{"id":15189,"date":"2011-11-28T10:21:51","date_gmt":"2011-11-28T08:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=15189"},"modified":"2024-02-17T01:30:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T22:30:52","slug":"turkish-basketball-clubs-bid-farewell-to-nba-stars-nba-lockout-over-15189","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/turkish-basketball-clubs-bid-farewell-to-nba-stars-nba-lockout-over-15189\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish basketball clubs bid farewell to NBA stars \/ NBA lockout over"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"End
End of a Besiktas dream<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The end of NBA lockout hits Turkish basketball clubs. Hard. Many star players, including Deron Williams from Besiktas and Mehmet Okur from Telekom, will be heading back to the NBA and USA.<\/h1>\n

Istanbul \/ NationalTurk – Departure of Deron Williams, who has avaraged 21.3 points and 6.5 assists for Be\u015fikta\u015f Istanbul, will be a huge blow to the Istanbul club while other names will also head back to the US. Turkish basketball clubs are looking to restructure their squads and fill the gaps of departing NBA star or starlets following the announcement of an end to the NBA lockout that will deprive them of some of their best players.<\/p>\n

NBA owners and players reached a tentative deal Nov. 26 to end a lockout that had thrown the whole NBA season into jeopardy and are planning to begin a shortened schedule on Dec. 25., the day after christmas evening.<\/p>\n

Players and fans all around the world reacted with excitement to the news but Turkish clubs, which hoped to have the NBA stars until the end of the season, were bitter.<\/p>\n

End of a Besiktas dream<\/h2>\n

The hardest-hit Turkish Beko Basketball League side will be Besiktas Milangaz, which will lose New Jersey Nets star point guard Deron Williams, the best player to come from NBA to Europe, Turkish center Semih Erden and forward Lamar Odom, who was expected to join the squad next week.<\/p>\n

Other NBA players to head back to the United States include Zaza Pachulia of Galatasaray Medical Park, Fenerbah\u00e7e \u00dclker\u2019s Thabo Sefolosha and Mehmet Okur of T\u00fcrk Telekom. Efes Pilsen will keep Sasha Vujacic, whose contract ends at the end of the season, but Ersan \u0130lyasova\u2019s situation is not yet clear.<\/p>\n

Deron Williams : Thanks for everything<\/h3>\n

Deron Williams bid farewell to Turkey through a message he posted on the Twitter. ‘Guess I\u2019ll be going home soon,’ he wrote. ‘My time in Istanbul with Be\u015fikta\u015f was amazing, thanks for everything.’<\/p>\n

Be\u015fikta\u015f Milangaz coach Ergin Ataman admitted that the team would lose a lot with the departures. \u201cActually, we were expecting such a thing to happen no later than January,\u201d Ataman told Do\u011fan news agency. \u201cDeron will be with us for another 10-15 days, and we will strengthen our squad with European players, but it is impossible to find a player like Deron Williams in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deron Williams, the kid froM Besiktas, \u00a0as he is called by Besiktas fans, averaged 21.8 points, 6.5 assists and 3 rebounds for Be\u015fikta\u015f Milangaz but D-Will’s biggest contributions could not be measured in statistics, Ataman said.<\/p>\n

‘European basketball had a thrill during the NBA lockout,’ said Ataman. ‘A star player like Deron wore the Be\u015fikta\u015f jersey; many children came to love basketball thanks to him. Now, everything will be back the way it used to be.’<\/p>\n

Anadolu Efes General Manager Engin \u00d6zerhun told the agency that the club would do its best to keep \u0130lyasova in the squad.<\/p>\n

‘We were not warm to the idea of signing NBA players during the lockout, but we had to bring in Ersan after Kerem G\u00f6nl\u00fcm\u2019s long-time injury,’ said \u00d6zerhun, adding that \u0130lyasova was looking to dissolve his contract with the Milwaukee Bucks. ‘We will wait for the result of the talks. Of course, we would love to keep Ersan in our team. He will be a huge loss if he leaves, we do not have an available slot for a foreign player and there is no Turkish player [capable of] replacing Ersan.’<\/p>\n

Galatasaray Medical Park coach Oktay Mahmuti said he believed his club did not need an immediate signing. \u201cZaza [Pachulia] joined us later in the season and we sent Serta\u00e7 [\u015eanl\u0131] on loan to Tofa\u015f after his arrival,\u201d’ he said. \u201cWe will have Sertouch back from loan and he will fill in Zaza\u2019s void.’<\/p>\n

The end of the NBA lockout affects European basketball in two ways, according to Mahmuti. \u201cIt was important for NBA players to play for European clubs as a PR effort, the interest in the leagues had grown,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it was not good for the consistency of the squads, everybody knew that. NBA players would sooner or later return to the U.S., creating uncertainty for the rest of the players.\u201d<\/p>\n

T\u00fcrk Telekom coach Timu\u00e7in Meri\u00e7 said Okur contributed a lot to the club during his short spell in Ankara. ‘It also helped Mehmet, who missed many games in the last two seasons due to injuries,’ said Meri\u00e7. ‘He is in good form right now and will be heading back to the NBA ready to play.’<\/p>\nError, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 9)<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The end of NBA lockout hits Turkish basketball clubs. Hard. Many star players, including Deron Williams from Besiktas and Mehmet Okur from Telekom, will be heading back to the NBA and USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":562,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,25,1230,80,63,118,1633,14],"tags":[1700,17967,15148,15313,16342,16344,77177,16345,19167,19168,2308],"class_list":["post-15189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","category-america","category-basketball","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-hot","category-turkey-sport","category-world","tag-besiktas","tag-besiktas-deron-williams","tag-besiktas-istanbul","tag-besiktas-jk","tag-deron-williams","tag-deron-williams-besiktas","tag-nba","tag-nba-lockout","tag-nba-players-europe","tag-nba-players-turkey","tag-nba-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/562"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78620,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15189\/revisions\/78620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}