HEARTBREAK: Alperen Sengun’s 28 Points NOT ENOUGH As Turkiye Gold Medal Hopes FALL SHORT To Germany

On today’s show, Alper and Chingun’s 28 points wasn’t enough as Toier suffers a heartbreaking defeat to Germany in the Euro Basket Championship. We’re going to break it all down for you right here at Locked on Rockets. This is mission control Houston. Ignition sequence start 6 4 3 2 1. The 12 giant men fought hard, but it ultimately wasn’t enough as they fall to Germany in the Euro Basket Championship, 88- 83. Nehab de Vos Gelenise. What is up and welcome to another edition of Locked on Rockets, your daily podcast, home for everything Houston Rockets and Basketball. As always, I’m your host, Jackson Gatlin, native Houstononian credentialed media member. I’m also the host of Locked on NBA Thursdays. Be sure to follow along wherever you listen to your podcasts or on YouTube. Just search Locked on Rockets where the best way you can help us grow our show is to listen every single day on a podcast platform of your choosing and then like, comment, subscribe on YouTube. On today’s show, we’re going to be talking about, recapping, breaking down, reliving the pain that was the uh loss in the Euro Basket Championship. Final score 88 to 83. Just not enough to overcome Germany, especially late in this game. Um, a lot that we’re going to have to break down and talk about from this one. What went wrong for Toriier in this game. Uh, what we saw out of Alper and Shingun. His 28 points was impressive, but it ultimately wasn’t enough. There were certainly some moments that Shingun will be able to look back on it and wish he could have done some things differently, as well as moments to look at and grow from for the future of his career. I’m going to get to all of that. some lessons to be learned from Euro Basket as well as why Torquier will be back here again in the future. Uh, first want to let you know that today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use anywhere across the app. Download the app today. And as always, thanks so much for making Lockdown Rockets part of your day every single day, whether it’s on your way to work, on your lunch break, in the gym. Thank you so much for being an everyday. And also thank you to all the Turkish fans who have been tuning in and you know being a part of this program throughout this Euro basket run and and hopefully you’ll stick around. Hopefully you’ve appreciated and enjoyed the coverage and you’ll stick around for this upcoming season where we are sure to see Alpinun take yet another significant step forward in his NBA career. But let’s talk a little bit about this game. And I don’t even know where I want to start with this. I will say this is this is the most emotionally invested I’ve been in a nonrockets basketball game like in my entire life. Um I think the closest that I’ve ever been to this level of investment was game seven Cavs Warriors just because I desperately wanted to see the Warriors lose. Like I was so anti-W Warriors at that point that I wanted LeBron and the Cavs to win and I was so invested in that game. Um but this was right there, man. like, you know, and and I was sitting on pins and needles this whole game. Um, and it was stressful. It was really stressful. I I want to talk a little bit about the game first and foremost, then we’ll talk I want to get into some specifics about the stuff with Alpore. I’ll probably bounce around a little bit. My My mind’s kind of all over the place still kind of reacting to this loss, if you will. Um, I’ll you know what? I’ll start with Shingun. I’ll start with Shingun. Uh look, end of the game, uh Shingun had a really strong scoring performance, but unfortunately this wasn’t one of his better games throughout Euro Basket. It just wasn’t. Um he finished the game with 28 points on 11 of 22 shooting. He was 10 of 17 overall, just one of five from three-point land. Uh was five of six at the free throw line, had only three rebounds and three assists, and also racked up three turnovers. He did have three blocks. He got them all in the first quarter, but he did have three blocks. Um, but I think this this game was almost the antithesis of what we’ve seen out of Shingun through all of Euro Basket where there have been a handful of games where he hasn’t even needed to be the number one scoring option where he has been able to impact the game in a variety of other ways with his defense, with his playmaking, with his screening, with his rebounding, like all these different things. And this was like the complete flip side of that where first off in the first quarter I mean Shingun had some nice defensive plays in the first quarter but his he didn’t you didn’t really feel his impact on the game. Meanwhile on the other side you certainly felt Fran Vagner’s impact on the game. He had his fingerprints all over the game. And I even remember like you know sharing this on social media during the game when Shingun was getting his first breather his first rest of the game. I was like, he needs to find a way to make an impact when he checks back in. And that’s exactly what he did in the second quarter. He came into the second quarter and he was just his sole focus was to score the basketball. And he did exactly that. He