarrassing mistakes and we put them in the game, but it came back and we checked it. The difference between the two teams was evident on the playing field».

For Sluka: “I have worked with many stars, and Slukas is like that. He has the respect of everyone in Europe. There is no debate about his quality, but the main thing is that he is a leader, that’s what I like about him. He is important for us and he will be in the next games, because it is not easy to play at this level».

For the next matches: “It’s the playoffs, we saw in the other series that the advantage doesn’t count that much. We have to play defense like today after the second quarter and be smart in attack. I hope some players who were not so good today will prepare better and give it their all physically and mentally. We set a doubles record in the history of Panathinaikos, we will go there to win».

On whether the rotation will open in the next matches: “Before the match I never strategize about players’ minutes, it’s my instinct and I use the player I need at that moment. Some changes succeed and some don’t. In the last game we lost here, we made a lot of mistakes and we already talked about the refereeing, but I also made some mistakes, which I saw in the analysis. It has to do with my personal instinct».

On his statements about the refereeing and Euroleague’s response: “Someone from the Maccabi staff told me when I was going to the dressing room, I don’t know who, “you will see in Israel, you will see what the Zionists will do to you”. I am Ergin Ataman, I am the coach of Panathinaikos, I am the coach of the Turkish National Team, I am a Turkish citizen. You can’t do anything to me. What I wanted is to express my opinion. When have you ever seen such a large organization criticize a coach’s attitude? I’m the coach. If something goes wrong, I’m obligated to let people know. I am honest in public, sometimes even with my players, the team and myself. For me, I had to show the journalists the phases I was unhappy about. There is a penalty from the Euroleague for such statements and I accepted it. This announcement seemed very strange to me. In no way did I want to spoil the image of the Euroleague, I have coached over 300 games, won titles and demand the same respect. I always speak publicly, and about Greek referees. Everything I do is in consultation with Dimitris Giannakopoulos. I never spoke ill of any referee, nor did I attack anyone, I just watched the phases at home and realized that mistakes had been made. For those who provoke with their statements that I hate Israel. I am not a man of politics, I am a man of sports and culture, I want peace for all countries. I have not said anything negative of a political nature. I’m waiting to see what happens with the Russian teams because of the war».