Turkish national team alleges NBA player attacked by opposing team members after being ejected from EuroBasket 2022 game in Georgia

By Homero De la Fuente, CNN

The Turkish national team is threatening to pull out of EuroBasket 2022 after it says one of its team members, NBA player Furkan Korkmaz of the Philadelphia 76ers, was attacked Sunday after being ejected from a game.

The Turkish team is demanding security footage from the corridor where it believes three players on the Georgia national team and security guards attacked Korkmaz.

Korkmaz, who is competing for his native Turkey, was ejected after he got into a confrontation with Georgia guard Duda Sanadze on the court after being fouled during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s competition. Both players can be seen in video from the game coming head-to-head in a heated exchange before both were ultimately ejected from the game.

In a statement, Turkish Basketball Federation vice president Ömer Onan said, “While Furkan Korkmaz was walking in the hallway to the locker rooms with our trainer, Georgia’s players who were not on the active roster attacked him.” He alleged security officers were also involved.

CNN has reached out to the Georgia Basketball National Federation but did not immediately hear back. The 76ers declined to comment on the incident.

Korkmaz hasn’t spoken about the incident publicly but tweeted out three Turkish flag emojis on his verified Twitter account. According to a source, Korkmaz was unharmed during the incident.

Turkey’s assistant head coach Hakan Demir told reporters in a news conference it was three Georgian players and security personnel who attacked the 76ers guard.

Demir added that the Turkish team was there to play basketball and that the off the court incident has no place in the sport.

“Of course, everything should be on the court, but unfortunately, what happened in the corridors, what happened in the locker rooms, it was not suited for the sport. We were expecting more hospitality and more gentleman behaviors.”

Meanwhile, Onan has called on the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) to release camera footage from the corridor of where the incident occurred or threatened the team would leave the tournament.

When asked about the incident during the news conference, Georgia’s head coach Ilias Zouros said he had not heard about it.

FIBA Europe confirmed to CNN they were investigating the incident but declined to comment until “establishing all facts.”

Georgia won the game against Turkey, 88-83 in double overtime, at Tbilisi Arena. Turkey has lodged an official protest, claiming that during the incident 22 seconds were wrongly taken off the clock.

Turkey is scheduled to play Belgium on Tuesday, while Georgia faces Bulgaria.

The-CNN-Wire
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