Finals
Game 1
Finals
final
Gran CanariaGCA
7167
Turk Telekom AnkaraTTA
final
Overview
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Erdem Can, Turk Telekom: 'I just wish we can make our people smile a little'
Article
3 Mins read
Erdem Can, Turk Telekom head coach
"I feel really honored [being chosen EuroCup Coach of the Year]. But as I said before, this is nothing to do with me. This is all about my team, my players, my organization. Every single member of my organization provides that energy, that support. And at end of the day, this is the team's success, not mine. This is just to appreciate my team's effort in a different way.
"It is not easy to play against Gran Canaria on the road. So we played twice against them and lost twice. Hopefully, we will learn. We will take our lessons from those defeats. And I think we are well prepared and focused enough to play the final. In life, if you want to succeed at something, especially if that has much more meaning than normally people guess then you are much more motivated. And personally, my biggest motivation is to give this cup to honor the people that we lost in this big earthquake, because lots of lives are lost and also lots of people lost their cities. And it affected millions of people in my country in some way. So I just want to, I just wish we can win this cup and make our people smile a little bit. We know how good of a team Gran Canaria is individually. They have great, great potential players, NBA potential players, NBA experienced players, plus they have players who have played together in the last few years. And I know that Gran Canaria until now played two finals. They haven't won any. This is the third final they play at home. They will be very, very careful about this game, so we need to be focused for 40 minutes and ready to match their toughness."
Semih Erden, Turk Telekom center
"For me, this is a big opportunity to win this championship and I am very excited. I hope we will have a good game tomorrow. It will be very tough, we know that because we played against Gran Canaria twice and know what they did win both games. So, we will prepare this game and I hope we are going to win this time. They play well, like a team, and run a lot. They have a good balance between big guys and perimeter guys. Like I said, they play like a team. We need to stay together and play good defense to stop them. This is the big advantage for us, so we will see tomorrow."
Erkan Yilmaz, Turk Telekom forward
"It's been one and a half months since we were here last time. We lost twice against them. We know each other very well. It is going to be a tough game. It's a hard game for us also, on the road, because of the trip, but this is the end, the last 40 minutes. This is the end of the tournament. That's why we need to give all our hearts, all our hustle, all our everything on the court for the last 40 minutes. We will see who's going to be OK in the end. They have been in this tournament for the last 20 years, a lot of years. They have experienced players and a deep rotation. Everywhere, EuroCup and ACB, they play good basketball. One of my former teammates, A.J. Slaughter, is playing with them. They have a deep rotation and experienced players like Benite, like A.J. That's why it will be a good game. We have a defensive plan and an offensive plan. I hope we will put everything on the court and we will handle it the way we need to get on the open court. We have to stop their one-on-ones and open threes. If they get their shooting rhythm, they fire it up and are at their home court, it is hard to stop them."