Philadelphia 76ers guard Furkan Korkmaz and Indiana Pacers center Goga Bitadze ended up in an altercation outside a locker room at the EuroBasket tournament on Sunday.
The game, hosted in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, was part of preliminary group A in the tournament.
Korkmaz, a Turkish national, was assessed two technical fouls and then ejected after a confrontation on the court with Georgia’s Duda Sanadze.
What happened next is now up for debate between the Turks and the Georgians.
“As soon as we walked out of the tunnel and were trying to reach the locker room, I saw three Georgian players alongside two security guys running at us. We started throwing punches at each other. … It was like a street fight. There was no talk or conversation,” Korkmaz told BasketNews.
BeIN Sports Turkey reporter İsmail Şenol said on Twitter that the three Georgia players involved were Sanadze, Bitadze, and Tornike Shengelia.
Of the incident in the tunnel, Sanadze told BasketNews that “there were a couple of words said from him and from us. Then we met each other, but the security was trying to be between us. Even if we tried to fight, we couldn’t [have done] it because there were people between us. It was a kind of a brawl. I don’t think anyone punched or slapped each other. There were some swings going on, but I don’t think anyone got injured.”
Both Korkmaz and Sanadze gave statements to the International Basketball Association or FIBA.
The Georgian national basketball federation pinned much of the blame for the on-court conduct on Turkey head coach Ergin Ataman, who was also ejected.
“The National Basketball Federation of Georgia expresses its indignation due to the provocative actions taken by the head coach of the Turkish national basketball team,” the Georgian federation wrote in a statement quoted by BasketNews.
Turkish officials fired back with their own written and verbal indignation.
Former NBA player and Turkish Basketball Federation President Hedo Turkoglu told Eurohoops that “It should be questioned that an institution like FIBA gives the EuroBasket organization to third world countries like Georgia… If they are thinking that is a provocation, why don’t they show the cameras to the public?”
In an attempt to calm the waters, neither Ataman, Korkmaz nor Sanadze will be suspended in light of their ejections from Sunday’s game.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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