had like a straight four, five different possessions in a row, you know, scoring at the rim, scores at the rim again, pops a three-pointer, uh, scores at the rim again, just just repeatedly getting it done offensively. gets to the free throw line and he racked up I want to say he racked up like 14 points in the second quarter. I don’t have the the quarter by quarter breakdown here. Um but he was sensational in the second quarter. He showed up in a big way as Thor’s star player and shouldered the scoring burden to get them back out in front and to take a lead a six-point lead 4640 into halftime. But that was kind of his only mark on the game, unfortunately. Like the the rebounding was well below his usual standard. And when you look at the team stats across the board, I mean, Germany outrebounded by 10. They were they outrebound him 36 to 26. And part of that was because Shingun wasn’t where he needed to be. He wasn’t as effective on the glass. Um the facilitating wasn’t quite there, right? Germany elected to they doubled at times, but they also elected to guard Sing Shingun in single coverage at times and just force him into being a scorer. And here’s the issue and I have some of this falls on Shingun, but some of it also falls on his teammates and on coaching. And this is going to be the issue that we see. We’ve seen it with the Rockets. We’ve seen it in Euro Basket with the national team. But when you just either can’t or won’t get the ball to your best player and let them make their impact on the game, then bad stuff starts to happen or or things don’t look as good as they could. And in this game, especially early on, there was a little bit too much Shane Larkin offense for my liking. He finished the game just five of 16 overall shooting. He was trying to force the issue a little bit too much offensively. And it really felt like for a good chunk of this game, Urkier was really sped up that they weren’t settling into their offense. They weren’t playing through Alpinun, getting those post touches, letting him command a double team or scoring right at the rim. They got away from the recipe of success that they’d had through a lot of the tournament up to this point. And that’s disappointing. And that’s one of the, you know, issues when you have a star player who is a big man who needs the guards and the other players on the team to recognize, hey, I need to get the ball to my big and let him do his thing, let him go to work, right? And the reason I say this is partially on Shingun is he also needs to command those opportunities better. And some of that’s on coaching, too. But he also needs to make the most of his opportunities when he’s given them. And when I say that, I mean the five threes that Shingun took in this game, I pretty I feel pretty confident saying I didn’t like pretty much a single one of them. You know, the the very last one at the very end with, you know, a chance to tie the game that he had to take that one, but there were so many threes that he took that felt like lazy three-pointers early in the shot clock. zero effort to try and get something going, a paint touch or a post up or a drive or anything. Just just walking into a three-point and that’s that’s not his game, unfortunately. It’s not, you know, if it was cool. If he was knocking down threes at a 35 36 37% clip, awesome. Take them all. But that’s not who he is as a player. And some of that might have been the exhaustion of being so of being tired from, you know, you know, the the German players on the perimeter, you know, playing so hard in the pick and roll, playing hard defensively. Um, but some of it’s just settling, right? And that’s that’s the little bit, you know, there’s still I walk away from this feeling like feeling two ways about Alper and Shingu. One, that he has shown a tremendous amount of growth and that he’s absolutely on a star level trajectory and you you’re not going to take that away from him. There was not a single player who played better through all of Euro Basket than Alpen Shingu. I will say I’ll say this for anybody who wants to listen to it. Alen Shingu was robbed of the Euro Basket MVP award. I don’t care that Germany won and that Dennis Shruder was Dennis Schrudder was fantastic throughout the tournament. Dennis Shruder did not have anywhere near the amount of responsibility, the individual responsibility that Alparen Shingun had throughout this tournament for his team. Shingun was the number one scorer, rebounder, facilitator. He was the defensive anchor. All of that for for his team. Druer had a a gigantic role to play in Germany winning gold. But I I just I I I maintain Shingun was robbed. But I I I I go back to again, this is there’s a lot to be proud of and there’s a lot to be excited for with Al Perining moving forward, both for the Houston Rockets and for the Turkish national team down the line. But there’s also a lot of moments that you can look at in this game and identify as moments that are he’s going to go back and look at and and learn from and grow from. There’s a lot of lessons to be learned from this game and we’re we’re going to be and not just this game, but the whole Euro basket experience and we’re going to talk about a few of those in particular as we navigate through this show. Coming up, I want to get into the game a little bit, break down a little bit about, you know, the game flow and how things started and, you know, some of the unfortunate crunchtime execution for Dorier that resulted in them not being able to uh come away as the gold medal champions. Uh we’re going to get there in just one moment. First, today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season is here, and FanDuel’s making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’tmiss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5, five bucks only. