Turkish basketball has produced its share of talented players, but the Serbian school of development is what attracted Efe Tahmaz to choose Belgrade over Istanbul. And he is making history at U18 Partizan NIS Belgrade.
Partizan's mentality attracted Turkish talent Tahmaz
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Tahmaz is playing at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Belgrade for a second time, averaging 6.0 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.0 blocks in the group phase, during which Partizan went 0-3 in Group A and also lost the seventh-place game to Lietkabelis Panevezys.
The 2.01-meter forward is spending his fourth season with Partizan, coming to Belgrade in 2018 after previously playing in the Besiktas Istanbul system.
"I decided to come to Serbia because of the basketball mentality here. At the same time, it was a huge opportunity for me to play in Serbia, and I didn't want to miss it," said Tahmaz, who picked up 4.8 points and 4.0 rebounds at the ANGT Belgrade last season.
Tahmaz not only was coming to a new team and country but he was making history at Partizan as the first foreign-born player in the club's youth system.
"The adjustment was pretty hard in the beginning because it is a different culture, a different religion, different country. It took me nearly a full season for me to adapt," he admitted.
Helping Tahmaz in the transition was his mother Funda Tahmaz, who played the game at a high level and coached in the Besiktas women's system before the move with her son to the Serbian capital. She coached Partizan's U16 women's team in the family's first year in Serbia and now is working with the Marina Maljkovic academy.
"It was much easier for me having her here because I had more comfort when I was trying to adapt to the system and the country itself," Tahmaz said.
His father is also in basketball and works as an individual skills trainer back in Istanbul.
"One of my first memories of basketball was playing in a fathers and sons tournament with my dad," said Tahmaz, who began with the game around age 9.
Tahmaz enjoys playing in Serbia more than Turkey: "In Turkey, the game is a little more strict with specific game plays. Players in Serbia have more freedom to create on their own."
Despite being outside the country, Turkey's basketball leaders have not lost track of Tahmaz, who played at the FIBA U18 European Challengers 2021 and averaged 3.4 points and 2.4 rebounds.
"It was a pretty challenging tournament because we were playing against players one year older than us. I can say it helped me improve my basketball mentality and my outlook on the game," he said of the event, which was for the 2003-born generation.
Even though the ANGT was in Belgrade, he had a feeling of home this weekend as Tahmaz and Partizan faced U18 Tofas Bursa in the first game of the tournament. Tofas players Berke Buyuktuncel and Kerem Konan both played with Tahmaz at the FIBA U18 European Challengers last summer.
"It was so much fun playing against my teammates from the national team and a Turkish team that I really know well," he said.
Tahmaz loves being in Serbia and with Partizan.
"I cannot say how much it means for me to be playing in such a big club like Partizan for four seasons," he said.
Tahmaz is playing this season for Partizan's U19 team in 1st Serbian division Jedinstvena liga, where he is averaging 11.7 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.8 steals. He has not yet practiced with Partizan's pro team.
Still, the fact that the club has many young players in the pro team – like Yam Madar, Uros Trifunovic, Balsa Koprivica, Gregor Glas and Tristan Vukcevic – gives Tahmaz hope.
"It motivates me a lot because I see if I work hard and put my all in, I know that I can be there and have a chance to play," Tahmaz said.
And it all goes back to his decision in 2018 to leave Turkey for Serbia.