Basket Ball

The home team, Efes Pilsen, is the most storied basketball franchise in Turkey. Ä°t has won the Turkish Basketball League first division title 12 times, is the only Turkish team to capture a European tourney championship (Korac Cup 2006), and has produced four of the five Turkish players that have played in the NBA (Mehmet Okur, Hedo Turkoglu, Ibrahim Kutluay, Mirsad Türkçan). After failing to win the the Turkish title the last two years (and not advancing past the “Sweet Sixteen” of Euroleague), the team underwent a deep revision this past summer. Nine players were waived, six (five Americans) were added, and a new head coach – David Blatt – was named. David Blatt is currently to international basketball what Shakira is to international pop music – simply the hottest thing around. This past summer, in the European Championships, he only took a team nobody thought had much of a chance – Russia – and went onto the home court of the most feared team in Europe – Spain – and (gasp) dared to win the whole thing. And so the Efes faithful have good reason to anticipate a highly successful season – anything less than a Euroleague Final Four appearance will be considered a disappointment.