Seven EuroLeague players included in Turkey's EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers roster / News - Basketnews.com

Sertac Sanli highlights Turkey's preliminary roster for the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers, where the team will play two games against Italy and Iceland.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Turkish national team head coach Ergin Ataman has selected a preliminary squad of 16 players for the upcoming FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers window.

Melih Mahmutoglu

Team:Fenerbahce Beko IstanbulPosition:SGAge:33Height:191 cmWeight:85 kgBirth place:TurkeyProfileNewsStatistics

Seven of the chosen players come from EuroLeague teams, with three representing Anadolu Efes and four from Fenerbahce.

Star guards Shane Larkin and Scottie Wilbekin, who lost their domestic player status in the Turkish League, are absent from the roster. This exclusion stems from their absence in the 2023 FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Istanbul, where Turkey narrowly lost to Croatia in the final game.

Larkin and Wilbekin assert that injuries prevented their participation, but the Turkish Federation and Ergin Ataman claimed that the lack of effective communication with the national team led to their omission.

Looking ahead, Turkey is set to face Italy in Group B of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers on Thursday, February 22, followed by a matchup against Iceland on Sunday, February 25.

Full roster:

Ercan Osmani - Anadolu Efes Erkan Yilmaz - Anadolu Efes Erten Gazi - Anadolu Efes Berk Ibrahim Ugurlu - Besiktas Karem Kuthan Konan - Besiktas Melih Mahmutoglu - Fenerbahce Sertac Sanli - Fenerbahce Sehmus Hazer - Fenerbahce Tarik Biberovic - Fenerbahce A. Bugrahan Tuncer - Galatasaray Sadik Emir Kabaca - Galatasaray Furkan Haltali - Pinar Karsiyaka Kenan Sipahi - Pinar Karsiyaka Okben Ulubay - Turk Telekom Yigitcan Saybir - Turk Telekom Omer Can Ilyasoglu -Mega Soccerbet Support BasketNews so we could make even better content.