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. FanDuel’s awesome because it fits however you like to bet. 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Like, I mean, a 13-2 start out of the gate. It looked like we were headed for another blowout performance just like against Greece early on. They had great ball movement. Jaddyy Osman hit a couple big threes early on. Um and it it was allier early and Germany had to call a timeout and as soon as they came back from that timeout, that’s when it became a real game. They reeled off a 70 run. Great response from Germany and they kind of went back and forth there in that first quarter. Isaac Bonga was dude had an insane game. Uh, dude had a ridiculous game. Hit big threes. Was I want to say he was perfect shooting the ball from the floor in this one. Bonga. Uh, four. Yeah, four of four from downtown. Um, and that was certainly an element at play here. Germany just shot the absolute lights out of the basketball. 14 of 26 from downtown on the evening. And you know, it it’s not that like Burke’s defense was good, too, is the part like they they they forced them into some really really difficult moments offensively. Um, and I want to give a huge shout out to Sheamus Hazer and Kenan Sabahi and Shane Larkin a little bit too, who really did a great job neutralizing Dennis Shruder for so much of the game. Um Sher wound up finishing with 16 points on five of 11 shooting and he really took over late in the game unfortunately but I mean he was so quiet for so much of the game before before he popped off there at the end. Uh he did have 12 dimes did also have six turnovers. So like it was not a flawless game from Dennis Shruder. made him work for it across the board and and Sheamus Hoser was the most individually talented defender that Schroeder had had matched up with throughout this tournament and it certainly felt like it. I mean, Hazard did a great jobounding Sher, picking him up full court, really making him work for every single opportunity. And it wasn’t until later in the game that Sher started to kind of wiggle loose a little bit, get some opportunities, and even then, you know, that that dagger shot at the end. Like, that’s that’s not a great shot. Like, um forced him into such a difficult look for that two-pointer to pull ahead by three late in the game, the fin, you know, the dagger if you want to call it that. Um, honestly, that’s a shot you live with. You know, an a a long two over the outstretched arms of a sevenfooter in Urjan Oasismani who who did a great job contesting it. Like, there’s an alternate reality where that shot just breaks off the back iron. You feel really good about that contest, that really good about that miss. Um, one of the biggest, probably the biggest play though of the game was the possession right before that one where Shane Larkin drove the ball in and I want to say I he he missed it. It was either a miss or a pass. I’m going I’m going completely out of memory here. apologize, but the ball wound up in Alparen Shingun’s hands um with a chance to score the ball right there at the rim and the score was 84 83. Germany was up. This bucket would have put Thorier ahead by one. And that miss from Alper and Shingun was the game probably the game defining shot like th those two buckets back to back or the miss by Shingun and then the follow-up bucket by Dennis Shruder. Um that pretty much sealed the game. Um, and that that that right there would have been had Shingun made that shot and Turkey had gone back ahead. Then you’re a little bit more settled in defensively. The pressure isn’t on you to, you know, keep it a one-point game. You have a little bit of breathing room. Maybe Germany calls a timeout to draw something up at that point instead of, you know, and then you swap out your guys. I don’t know. But that that was a pretty painful miss from Alpore and Shingun in a game where he had you know a lot of up and down play unfortunately. You know he was I won’t say invisible in the first quarter but you really didn’t feel his impact on the first quarter. The scoring really took off in the second quarter but then the rest of the way that that third quarter and especially that fourth quarter you know you didn’t see Alpen Shigun making the impact you wanted your star player to make on a game. And some of that again is not being given the opportunity to do so, you know, by his teammates who were maybe trying to do a little bit too much. Um, but some of it is also just he just needs to be flat out better and that’s the only way to really look at it. And he’ll go back and look at that miss and he’ll probably replay that that shot a thousand