Sixers guard Furkan Korkmaz was attacked in the hallway of the locker room after being ejected in Turkey’s game against Georgia, the Turkish team alleged (link via Semih Tuna of EuroHoops). The Turkish federation vice president, Omer Onan, is now threatening that the team will leave the EuroBasket if proper action isn’t taken.
“While Furkan Korkmaz was walking in the hallway to the locker rooms with our trainer, Georgia’s players who were not in the active roster attacked him together with the ejected player [Duda Sanadze] and the police,” Onan explained in a lengthy statement. “There should not be an attack on the player that goes to the locker room. At the end of the match, 30 policemen each pushed us into a fight. We got into a fight with Georgia’s official police. I am calling out to FIBA and I have also told FIBA’s officials.
“Let no one deceive themselves or think that we are stupid. They will bring us all the camera footage from that corridor minute by minute without anything missing. If those cameras do not come to us, we will leave this tournament. Wherever you look it, there is nothing to hold onto. The non-competing player, (Toko) Shengelia, and three people sitting on the bench went to the locker room. At the end of the match, the police were in front of our locker room. Supposedly they were protecting us but they pushed us all the time. We were going to hit each other with our fists.”
It’s unclear what injuries — if any — Korkmaz sustained. The 25-year-old was drafted by Philadelphia with the No. 26 pick in 2016. He’s spent his entire career with the franchise so far, averaging 7.6 points in 67 games this past season.
Here are some other odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Legendary Spurs coach Gregg Popovich believes the NBA and European basketball are becoming more similar, Emiliano Carchia of Sportando writes. While the quote has been condensed, Popovich did shine light on the matter. “Ten years ago, American basketball was mainly made up of threes and dunks, and with the arrival of basketball on European TV, I think everyone was very excited by this,” he said. “In Europe, on the contrary, basketball was played based on fundamentals, movement, a basketball where players move with the ball and without the ball. I think the two worlds have been apart for a while, but now we are getting closer.”
- France managed to survive Hungary’s comeback and win on Sunday, as relayed by EuroHoops. The team was led by Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, who finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, plus played his usual stellar defense.
- Team USA’s game against Venezuela on Sunday was postponed after rain leaked into the gym, according to The Associated Press. America was leading 48-21 at halftime when heavy rain caused multiple leaks and ended the contest early. The game was played in Brazil.
That’s insane! How can this happen in a World Cup qualifier? There probably should be arrests, but it appears that the police were part of the problem here.
Korkmaz kept pointing at the tunnel like “let’s go” They did.
I’m sure he wasn’t calling out the other three guys involved as well.
You kind of missed the nuance there.
Arrests?? The rest of the world doesn’t live under a rock loke the US does.
It’s human nature at its most primitive. I love it.
The rest of the world doesn’t arrest people for assault? Yikes!
EuroBasket is the European championship, not a World Cup qualifier.
Truly insane is players jumping into the stands in order to fight the crowd during NBA games.
Shuffles in player tunnels happen all the time. While this one seemed to be one of the more heated ones, there’s no need to go straight to arresting people at an international tournament. I’s not like the players were dealing drugs or some other serious violation of local laws.
Spot on my man.
The linked article on the Furk incident is pretty concerning, and I say that as someone who doesn’t follow FIBA. Sounds like there was some collusion here.
Someone will soon fall out a hotel window after this on.
No they won’t.
Yeah. Rather doubtful.