Ready to rock in the Top 16!

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:48:37 GMT

Hello everybody,

Just as it is for all real basketball fans, the arrival of the Top 16 is good news for Fenerbahce Ulker fans. You know, we are challenging on two fronts this season: on the court and off the court. I'm sure you know what I mean: on the court, with our opponents; and off the court, with injuries. We are trying to defend our title in Turkish League, to win the Turkish Cup and of course, the main target, to reach the Final Four in Berlin. So far, we have done well despite the difficulty of successive injuries. Back in the early fall, playing for the Turkish national team in the group qualifying stages for EuroBasket 2009, three of us - Semih Erden, Omer Asik and I - suffered serious injuries. Semih and I started to play again in the middle of the Euroleague regular season. But Omer Asik is still waiting for his turn to come back, hopefully within a month. That's not to forget the long-term injury suffered by our new signing at the beginning of the season, Gordan Giricek, whom we hope will be ready for the Top 16.

Besides the return of Giricek, the main good news is that we showed during the regular season that we were capable of doing something special despite all those very important absences. I think we were able to qualify because of the young talents and newcomers making such a good connection with the experienced players on the team. Emir Preldzic, Gasper Vidmar and Oguz Savas made huge improvements of quality in our game. At the same time, new guys like Marques Green and Devin Smith made quick adjustments to our team concepts. And, of course, I cannot overlook the contributions of the good old guys like Damir Mrsic and Mirsad Turkcan. They all lifted their games enough to hide the absence of the injured players.

As I said, we have good chemistry based on a mixture of young talents and experienced stars. This concept has been in place for two years, and the signs that our progress are the titles we have won in the Turkish League and our quarterfinal spot in the Euroleague last season. Then, we had excellent team players added to our roster this season. Devin Smith is a perfect kind of team player, a very positive addition for us. At the point guard position, we had a kind of revolution. Willie Solomon was also a great player who loves the ball, was aggressive on offense and yes, sometimes positively lunatic on offense. Marques Green is a different kind of player who is really delightful to play with. I really enjoy playing on the same team with Marques. I have never participated in so many fastbreaks in my career! It's just because he knows to feed me the ball when I'm running. At the same time, Marques is an expert at passing to the big men on the pick 'n' rolls - with perfect timing. For that reason, our scoring is distributed among at least seven or eight players on the team. That makes a team difficult to beat. Gordan Giricek is a kind of basketball phenomenon who I believe will help us a lot in the Top 16. We are expectant to see him back in action.

Let's talk about our future plans a little bit. As a player who has been in a Final Four organization before, I believe that Fenerbahce Ulker will be among the top four in the near future. I say it because this is a good organization with a well-balanced team and an excellent coach in Bogdan Tanjevic. It's true that the balance between the Euroleague teams is breaking....

Shooting for the top again!

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:38:37 GMT

Hi everybody!

First of all, I would like to wish all the best to all the competitors in Euroleague. It's a little bitter for me that I'll be out for a little while more due to my knee injury. I'm luckier than my teammate Omer Asik, who was also injured during national-team duty and will be out until the spring. Fortunately, Semih Erden and I are both expected to join our team in a few weeks.

We are on the edge of a new beginning with the players who left and the ones joined us. But if you ask me the difference between the last season and this season, I can only say that the difference is serious injuries, nothing else. We lost Willie Solomon and Tarence Kinsey to the NBA, but we are lucky that their replacements are as quality as they were. I wish Willie and Tarence all the best in their NBA journey.

Marques Green is a kind of perfect team player who is always trying to find the best timing and position for a pass to his teammates to score. This is a good thing for a team which is based on the team play. We have Devin Smith, who is also a great player eligible to play the role for the team effort. He is also very kind and a perfect example of a strong character, which helps the other teammates in any situation. Theres nothing I can say about Gordan Giricek that others have not: he is a kind of elite star, which all teams need. I'm sure he will help us a lot. So generally, if I compare the last season's team configuration, we are at least stronger than before.

The only thing we are targeting is to play the Final Four, nothing else. For that reason, we have to follow our route step by step, like we did last season. Of course, we need the luck on our side, but the thing is that the luck is on the side of those who desire a lot.

It's not easy to challange the teams that have huge bugdets, like Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and CSKA Moscow, who signed some quality NBA players. It will be harder than last season for us, I think. But the thing is that we managed to move into the Quarterfinal Playoffs last season. We are more experienced and more dominant than last year. For sure, the favorite of our group is Tau Ceramica. We will try to finish the group stage in first two places. DKV Joventut, Lottomatica Roma and Union Olimpija are the other candidates for what we target. The key for us this season is that we have to get better results with the big opponents. Last season, we lost all the games against Regal Barcelona, Real Madrid and Panathinaikos in the group stage. This season, we have to win all five matches at home for the good of our future in the group.

Unfortunately, I remain in Istanbul instead of joining my team mates for the trip to Vitoria due to my knee injury. It's a bone problem, and I have to rest for it to recover. The team will miss the injured players like me, Asik and Erden. But our team concept is ready to handle the hard work. You can only become successfull if you have at least nine or 10 players in the rotation. That's what we will do this season as we will fight hard to reach our target. That's all from Istanbul for now, but I'll hopefully be back on the floor before long and blogging about big wins by Fenerbahce Ulker.

See you soon,

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Ready to rock in the Top 16!

Shooting for the top again!