76ers' Furkan Korkmaz Discusses Being Attacked by Georgian Players at EuroBasket

Philadelphia 76ers guard Furkan Korkmaz addressed the alleged physical altercation involving him and members of the Georgia national team stemming from their game at 2022 EuroBasket.

"You saw a little part of what happened on the court," he said (via Edvinas Jablonskis of BasketNews.com). "We got into each other face to face, and [Duda Sanadze] started talking s--t to me. I'm not gonna let anyone talk s--t to my face."

Korkmaz then claimed multiple Georgia players confronted him in the tunnel, describing the incident as "like a street fight."

"When I was walking to the tunnel, our conditioning guy was with me," he said. "As soon as we walked out of the tunnel and were trying to reach the locker room, I saw three Georgian players alongside two security guys running at us. We started throwing punches at each other. That's basically what happened."

Turkey head coach Ergin Ataman backed up Korkmaz's account.

"There were no security measures whatsoever when I was going at locker’s room," he said (via Eurohoops.net's Semih Tuna). "When we were going there, three players from them including Sanadze as well as two security guys, started to run at us. We started throwing punches at each other. Basically, it was a street fight. Five people attacked us; we defended ourselves."

FIBA said Monday in a statement an investigation into the allegations is underway:

In addition to the alleged incident in the tunnel, Turkey felt wronged because it claimed 22 seconds ran off the clock while Korkmaz and Sanadze were arguing on the court.

In the official play-by-play, Sanadze makes a personal foul on Korkmaz at the 4:48 mark of the fourth quarter. The next action comes with 4:26 left, with the two players being issued technical fouls.

Georgia eventually won 88-83 in double overtime.

Turkey rebounded Tuesday with a 78-63 victory over Belgium in the group stage. Korkmaz finished with 16 points and five rebounds in 30:23 on the floor.

Ataman's squad leads Group A with seven points through four games.