Shane Larkin found the courage to play again in the Turkish League
Yesterday, Anadolu Efes smashed Bursaspor with 86-55, continuing to occupy the top position in the Turkish league. The biggest news was the comeback on the court of the American guard Shane Larkin, who sit the last game against Turk Telekom for personal reasons related with the Coronavirus spread. Before the game played in Ankara during the weekend, Larkin took cautions, expressing publicly his opinions against the idea of continuing the games in the Turkish league. He was certainly for the cancellation of the entire league as he posted on his Twitter account.
Now, it seems that he found the courage to come back since he played more than 21 minutes against Bursaspor. But his lack of appetite was very visible since he posted some lower numbers than usually does: only 9 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. Once again, those who had more desire to play at their maximum potential were the homegrown players. Buğrahan Tuncer was the top scorer with 19 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist in less than 15 minutes spent on the court while his teammate form Anadolu Efes, the big man Sertac Sanli had 15 points and rebounds in 20 minutes played.
From all 10 foreigners of both teams, only 2 finished in double-digit, Vasilije Micić for Anadolu Efes (12 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists) and Olaseni Lawal (12 points, 17 rebounds!!!) for Bursaspor. It is very visible how the Coronavirus fear is affecting the foreigner players of Turkey, lowering a lot their numbers. Till now, Turkey is the only major league left in Europe that is continuing uninterrupted the basketball schedule. At the moment that I write the article, there are only 98 persons infected in Turkey and 1 dead. Let’s see if the virus will increase the damages in the next days throughout the country and then what will be the solution found by the Turkish basketball federation.
Photo: Euroleague
Gratian Cormos