times over thinking, “Why did I miss that shot when I’ve made hundreds of them before in my career?” Um, and it’s tough, right? that that’s that’s one of those really painful misses that he wishes he could add back that everybody wishes he could have had back. Um I will say that despite Shane Larkin’s offensive struggles to score the ball, his contributions as a playmaker and as a defender were so invaluable in this game. He had so many great defensive plays, so many great stops. Um, and the facilitating nine dimes in this game in a game where Alpour and Jingun really did not have it. Was was not being either given the opportunity to facilitate or just not not impacting the game enough as a facilitator to really create opportunities for his teammates in this one. Shane Larkin was the offensive engine for Gorgier in this game and without him it would have been a much uglier affair than it ultimately wound up becoming. Uh so he he played out of his mind. You know Jedy Osman was sensational. I don’t know how the dude dudes made six three-pointers. Six of nine three-point shooting. Nice. Um he hit six of the nine threes for the entire team. Of the nine makes that Dorier had, six of them came from Jetty, which means that they were three of 16 from players who weren’t Jetty Osman shooting threes. Alper and Shingun and Shane Larkin were a combined two for 12 from downtown. And that’s what really that’s that’s really what kind of killed him is just that settling for that three ball which is weird because they still shot 36% as a team but Shane and Shingun were so bad from beyond the ark that it didn’t it Jetty being on fire wasn’t able to offset it unfortunately. Um, Adam Bona was also really impactful in his minutes and and honestly I I I buried the lead on this one, but Shenun’s foul trouble was the other was another really big lesson to be learned for him from this game. He picked up three fouls. He picked up two fouls early in the first quarter and had to go sit down. Or not early, but like at the near the end of the first quarter, he picked up his second foul and had to go sit down uh for a little bit, but he picked up his third foul late in the second quarter. And the foul trouble in FIA is such an interesting dynamic because in the NBA it’s six fouls for 48 minutes. In FIA, it’s five fouls for 40 minutes. And Shenun didn’t start the second half of the game. He started the game on the bench because Dorier was up 4640. And I vehemently disagreed with that decision when Ottoman decided to start with Shingun on the bench. I could not wrap my head around and I I cannot grasp the concept of not rolling with your best five to start the half. I get it. Sure, they had a six-point cushion. He was hope, you know, he didn’t want Shingo to pick up his fourth foul that early in the game, I guess. But Germany wheeled off a 10 to3 a 10 to3 run to take the lead and to to regain control regain momentum of the game and that to me and immediately Shingun checked back in and immediately started you know picked up where he left off in the second quarter knocked down what should have been counted as a three-pointer but his toe was on the line so it was a long two-pointer but um you know Shingun checked back in and immediately started making things happen again offensively but to to forego that for the first couple minutes of the third quarter just felt like a really big mistake. And I don’t know, maybe it’s more maybe it’s more common than I think it is of of like starting in FIA to if you have three fouls like you just don’t start the second half, but that just seems so such a foreign concept to me and and I was I just did not feel like it was the right move at the time. And that run to allow Germany to to get momentum and to get back into it certainly felt like one of the kind of key inflection points of the game, if you will. uh where had that not happened right had they been a had thier been able to build on that lead then we might be talking about a different result here um coming up I want to share final thoughts on this game as well as lessons for Alper and Shenun to take away from this experience and ultimately why Thurier will be back in this position down the line and why it’s not the end of the world that they didn’t come away with the gold in this one. We’re going to get there in just one moment. 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Get the favorites you love or be bold and try something new in store and online at www.5 5ourenergy.com or Amazon today. And final segment here at Locked on Rockets, your daily podcast, home for everything Houston Rockets and Dorier basketball. I want to I I feel like I’ve been like heavy and like a little dejected in the show. And like I just want to re-emphasize like like because you should be absolutely whether you’re Turkish, whether you’re a Rockets fan supporting the Turkish team, you should be so incredibly proud of what they managed to accomplish by getting to the championship game, by placing silver, by finishing second best in the entire tournament. And like that is no small feat. It it’s it’s bittersweet because they were so so close to winning gold and it was right there within their grasp. So like that part stings certainly, but this team still made history and I think that’s a really important thing to take away from this and and you know feeling should you should feel very proud about what this team accomplished. If you’re a Turkish citizen or a fan or if you’re just a Rockets fan who jumped on the bandwagon to support Alper and Shenun, then feel good about this finish. You absolutely should, right? There’s only one winner out of however many. I know it’s 30 teams in the NBA. I don’t know how many teams competed in Euro Basket. Sorry. Um 24 teams. 