“We had a bad start to the match. Of course, Fenerbahçe has started tough to the match as because they have lost against a Euroleague Champion candidate team in Greece and they are being crushed because of the 25 point difference, they were concentrated well. Though we couldn’t keep the rhythm at the beginning of the match. We followed and tried to catch throughout the match though we failed to do so. Therefore, the last score has a point difference. By this time, I have won some matches against Zeljko, lost some, but I always shook his hand. I didn’t today, though. I believe he knows better than I do, why I haven’t. There is a respect in between colleagues. When a team is trailing with the 24-point difference, it is very disrespectful to make fouls and to go offensive when 6 seconds are left on the clock. I am upset but it is natural, he had a very tough week. First the slap incident, then 25-point difference lost. Though, honestly, I would like to say that I am very sorry.”

Ergin Ataman continued for the question that was asked about Yiğitcan Saybir: “Yiğitcan was positive for us. Of course, the negative side is to have zero contribution from some of our players especially, first on the list is Birkan Batuk. We will take the necessary measures. We included Stimac today, and Douglas. Though about him we were mistaken for his performance today. We couldn’t take the performance needed from both of them today. Perhaps the change of the game affected negatively…”

Our young player Yiğitcan Saybir also stated his thoughts at the press conference: “We played against a strong rival. We started off bad. We tried to turn things around but we couldn’t.”