Head Coach Ergin Ataman of the National Basketball Team competing in the FIBA 2023 World Cup Qualification Group I made a statement before the matches of Latvia and Serbia.
Ataman, who started his speech by noting that they have continued their work since August 1, said, “We had a good preparation period and we played 6 preparation matches. Today we will do our last training. We will focus on the official matches from tomorrow. The second group matches in the World Cup Qualifications begin. Thursday In the evening, we will face Latvia, the leader of the new group. It is a very tough game. 3 NBA players play in Latvia. Apart from that, they have very important and experienced players. It will be a very difficult away game. After that, we will face Serbia here on Sunday evening. We will move to Georgia for the European Championship on Tuesday. We have good points, we have shortcomings. We are not where we want in terms of defense. We can put our scorer players more in the match and score high points. With Larkin’s involvement, we assertively play the official match “We’re starting the episode. A period begins where every match is of great importance. The important thing for us is that Europe Sha We aim for a medal in the championship. European authorities place us in 6th place in order of power. These are numbers on paper. We want to go higher and we want to create a team that fights to the last ball. We managed to fill our hall in the friendly matches, I hope we will bring happiness to Turkey,” he said.
“The Larkin-Micic struggle is something everyone is curious about”
Ergin Ataman, who also gave a message to the fans for the Serbia match to be played on Sunday, said, “As far as I know, the tickets for the Serbia match are about to run out, maybe they are finished. The support of the fans is very important, their role in the match is very important. Just as we, as a team, evaluate each position separately and evaluate each position. If we are trying to win, we should do it with the fans. The image is beautiful and this image needs to turn into serious support and pressure on the referees. Serbia is coming as a full squad. Jokic, who has become the MVP in the NBA, is in the squad. Micic, Kalinic, Nedovic are in the squad. It’s a really strong team But we are also a good team and we want to use the field advantage. In the newly formed group, we got into this group with 2 wins, Serbia came out with 1 win. None of these players played in the group matches played during the season and they lost the matches, but they are coming with the full squad in this period. It will be an interesting match as well, it will be a fight Larkin and Micic will face. “Whether Larkin or Micic will win in this power struggle, this is something everyone is wondering about,” he concluded.