24 teams. There we go. I do know how many teams compete. See, I I learned things. Um, but you know, there’s only one winner at, you know, three winners if you want to do gold, silver, bronze. But to come away with the silver medal should still feel really good. There’s still so much to be proud about about what this team accomplished. And here’s my thing is like I fully believe they’re going to be back. Um, and it’s really easy to see why they’re going to be back. The biggest question mark to me about this Turkish team is going to be who eventually steps up and fills the Shane Larkin shoes because when you go through all the different respective ages of this Turkish team, Shane Larkin is one of the vets on the team, right? He’s 33 years old right now. I think I have that right. He’s either about to be 33 or he’s already just turned 33. He was born in ’92. And so you fast forward to the Olympics couple years from now. Um you know you fast forward to next Euro basket. Uh you know will Shane Larkin still be the same a few years from now? Right? And that’s the big question is is he going to still be that impactful? Will he be maybe coming off the bench at that point? Um so who steps up and fills that role. The other element though here is to consider Alper and Shingun just turned 23. He’s going to continue to get better and better and better and two, three, four years from now, whenever, you know, the next Olympics rolls around and when the next Euro basket rolls around, Alpour and Shingun is going to be in the prime of his career. And if this is what he looked like at just 23 years old with, you know, still very young, still very inexperienced at the end of the day when you consider, you know, how much experience some of these other players have, then I I firmly believe that Dorier will be back in this exact same spot contending for gold medals down the line as well, whether it’s in Euro Basket, whether it’s in the Olympics, what have you. They’re about to be on the world stage for the foreseeable future. And it’s in large part due to how good Alporn and Shingun has become uh as not even arguably as the best player in all of Euro Basket this go around and and likely will be one of if not the best player in Euro Basket in the future iterations of this tournament as well. So I wanted to just highlight that right. I think it was important to to give to sing some praise because praise is absolutely deserved for this team. Um, I will say, God, one thing that I do hope happens though is this is going to add so much fuel to the fire for Alper and Shingun this upcoming season in the NBA. He was awarded uh being a member of the All-Star five, so the five best players through all of Euro Basket. is Shingun. Both Dennis Shuer and uh France Vagner Giannis who Giannis finished uh in third place with Greece bronze medal and then uh Luca Donic who was not there to receive the award in person which I think it’s kind of lame. TBH um I don’t know if he had a good reason or not to be there but I still thought was kind of lame. So you could tell like there were so many emotions for the whole team. Furcon Corkmas was in tears after the game. You could tell the emotions were so heavy for this team. How badly they wanted it. And when Shingun accepted that award, he was you you could see it on his face how badly he wanted to win that game for his country. And I can only imagine what that the type of motivation that this will provide to him, right? kind of like these core moments in his pathway, his career trajectory as a player, right? And you hear the old adage, people talk about it a lot, you have to lose before you can win. And I don’t necessarily subscribe to that notion, but when you do go back and look at the course of history, at least pertaining to the NBA, I’m not going to pretend to know all of Feebas’s history or anything, but there is a decent amount of like really good teams, teams that do eventually become champions, you know, players who do eventually become MVPs, that kind of stuff. You have to take your lumps before you eventually reach the mountaintop. And for the Rockets, this feels like one of those kind of events for Shingun, right? He got an incredible experience playing against the Golden State Warriors and going to seven games in that series, right? We saw him grow tremendously. We saw his defense take, you know, reach another level. We saw him shoulder so much responsibility as a scorer, as a playmaker, doing everything for the Rockets. And then we saw him build on that experience against the Warriors in the playoffs and leading his team, leading his country to the gold medal match against a very, very good German team. And I’m not taking I won’t take anything away from that German