Ergin Ataman claimed the news about Kendrick Nunn becoming the naturalized player of choice for the Turkish national team was false but did not deny the possibility of him ever becoming one.
After news about Kendrick Nunn potentially joining the Turkish national team spread, the team's head coach, Ergin Ataman, responded.
Ataman, who also coaches Nunn in Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens, denied that Nunn would be the naturalized player of his choice. However, he did not say Nunn could not ultimately become one.
"We have many options for the [spot of a] naturalized player," Ataman told TRT Spor. "The news that Kendrick Nunn is our new naturalized player is not true. We are also working on having our current recruitment player, Tarik Biberovic, take his place in our squad as a Turkish player."
Ataman echoed the words of the Turkish Basketball Federation (TBF) president, Hidayet Turkoglu, who also emphasized that the organization will be actively working toward achieving a local player status for Tarik Biberovic, who was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina but switched affiliation in 2018.
"We'll have initiatives for Tarik Biberovic. We need to explain the process correctly. FIBA has some measures, but we need to explain this better because Tarik's brother Faruk does not play as a naturalized one," Turkoglu said on Tuesday following the Turkish League (BSL) draw ceremony. "If we achieve this, we will have a very different generation."
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