Ataman: “Smart from Spanoulis to get John shots – I’ll check out the aggressive fouls!”

THE Ergkin Ataman Shortly after the completion of Turkey’s training on Wednesday afternoon, he spoke to the press representatives about:

Against Greece in the semifinals: Probably my destiny. And at Euroleague I faced Efes and it was quite intense emotionally for me. Now I’m going to compete with players in Panathinaikos and I know how important the qualification for Greece will be, but it will be as important to us. It will be a hard game, Greece has experienced players. It’s not just John, it’s both Sloukas and Papanikolaou and others with great experience. It may be one of the few such strong games in this event.

Vasilis Spanoulis: Spanoulis showed both Peristeri and Monaco that he is a good coach. He’s smart. He has played basketball. He was one of the smartest players in Europe. Greece has experienced players, has worked hard in its chemistry and has one of the largest stars in the world, John, whom he works very well.

The injury of the Oman: Osman is not good, he has a serious injury. The only good thing about us is that it has no fracture. Doctors will try to correct the issue and will certainly not be 100%. I will think if he will play, on the day of the race. It is not an excuse if it does not play, we should think of solutions …

His Greek players from Panathinaikos: There is no one who can stop Sluka, but my players will try. Mitoglou is also excellent players, I hope he is not in a good day. But Sloukas is Europe’s top pointguard.

Samondurov’s performance: I am proud of my partners, last year in the second half of the season we gave him a significant time. I am very happy to see him playing and performing great. He is a very good kid. It will be a new star for European basketball. There are not many stars at this time from the younger generations and will be one of the best.

Antetokounbos and the way in which he will stop him: John can achieve what he wants. We will focus on our defense. We will think about what matchup we will make. Spanoulis is also spiritually smart. We have had many conversations and I think he has learned a lot from us. We saw Doncic, Shengun and Jokic and now with Lithuania he had 16

In the NBA there is space for attacks and John is the top in it. In Europe it is different. I saw that he was doing quite an aggressive foul. I expect the referees to base on his own moves that there are aggressive fouls.

The Final-4 2026 in Athens: Congratulations to all Panathinaikos for good work and the Euroleague who has shown intelligence, as the Telecom Center is the best arena with a difference in Europe and Athens is one of the top basketball cities. It will be very emotional, nice Final-4 this year and I hope to be there with Panathinaikos. There will be a big battle like every year at EuroLeague, but I am very happy about Greek basketball, fans and European basketball, as everyone will enjoy a real basketball atmosphere.