Euro legend scoffs at NBA's 'World Champions'

• European heavyweights Panathinaikos and Partizan will compete in the Pavlos Giannakopoulos Tournament along with the Sydney Kings and Adelaide 36ers from September 18-21
• Panathinaikos last won the EuroLeague in 2024 and finished in the Final Four last season
• Panathinaikos coach Ergin Ataman is a three-time EuroLeague championship coach

Legendary Panathinaikos head coach and three-time EuroLeague champion Ergin Ataman has sent a clear message to the NBA — the US league's champions aren't "World Champions".

"I told people these things, if you took out one star player from these NBA teams, I believe that many EuroLeague teams can beat the NBA teams," Ataman told basketball.com.au in an exclusive interview.

Ataman was taking a clear shot at the NBA, which dubs its Finals winner 'World Champions'.

The Panathinaikos boss is preparing for FIBA EuroBasket as the Turkish national team coach ahead of his team's pre-season trip to Australia for the Pavlos Giannakopoulos Tournament next month.

"Listen, I believe that two years or three years ago, in the pre-season, there were many games between the EuroLeague teams and NBA teams.

"If I'm not wrong, 70 or 80% of the games, the EuroLeague teams won.

"There is no big difference between the NBA teams and between the EuroLeague teams.

"With all due respect with the NBA, they have many star players, they are really star players, like LeBron, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and most of them."

It was a sentiment echoed by brazen US sprinter Noah Lyles in 2023. He said the NBA Finals winner is "world champion of what? Not the world."

“We are the world. We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving, putting on their flag to show they are represented," Lyles said.

"There ain't no flags in the NBA."

Ataman, who led Panathinaikos to the EuroLeague championship in 2024, said he challenged the NBA's Boston Celtics for the title of 'World Champions' and said he hoped a tournament — like the PVT in Australia next month — was the start of clubs around the globe battling it out for that acclaim.

The European heavyweights will face rivals and Serbian powerhouse Partizan in Melbourne on September 18 and the Adelaide 36ers in Sydney on September 21 as part of the event and Ataman said it was a great chance for basketball fans in Australia to see the best players in the world in teams who would match it with the NBA's elite.

"Sometimes, especially last year, I complained when the NBA teams declared themselves that they are the world champion. When the NBA teams won the NBA title, they declared immediately that they are the world champion. I complained about this because that season we were the EuroLeague champion, I made the challenge against them," he said.

"If you want to be a world champion, you must come to beat the EuroLeague champion. Maybe you must come to beat the Australian champion as well. So, for me, it's a challenge every time and I told again, with all the respect with the NBA teams, EuroLeague basketball is very high level and to be a world champion, they must play against us.

"It will be a challenge also maybe for the future that in the global basketball, there will be at the end of the season or in the beginning of the season, one competition with some EuroLeague teams, Australian teams, NBA teams, to understand the quality and the level of the basketball around the world.

"Maybe in the future, this game will be also be in Australia, I don't know. So, we are ready to come to play everywhere for this title."

Ataman also believed EuroLeague basketball was a better spectacle for fans than the NBA.

"I watch also sometimes the NBA basketball, but for me, concerning to the regular season, I believe that the EuroLeague games are more exciting than the regular season NBA games because there are also many star players and every game is like a final in the EuroLeague," he said.

"NBA basketball now became like a show basketball, but EuroLeague is both. There is a show, but there is also big competition, every game is like a final. Right now, in all the world, also in USA, I know that the people are following a lot of the EuroLeague basketball."

Panathinaikos head into the preseason as the EuroLeague title favourites going into another campaign, where they will look to improve on last season's fourth-placed finish after losing to eventual champions, Fenerbahce, in the semi-final.

Boasting superstars such as former NBA guard and last season's EuroLeague MVP in Kendrick Nunn, Richaun Holmes, Cedi Osman, Juancho Hernangomez and many more — Ataman said his team were taking the games in Australia extremely seriously, including a clash with rivals Partizan, who they will face again in the EuroLeague in November. Partizan will be coached by another European basketball icon in Zeljko Obradovic.

