Beşiktaş escapes big jersey crisis in Prague
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
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Extensive efforts by tailors helped Beşiktaş Milangaz play its Eurochallenge game against Pardubice today.The team’s manager, Şeref Yalçın, found a Prague workshop to tailor new jerseys for the Istanbul team after their normal game apparel was left in Istanbul due to heavy snowfall.
The team flew to the Czech Republic capital on Jan. 31 but Turkish Airlines (THY) forgot the luggage with the team’s equipment, Beşiktaş Milangaz coach Ergin Ataman tweeted yesterday, hours before the team’s match.
“THY forgot to add the equipment bags to the flight we were taking to Prague,” Ataman wrote on the microblogging site. “It was supposed to come this morning, but the flight was canceled.”
Ataman said the club was in contact with FIBA, the game’s international governing body, for several options.
Playing with an alternate jersey of the Prague team was on the cards, but the option was ditched after Yalçın got the approval for playing with newly tailored jerseys.
Beşiktaş is second in its Eurochallenge Group K with two wins and one defeat. Spain’s Fuenlabrada is on a perfect four-win run to lead the group.
The Eurochallenge is the third-tier competition in European club basketball.
Ataman criticized THY, Turkey’s national carrier, for its “negligence.”
“Of course there is a huge negligence in the relevant unit of the THY,” he wrote. “But cancelation of the morning flight due to snowfall is something unexpected. And they have been trying to make up for it.”
Another Turkish team in the competition, Karşıyaka lost 79-77 to Russia’s Triumph but remained second in its Group L behind Germany’s Dragons.