team. They were incredible. They were sensational in the tournament. There’s a reason that they were in that gold medal match to begin with in the championship finale. And to be that close to tasting success, right? To be that close to advancing past the first round, to be that close to earning a gold medal for your for your country and to come up a little bit short, right? All that’s going to do is drive Shingun even further to be the best version of himself, right? And he’s already on what feels like a superstar trajectory. So, how much better how much more does that add to him? Um, I just I think it’s important. And I think it’s that’s an important takeaway to think about. And you know, there were a lot of moments in this tournament where you still saw Shingun’s youth at play, right? He is he is still just 23 years old. You know, some of those three-pointers that I mentioned earlier, right, the the lazy threes or the poor decision- making at times. Um, his decision-m was really good for a lot of the tournament. The playmaking was on another level. some of the best playmaking we’ve ever seen out of his entire career on display throughout this tournament. But there were also some questionable moments and there were some things that he’s going to be able to go back and look at and learn from. And sometimes you just have to go through it, right? Sometimes you just have to experience those things and then learn from those mistakes in order to not make the same mistakes going forward. And so for Shingun to have been able to get this type of opportunity to play at this level before this upcoming season where the Rockets are going to have so much pressure on them to achieve so much to be legitimate championship contenders. I think it’s it’s going to be it it’s going to pay serious dividends for Shingun. And one other lesson I think too is seeing just how Germany was able to really load up on a Shingun at times and really put the pressure on his teammates to be able to to deliver late the double teams, the shading over um all that stuff. You know, Shingun’s one thing, right, is I is is he is he equipped to be a go-to scoring option late in games? He might be the perfect engine to run you through and get you through the first three three and a half quarters as a player, but at the end of the game, you might need a closer, right? And that’s not a that’s not a knock on Shingun as a player because guess what? Giannis Andakmpo is the exact same way. The Milwaukee Bucks when they won their title, Giannis wasn’t really that team’s closer. He didn’t have the ball in his hands making the decisions at the end. He ran a lot of actions with Chris Middleton who had the ball in his hands and was, you know, dissecting and operating out of the mid-range and knocking down shots and, you know, that that was the way that that team kind of worked and envisioning what Shingun is going to be able to look like with Kevin Durant. That twoman game at the end of games when the going gets tough, when you need a bucket late, when you need a clutch shot to be made, it doesn’t all fall on Shingun’s shoulders anymore. He’s going to have one of the greatest scorers in basketball history to help bail him out, but not just bail him out or not just bail the team out, but to work as a duo at the end of games. And that’s going to make Katie’s life easier. It’s going to make Shingun’s life easier. And we’re going to see a lot of clutch moments shared between the two of those two guys. Not just KD knocking down shot. It’ll be between both of those guys shouldering that burden because they’ll make life easier for each other. And that’s what it certainly felt like here in this game is is okay where who’s going to be able to how are they going to be able to navigate these crunch time moments? How are they going to execute late in these games? And you know, a Shingun pullup three-pointer to try to tie the game uh in the final moments is not really the best play you want at that moment, especially considering how good Jetty Osman had been to that point. I don’t know how they didn’t draw something up for Jetty, but um I digress. It was there’s a lot to be proud of from this tournament. There’s a lot to be excited for for the future of both Turkish basketball and Rockets basketball. And I’m happy to have been a part of it. Um this was an incredible experience. And I want to say, look, I know they didn’t win gold, so I didn’t get to do my full intro in Turkish, but I will say, um, to all of our Turkish brothers and sisters who have been along for this ride and listening to the program, I hope I don’t butcher this, ethanism. I hope I said that right. I This is That was like the hardest set of sentences that I had to put together. Um, I will continue to practice my Turkish. I promise. um I’ll get better at it. Um but as always, thank you so much for being a part of our show. Um Dorier will be back. I’m telling you now, they’re going to be back for more gold medals down the line, more championship games. It’s going to happen. Um but with that, thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening. And we look forward to having you back right here at Lockdown Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets and OKA Basketball.

