"We started throwing punches!": Philadelphia 76er Attacked At EuroBasket

When pride for country is at stake, things can get pretty wild at the EuroBasket tournament overseas. Turkish Philadelphia 76ers forward Furkan Korkmaz says he was attacked by the locker room by rival players and security staff from the Georgian national team.  

Furkan Korkmaz speaks on getting attacked in the locker room:

“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. Five people attacked us, we defended ourselves.”

— Dionysis Aravantinos (@AravantinosDA) September 5, 2022

“When we were going there, three players from them including (Duda) Sanadze as well as two security guys, started to run at us. We started throwing punches at each other," explained Korkmaz. "Five people attacked us, we defended ourselves.” 

Tempers had clearly flared during the game, with Korkmaz in the middle of it. 

Furkan Korkmaz getting into it with Georgia's Duda Sanadze

Fans started throwing cups onto the court 😳

pic.twitter.com/GSsKveHxQX

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) September 4, 2022

Fans joined in the fray as well, throwing cups onto the court. Korkmaz was ejected, and then the attack took place as he was trying to get back to his locker room. 

Turkey is now threatening to pull out of EuroBasket if this situation isn't dealt with by FIFA to its satisfaction. The Turkish Federation's vice-president even said that official Georgian police were attacking them in the brawl.  

“While Furkan Korkmaz was walking in the hallway to the locker rooms with our trainer, Georgia’s players who were not in the active roster attacked him together with the ejected player (Duda Sanadze) and the police," said Omer Onan. 

"There should not be an attack on the player that goes to the locker room. At the end of the match, 30 policemen each pushed us into a fight. We got into a fight with Georgia’s official police. I am calling out to FIBA and I have also told FIBA’s officials. Let no one deceive themselves or think that we are stupid. They will bring us all the camera footage from that corridor minute by minute without anything missing. If those cameras do not come to us, we will leave this tournament."

We certainly haven't heard the last of this wild scene at EuroBasket.

Photos: Sakhalinio, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons, Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports