Without Ataman on the bench with Zalgiris, Panathinaikos got permission to be in the Turkish national team

Not with him Ergin Atamanbut with Christos Serelis at the helm will be lined up Panathinaikos on Thursday, November 21 in Kaunas opposite Zalgiris. The Turkish coach has taken leave from the “greens” for a month to be on the bench of his national team in the games against Hungary, on November 22 in Istanbul and away three days later (25/11) for the Eurobasket qualifiers.

The Turkish coach “photographed” this development in an interview with the Serbian Meridian Sport, where he talked about:

– the national team of Turkey: “Our goal is a medal in Eurobasket. Of course we’ll have to prove it first. I think we have a great generation of players, I hope they are all available. I can’t understand why there is a break in the Euroleague in February and not in November for the windows. It’s weird, we’ve been talking about this for five years. How is it possible that the National team plays and at the same time the best players have games with their teams? Tell me what other sport has this situation. We want to make football popular and the football world is laughing at this situation. National teams are important in all countries, but the Euroleague is also important. An acceptable solution must be found. At this point, I can say that I will be present in the national team. In both games.”

– the gesture he made for Fenerbahce and the reaction of the team that does not want to send its players to the national team while he is coach: “It doesn’t concern me, I’m a federal coach. My bosses are the federation and the government of Turkey. I continue to do my job and I believe that all players want to play for the national team. It is important to play for the national team. The rest is not my responsibility. I will be present and I hope all the players selected will be present in the windows and then in the final phase.”