HEARTBREAK: Alperen Sengun’s 28 Points NOT ENOUGH As Turkiye Gold Medal Hopes FALL SHORT To Germany

Alperen Sengun’s 28-point performance wasn’t enough as Turkiye falls short against Germany in the EuroBasket Championship. Can this heartbreaking loss fuel Sengun’s NBA ascent with the Houston Rockets?

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) breaks down the crucial moments that decided Turkiye’s fate, from coaching decisions to missed opportunities. The analysis covers Sengun’s impressive scoring, rebounding struggles, and playmaking potential. Key topics include Turkiye’s future in international competitions, Sengun’s development areas, and his potential as a clutch performer for the Rockets.

Tune in for expert insights on how this tournament experience could reshape Sengun’s game and impact the Houston Rockets’ upcoming season.

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37 comments
  1. Hi Jackson,

    I hope you read this. I am an old school dude, I still write letters. First of all, thank you for covering Türkiye’s EuroBasket 2025 run. I followed only two non-turkish channels for EuroBasket content, and one of them is you. Not because you hype Alpi, but because you know the game and your comments are grounded in reality.

    There’s plenty to say about the final. If I wanted to nitpick, I could find dozens of things that went wrong on the court.

    Throughout this tournament, Alperen got criticized for all kinds of things, especially for the way he answered post-game questions. I don’t expect people to fully understand his position. But in Türkiye, we tend to put a heavy burden on our athletes. Years ago, Cedi Osman was torn apart on social media for missing shots with the national team.

    Believe me, nobody criticizes our own players like we do. And Alperen is still just a kid, 23 is nothing in sports, especially when most players don’t hit their prime until their 30s. In this tournament, he wasn’t only playing against opponents. He was also playing against his haters (even inside the Rockets community) and against the risk of being torn apart by his own people (social media accounts). He had to step into a leadership role because it was given to him. That’s not easy. What he’s handling right now is not something every athlete could carry.

    Will Alperen learn lessons from this final and from the tournament as a whole? Absolutely. He’s the kind of player who always works to turn weaknesses into strengths, both physically and mentally.

    One thing I’m sure of: Ime Udoka and the Houston Rockets are going to get back a more grown, more battle-tested player than even a month ago, let alone last season.

    I’m just happy for Alperen, because he’s facing these tough situations and all this criticism so early in his career. From here, he can only get stronger in every way.

    Mark my words: every European superstar you see in this EuroBasket, they were nowhere near this level at Alperen’s age. Most of them would’ve crumbled. But Alperen is using these years to train himself to carry the heavy weight.

    Lastly, I’ll keep following you, because you’re one of the few people I see who really knows the game and paints the picture of what’s actually happening, not what people want to believe. I can honestly say I’ve put you on the same list as Murat Murathanoğlu and Kaan Kural.

    Thanks again for your great coverage of our national team in EuroBasket. We really appreciated it—you’re a great basketball broadcaster.

    Regards,

    Tolga

    PS: I need to add this information.
    In today’s NBA, the active European stars who earned medals with their senior national teams before turning 23 years and 1 month old (the age Alperen was during EuroBasket 2025) are:
    Dončić (gold medal at EuroBasket 2017, alongside the spectacular Dragić, but of course, it still counts),
    Jokić (silver medal at the 2016 Olympics),
    and Alperen (silver medal at EuroBasket 2025).
    That gives me hope, especially considering Alperen held a leadership role on his team at that age, while Dončić and Jokić did not in 2016 and 2017.

  2. I appreciate the effort you spend, during the past 3 weeks. Haven't missed a stream of you since more than one year, but nevertheless, seeing you cheering for the country of my ancestors, was something different. So, thank you for that, and keep on doing a tremendous job – which I don't doubt at all! Next step have to be you – visting Türkiye. You'll love it, man šŸ˜‰

  3. Jackson can you believe that people are all sad in Turkey because of we finished second. Before the tournament noone was dreaming to play final. All we did for because of alperen şengün. he made this team dream to be champion.

  4. There's nothing to talk much because they deserve claps.. not because they got the silver, but because they woke up the sleeping basketball in Turkiye. The 12 giants came back and we basketball lovers are currently so happy.

  5. I'm both Turkish and a Rockets fan thanks to Alpi, but I can't feel happy about the loss. It's almost like the 2025 game 7 against warriors all over again where the young guys simply lost only due to inexperience.

  6. Alperen needs more experience to finish better against teams like Warriors and the Germans. He made wrong decisions but it is part of the process. He will definitely be better. Mentality is there for sure.

  7. It is always a huge disappointment when you are so close to a huge achievement but fail to close it. You know, shit happens. I'm super excited to see what Alperen will do for the Rockets starting in the following weeks.

