Ergin Ataman’s assistant, Hakan Demir, explained his perspective on the incident starring Turkey NT Furkan Korkmaz at the press conference after the match between Turkey and Georgia.
Hakan Demir appeared at the press conference where he spoke of three Georgian players and stadium security personnel attacking Korkmaz and the team trainer outside the locker room.
“Today the Georgian players and some of the security people disrespected us. We came here to play basketball, for nothing else. Everything should stay on the court but unfortunately, there was a big scandal off the court.
These incidents are not suitable for sports. A basketball match was supposed to be played today, but unfortunately what happened goes beyond basketball.
We have two more matches in Georgia and unfortunately what happened in the hallway today was against the spirit of the sport. We expected a more gentlemanly treatment, but unfortunately, it did not happen.”
Turkey had the chance to remain the only undefeated team in the group and almost clinched its place in the knockout stage. However, they lost to the hosts Georgia in double overtime (83-88) Sunday night.
