Adventures in Thailand

As many of you know, basketball has always been my favorite sport. I play it as much as I can, (which isn’t as often as I’d like), I root for my hometown team, the Washington Wizards, and the only video game I’ll play is NBA 2K6 on my PlayStation. So when my buddy Kevin told me that he went to a game and met a few Americans who are playing for some Turkish teams here in Ankara, I got pretty excited. Then he got me a free ticket to the next game, which was today.

The arena wasn’t too bad, if in a little disrepair. It was kind of dark in there, not quite as well lit as the arenas and gyms I’m used to from playing back in the states. The teams that were playing were Turk Telekom and Darussafaka. The Turk Telekom team is based in Ankara, so I guess you could consider it our home team. We sat right next to the court, with 2 of the wives of the American players. Apparently, each team is only allowed to have at most 3 American players on their team; the rest must be Turkish. Turk Telekom has 2 Americans: Erwin Dudley, who played Division 1 College ball at Alabama and averaged 15 ppg and 10 rebs. a game his last year there; and Derrick Alston, who played his college ball at Duquesne and was drafted 33rd overall in the 1994 NBA draft by the 76ers. Also sitting with us were a few players from the other team based in Ankara, fresh off of a victory. I chatted with one of them for a bit, his name is Marques Green. He played at St. Bonaventure where one year he averaged 22 ppg and 8 assists a game. Not too shabby! He had scored 31 points in the victory I referred to above, which makes him the league leader. He had some interesting things to say about playing ball overseas. He had played for 2 years in France before coming to Turkey, and surprisingly enough, he says that he likes Turkey a lot more than France. He cited the friendliness of the Turkish people, and that Ankara has a lot more going for it than the little town he played in in France. He also gets paid more in Turkey, mostly because they don’t have to pay any taxes. These guys are set, man. If you have any NBA experience, your salary will go up exponentially. Some guys are making upwards of a million dollars a year. That’s chump change compared to the NBA, but this isn’t the NBA; it’s not nearly as developed a league, and Turkey just isn’t as wealthy as the US. Also, these guys are like us in the Foreign Service – they get their housing paid for, and some of them get cars, too. So that money is almost pure profit. Sounds like a good deal to me…

Anyway, back to the game; it ended up being a blow out – 93 to 71, with Turk Telekom winning. Most of the game the deficit was hovering around 30 points. As far as the style of game, it’s European; lots of guys jacking up 3s whenever they can. Any kind of low post play was provided by the Americans like Erwin Dudley, who comes in at 6′8″ 240 lbs. It was entertaining though. The Turks definitely know how to play, and can stroke those 3s.

I will definitely be going back to see some more games; I want to see Marques Green play; all the things I’ve heard is that he’s the real deal. He’s a point guard, only 5′7″ tall, so he must be lightning quick. He’s also a really nice guy. I also learned from this website http://tblstat.net, that Will Solomon, who played at Clemson while I was there, is on the Fenerbahce team from Istanbul. It’d be cool to see him play here in Ankara at some point. What a small world.