  8. Alperen got the skills he needs to focus more on the mental imo. improving skill every year is now a regular/routine for alperen bc we see it every year, improving mental is not so easy. if he truly is like that which i believe he is he needs improvement on the mental side of things. still after these years its so easy to notice alpi not having his day and he shows it very easy. he already is such a gifted player so now if he's mentally strong as well he will be a hall of famer. (btw now with kd here its literally the perfect player to learn how to be mentally strong)

  9. At some point, give some commentary on all the Twitter drama going on around Sengun. Specifically the comment he made regarding Giannis, not being a great passer (which is fair IMO), and seemingly how all of Greek and Milwaukee Twitter are now viewing him as Public Enemy number one. And also how a lot of rocket fans are proud of him and expect this euro basket tournament to put an even bigger chip on his shoulder to make him a monster this upcoming season.

  10. Beautiful said man. I hope Sengün sees this Video. And who knows, maybe he does watch them.šŸ‘€ Also thank you and the Rockets fans for following us on our EuroBasket journey. I'm gonna stick around and support the Rockets and Alpi. Also I'm really excited to watch Sengün play with KD!

    Great Video!

  11. Jackson, it was a pleasure following the EuroBasket with you, thanks so much for all the effort and time you spent for our national team. You are a life time bro for all of us canım kardeşim.

  12. Thank you for your videos and your support for Türkiye on eurobasket… in this video it was really good analyse, like everytime you do..
    excited to see the new season with alpi-kd coorporation for rockets championship and your daily locked on rockets videos..

  13. Congratulations to Germany, but Turkiye had one hell of a run. Alperen Sengun played like a beast. I think he will have a career year this upcoming season for the Rockets.

  14. Congratulations to Sengun and Turkey on an exceptionally successful run in Eurobasket. Sengun has proved he has taken strides forward which will only make the Rockets a more formidable team going into next season.

  15. I ll supports the Rockets from now on and am looking forward to seeing you report from the NBA soon. Furthermore, that was good constructive critisism on our players. Hope they watch ya videos as well. 12 Dev Adam bunu okiyorsaniz… bizi cok gururlu ettiniz. Ellerinize saglik

    @Jackson: Man, I luv that music u implement there. Sexy as the US. Best from Europe!

  16. Thank you, Jackson, and all Rockets fans whose hearts were beating for Turkey in Eurobasket. It was an amazing run for the team and it was great to have you by our side.
    Turkey is proud of this team and we hope and know that they will be back stronger! We'll continue being hyped on and waking up for the Rockets games this season!

  17. Jackson, thank you and all the Houston fans for your support. Now it’s our turn to cheer for Houston and Alperen in the upcoming NBA season. Together with Durant, they’re going to be an amazing team. I’m so excited and can’t wait! šŸš€

  18. It was the most accurate analysis I got on this game from any commentators so far man! Amazing job! Looking forward to listening to you into the season.

  19. First of all, thank you so much for your friendship, comments, and sincere feelings about our national team during this tournament.

    When we look at the as-is condition of the Turkish National Basketball Team, we did not participate in the last World Basketball Tournament in 2023 (Germany won the tournament). We participated in the last Europe Basketball Tournament in 2022, and we lost all three games. We could not participate in the second round in 2022 or the Summer Olympics in 2024 at all (Germany won a bronze medal in 2022 and placed 4th during the Summer Olympics in 2024).

    When we look at the to be condition of the National Team, we are successful in terms of what Coach Ergin Ataman said: we will win a medal (it may be bronze, silver, or gold). We won a silver medal. When we look at the roadmap of the tournament, especially the first eight games, we are the best team in terms of team chemistry and the game, not only on the defensive side but also on the offensive side. We won the games against the tournament's favorite teams, Serbia and Greece.

    What we learned from the final game is that we did not lose the game in the last 2 minutes; actually, we lost the game when we lost our spirit and chemistry. After Germany's first break, we started to play another game, which is different from the previous eight games during the tournament that we built together. We lost the final game against the Germany which is successful for the last four organizations, even though we might have won the final if we had played the last 2 minutes differently. We won the silver medal and built a strong team for future tournaments. We will participate directly in the World Basketball Tournament in 2027. Thank you so much, the players, coaches, staff, and federation. The last thank you is for the Turkish people for the support.

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