Ataman: I won t focus on how to prevent letters. If he has an offensive foul, he should be yelled

In the semi-finals of the European Championship, the Turkish men's basketball team will play against the Greek men's basketball team. Türkiye's coach Ataman talked about Antetokounmpo in an interview.

Speaking of Antetokounmpo, Ataman said: "Giannis' scoring ability is unquestionable, and there is no need to talk about it. We will not focus on 'how to defend Giannis', but will focus on playing our regular defensive level. We will study countermeasures, but I also want to say that Coach Spanoris (Greece coach) is not only capable of being a tactical level, but also extremely sharp psychological quality. He is very smart. I used to communicate with him, and I think he either learned some psychological tactics from me, or he has such qualities."

" He mentioned during the group stage that Giannis received much less free throws than Doncic, Shinkin and Jokic. But I noticed that yesterday (Greece) match against Lithuania, Giannis scored 16 free throws alone.   times. This is a very smart operation, but I can find other ways of coping on the psychological level. "

" You know, NBA basketball is different from European basketball. In the NBA, there is a lot of room for breakthrough on the offensive end, and Giannis is the top expert in this field. But European basketball is different: there is no defensive three-second rule here, and I found that he (Giannis) will get a lot of offensive fouls in the European arena. Admittedly, when he is touched, the referee may call fouls that are good for him, but I think that if there is indeed an offensive foul when he breaks through, he should be called  —  because in the last game, I saw very, very many offensive fouls (should be called). So, this is also part of my psychological tactics."

source:7M Sport