04/19/24
October 30, 2010
Allen Iverson Takes His Talents to Istanbul: Eleven-times NBA All-Star guard Allen Iverson has signed a two-year contract with the Turkish club Besiktas ColaTurka. BallinEurope has his introductory press conference. "I have a lot of basketball left in me," said Iverson, 35, who did not get an offer from an NBA team this off-season. "Hopefully this can be as positive as I want it to be."
posted by rcade to basketball at 03:40 PM - 10 comments
Not Constantinople.
posted by grum@work at 09:49 PM on October 30, 2010
Not Constantinople.
That's Nobody's Business But The Turks
posted by tommybiden at 10:11 PM on October 30, 2010
Not only one, but two people beat me to the punch.
Also, juding from that last quote in the lead (don't have access to a transcript of the presser and videos don't work for me), The Answer does not sound overly enthused about this.
posted by Bonkers at 02:48 AM on October 31, 2010
Iverson wasn't super-enthused, but that quote was part of a long answer about how much the opportunity meant to him.
I'm surprised he would play in a Muslim country if China was available. Although Turkey is more like Germany than Afghanistan, there's still a reason to be concerned that a high-profile American athlete would be the target of a Munich-style terror plot.
Anyone know whether there's a way to watch these games? I'd like to see his opener.
posted by rcade at 08:58 AM on October 31, 2010
Do have access to espn3.com? That's the only place I can think of that would show this game.
posted by NoMich at 09:56 AM on October 31, 2010
To accentuate the point I was making about security, a suicide bomber just wounded 32 in Istanbul.
posted by rcade at 10:03 AM on October 31, 2010
Rossini wrote a comic opera titled "Il Turco in Italia" (The Turk in Italy) about lover's triangles, gypsies, and mixups at costume balls. He also wrote another called "L'italiana in Algeri" (The Italian Girl in Algiers) about the Turkish ruler of Algeria and his marital and extra-marital affairs with an Italian girl. It's too bad Rossini isn't a contemporary composer. He could do wonders with "Iverson in Turkey".
posted by Howard_T at 01:45 PM on October 31, 2010
"Il Turkey in Turkey" ?
posted by roberts at 02:53 PM on October 31, 2010
Do have access to espn3.com? That's the only place I can think of that would show this game.
Former UMass forward and Boston Celtics bench suit Tony Gaffney signed with a Turkish team in the same league after the Celtics released him early in training camp. He has been posting links on facebook to a sites that broadcast the games. One of the ones his posted was allfootballtv.com. Since the games are in the middle of the day here in the US I haven't been able to try out any of the links, but if it is like the pirated feeds you could watch during the World Cup, it should be an acceptable way to watch the games.
For a bit of perspective that AI may have missed, check out Tony's blog on ESPN where he is very happy with his Cup of Corn over in Turkey
posted by Demophon at 10:46 AM on November 01, 2010
I really think that an already hesitant Allen Iverson should have taken his talents to China. He is absolutely revered there and would have massive endorsement opportunities. I'm not confident that this Turkish experiment will end well.
Still, it'll be interesting to watch, eh.