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Euroleague Legend – Mirsad Türkcan

Euroleague Legend – Mirsad Türkcan

The ‘King of the Rebound’, Mirsad Türkcan was able to leave his mark, no matter where he played. As his nickname shows, he was a great rebounder, but also a good all-around player who isn’t afraid to dive for every ball. Over the course of his career, he managed to get 50 double-doubles, which is the all-time record, and in a game against Buducnost, he even scored 27 points and got 23 rebound, and he led the Euroleague in rebounding three times in his career. furthermore, he has played in five different countries and 9 teams throughout his career.

He was born in Novi Pazar, Serbia, but Türkcan moved to Turkey to play basketball. There, he also received a Turkish passport, because of the situation in his home country. After a few years, Türkcan also got the chance to make his debut at the senior team of Efes Pilsen. Though it took a while for him to become a great player in the Euroleague, his rebounding skills were always the basis of his game. Four years after he made his debut, he led the Euroleague in rebounding for the first time. That led to him being drafted into the NBA in 1998 by the Houston Rockets. Because of the NBA’s lockout in 1998-1999, Türkcan decided to spend another year with Efes Pilsen.

Photo: Euroleague

In 1999-2000, a year after he was drafted, Türkcan finally made the step to go overseas to play for the Knicks. During the 1998-1999 season, his rights were first traded to the Philadelphia 76ers and then to the New York Knicks. This made Türkcan the first Turkish player to ever play in the NBA. Unfortunately, it turned out that he would have a short stint in the NBA. He only played 7 games, before he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, and there he played another 10 games. Though it would seem that Türkcan would be a great fit for the physical play of the NBA, he didn’t get enough minutes to be able to show that he belonged in the league. Therefore, after a total of 17 games in the NBA, he returned to Europe.

Luckily, he picked up right where he left, and continued to have a great career. A short, but successful stint in Paris led him to be contracted by CSKA Moscow, where he averaged 16.2 points and 10.7 rebounds. After that, he went to Montepaschi Siena, back to CSKA, to Dynamo Moscow, Ulker and finally to Fenerbahçe. Though he didn’t manage to win any Euroleague titles with his teams, he did have a lot of personal accomplishes. Türkcan managed to become the Rebound Leader of the Euroleague 5 times, was voted the Regular Season MVP in 2002, the Top 16 MVP in 2003, was voted into the All-Euroleague Team 3x times, and he became an Euroleague legend in 2017. And, overall, he was the Euroleague’s ‘King of the Rebound’.

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