For some fans he is a trainer who is not very personable. For some officials, he is a trainer who has never been very likeable. For many fans and officials from Turkey, Erchin Ataman, the coach of the Turkish national basketball team, is probably both.
It is Tuesday evening in Riga, as Erghin Ataman, 59 years old, with black trousers and black shirt, but above all with the Ataman grin in the press pavilion in front of the basketball arena, sit on the small podium and then look at the ATAMAN grin. He and his team have just won against Poland (91:77), which is why the moderator of the press conference points out that Turkey has reached the semi -finals of a European Championship for the first time since 2001. The Ataman grin is greater. And it gets a little bigger than he speaks himself and speculates who the next opponent could be in the semi -finals.
He says: “As a coach, you don’t want to play against Greece.” But then he says that as a trainer it is probably his fate to have to play against Greece.
When Ataman sits on the podium, it is not yet clear whether Greece or Lithuania will progress. Later this evening it turns out that it is really his fate that he has to play against the national team of the country, in which he has been working as a coach for Panathinaikos Athens since 2023. The Greeks win (87:76).
But their fans and officials know what Ataman’s strengths are. That he can deal well with players, especially with star players. That he can make a very good team out of good single players. And because you know that this trainer has won the Euroleague, the most demanding competition in European basketball in the past five seasons, you can also turn the sentence over: As Greece, you don’t want to play against Ergin Ataman.
Antetocounmpo by violence, Şengün with feeling
When the teams from Greece and Turkey play for the final of the European Championship on Friday, this is not just the duel between two countries in which people love this sport. It is also the duel between two players who shape this sport, not only in Riga, but also in North America, in the NBA.
According to NBA data, the Gianche Giannis Antetocounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks) and the Turk Alperen Şengün (Houston Rockets) are the same size (2.11 meters) and equally (110 kilograms), but their playing style differs a lot. Antetokounmpo plays with violence, Şengün with feeling. On Friday it could look like the superhero “Wolverine” was fighting the superhero “Spiderman”. This also fits because the villain is on the sidelines in this game. As a trainer, Ergin Ataman provokes and polarized so much that he felt half Greece and also his home country against himself.
In Turkey, Ataman, who has been a national coach again since 2022 (he was already between 2014 and 2016), was whistled in the arenas of the two largest basketball clubs last season. In the arena of Fenerbahçe Istanbul, where almost all fans have never found him likeable. And in that of Anadolu Efes Istanbul, where some fans no longer find him likeable. The stories are too good for not telling them.
At Fenerbahçe, Ataman, a Galatasaray fan, was always out of favor, but when he won the Galatasaray 3-1 after a football game by the two city rivals, in a basketball hall with one hand, Fenerbahçe, in protest, no longer put a national player at the national coach ataman. At Anadolu, the club with which Ataman won the Euroleague twice (2021, 2022), he at least partially fell out of favor because he caught up with the new coach Luca Banchi this season.
Ataman constantly senses conspiracies
When they met in the play-offs of the Euroleague, Banchi, unlike usual, did not put the final training in the hall of Panathinaikos, but in that of Olympiacos. At that time, Ataman Banchi assumed that he would assume that he was to film the training – or why would he otherwise want to go to another hall? Ataman has already been accused of the film. From today’s Fenerbahce coach Šarūnas Jasikevičius, who is said to have said to an Ataman assistant coach after a Euroleague game: “Good Fucking Camera”.
But it is also Ataman who is constantly sensing conspiracies against himself and his teams. In Istanbul. In Athens. And now also in Riga. When Turkey had to play the first round of 16 on Saturday afternoon and so that the shortest regeneration period had, he then complained to the Fiba basketball association. At the end of the indictment, he said: “They did not achieve their goal.” You have not achieved your goal.
So Ergin Ataman is the provocateur, who keeps crossing the border with his provocations. And yet the fans and officials of the teams that he leads as a trainer have always looked over it and will probably continue to do so. Because, as you can see again at this European Championship, he gives you what you want the most: he wins.