"It will be a very serious game and it will be our first full pre-season game. Because of Eurobasket that will finish on the 14th of September, we have in the Eurobasket seven national team players, including me and one of our assistants. So, we will meet all together in Australia and we will play our first pre-season serious game in Australia," he said.

"Actually, this season will be different for us because we will not have any pre-season preparation in Europe or any pre-season games in Europe. So, we will consider very seriously these games that we will play in Australia. Especially, Partizan is another big team in the EuroLeague, that is coaching with one of the legendary coaches, Zeljko Obradovic, so that for sure will be a good game.

"For us will not be easy because half of the team, we will travel 18 hours to come in Australia after the Eurobasket. But, of course, we like to beat Partizan in the first pre-season game in Melbourne... Partizan also has many new players in the roster and we have three to four new players. As you know, we are one of the best teams in the EuroLeague and this season we are the number one ranking for the title.

"So, it will be very interesting for us to understand the Partizan roster because, of course, when the season starts in the EuroLeague, it will be very serious game. Last year we lost in Belgrade against Partizan, but we beat them in Athens.

"I know that also in Australia there is a lot of our fans, Greek fans, also a lot of Serbian fans — there is a big passion for these two clubs... I believe that it will be very interesting for the Australian fans to have two big EuroLeague teams to watch live in their country."

Panathinaikos will take on the 36ers at Qudos Bank Arena on September 21, meaning Adelaide's prized recruit in Bryce Cotton, who played for Anadolu Efes in 2016 when Ataman was coaching Galatasaray, will go head-to-head with Nunn in a mouth-watering match-up for fans to witness.

"I remember (Bryce)... He has a great game. I don't remember too much but I remember that he was a great player," he said.

"For sure (it will be a great match-up) because Kedrick is, in the last two years, the best player in the EuroLeague.

"Last year he was the MVP of the EuroLeague and it will be a big challenge for these two players to play against each other... Who is better, we'll see in the games."

Partizan and Panathinaikos both have a history of Australian connections with former Boomers and Sydney Kings big man Aleks Maric having played for both clubs while Dante Exum, Jock Landale and Nathan Jawai have represented the Serbian heavyweights.

Ataman said he knew Australian players were tough and skilled from past battles with the Boomers and also having many Aussie talents, including Brock Motum, in his European club teams but he didn't know much about the teams in the NBL.

Having had such a decorated coaching career, there's one thing Ataman hasn't done and that's coach in Australia.

"It was a big surprise when I found out we were going to Australia and it's exciting because personally, I played and have coached all around in Europe and in all countries. I have visited in my past in the US many college, NBA teams, but I've never been in Australia.

"I know that Australian basketball is very good... there is a big passion for the basketball in Australia and it will be exciting for us."

But before making the trip around the other side of the world for the tournament in Australia, Ataman is leading his home country in Turkey at FIBA EuroBasket, where they will face Kristaps Porzingis and Latvia in the opener on Thursday (AEST). While arguably the best player in the world in Nikola Jokic and Serbia are also in Turkey's group.

And much like his opinion on EuroLeague vs the NBA, Ataman said he believed EuroBasket was more competitive than the FIBA World Cup.

"It's very intense, because I believe that if you don't think about the US with the star players, they didn't come in the last World Cup with the star players, only they played in the Olympics with the star players and last World Cup, Germany won and the US lost in the semi-final," he said.

"So, I believe that the EuroBasket is more intense and more competitive than the World Cup, because there is minimum seven to eight that are candidates for the gold medal.

"There is a lot of EuroLeague players, Euro"eague star players, and there's a lot of also NBA star players. It's a mix. It's the high level. It's like the high level of the EuroLeague basketball, and maybe a little bit more higher, because there is also star players from NBA in these teams. It's the intensity of the EuroLeague with the NBA stars in this EuroBasket."

Tickets for the Pavlos Giannakopoulos Tournament can be purchased here.