Sixers’ Furkan Korkmaz ejected then attacked in FIBA play

The Philadelphia 76ers made its offseason news splashes in free agency, but since then it has been relatively quiet in terms of news for the Sixers. However, just because the NBA is inactive doesn’t mean that there isn’t other basketball being played in the world.

FIBA basketball is going on in Europe right now and that means that Furkan Korkmaz is playing for his home country Turkey. It would be nice to go into an analysis of his play, but other news dominates the headline which involves ejections and a fight.

The Sixers wing gets caught in a fight after getting ejected from FIBA play.

Let’s start with the ejection. The clip below shows whys Korkmaz was ejected in a game against the country of Georgia.

Based on the clip, there was smack talk that followed. Korkmaz had this to say about the ejection, this quote was provided by Adam Herman of Yahoo Sports.

"“First he started talking (censored) to me, I am not anybody to talk (censored) on my face. I am not going to let that happen. As part of the game, he is going to say something and you are going to say something back. I reacted as a human being, as a man, I just showed a reaction.”"

After he was ejected, Korkmaz was attacked in the locker room by three Georgian players, including Indiana Pacers big man Goga Bitadze, per Ismail Senol of beIN Sports. This might be dealt with on the NBA level now that it involves two NBA players.

The good news is that it appears that Korkmaz is ok as he was seen in shoot around after the incident, according to Sergen Hasan Kumaş of Her Sey NBA. This should make Sixers fans feel at ease. It should also help fans who had reservations about him heading into the season with him showing a new level of toughness he hasn’t shown in the past.

This can be fuel that Korkmaz can use entering this season and hopefully the NBA as well as FIBA takes action to punish those involved in this attack on the Sixers’ wing.