Turkey

Ahmet Robenson was known as being the first organizer of basketball in Turkey. In 1936, Turkey played its first ever basketball match against Greece, winning 49–12. For many years basketball was a little-known sport in Turkey, but when the American drama The White Shadow started airing in the country, it gained popularity. However, the national team at the time lacked experience and could not win any international tournaments until the 1980s, when Turkey won the gold medal at the 1981 Balkan Championship and the 1987 Mediterranean Games. At the club level, Efes Pilsen was the first Turkish club to win a European Cup in any team sport, the 1995–96 FIBA Korać Cup. Since then, basketball in Turkey has grown immensely, as the national team began to play a major role in international tournaments. The Turkish national team won the silver medal at both EuroBasket 2001, and the 2010 FIBA World Cup.

1930s–1940s

Turkey's European Championship debut came at the EuroBasket 1949. The Turks split their six matches in the seven-team round robin tournament, finishing with three wins and three losses for fourth place.

1950s

Turkey competed again at the EuroBasket 1951 in Paris. Their only loss in the preliminary round was to the Soviet Union as Turkey earned the second-rank spot with a 3–1 record. Their single loss to Bulgaria in the semi-final round, however, was enough to bump them from championship contention as they came out on the bottom of a three-way tie with a 2–1 record. They won their classification 5–8 game, but lost the 5/6 game to Italy.

Turkey returned after missing 1953's edition to the EuroBasket 1955 in Budapest. They went 1–2 in their preliminary round group, taking third in the pool and moving to classification play. There they lost only to France on their way to a 3–1 record in classification round 1. They lost their 9–12 semi-final by 1 point to Finland, but defeated England 77–54 in the next game to take 11th place of the 18 team tournament.

Turkey appeared again at the EuroBasket 1957 in Sofia. Losing to the Soviet Union and Poland in the preliminary round, Turkey took third in the group to be sent to the classification pool. They defeated each of the other seven teams in the classification round in order to take 9th place of the 16 teams.

1960s–1980s

The 1960s, 1970s and 1980s were in general a barren period for the Turkish national basketball team. They were, however, successful at the Mediterranean Games, winning two bronze medals in 1967 and 1983, one silver medal in 1971, and one gold medal in 1987. Turkey also won the gold medal at the 1981 Balkan Championship. The team was led by notable coaches like Yalçın Granit and Mehmet Baturalp in the 1960s and 1970s, and by Aydan Siyavuş during the Balkan and Mediterranean triumphs of the 1980s, which marked the dawn of a successful new era in Turkish basketball (especially in European club competitions) starting from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Efe Aydan and Erman Kunter were among the notable players of this period in Turkish basketball. Erman Kunter, who still holds a number of all-time records in the Turkish Basketball League as a player, later became a successful coach in the Turkish and French basketball leagues, and led the Turkish national team at the EuroBasket 1999.

1990s

Turkey appeared again at the EuroBasket 1993 after 12 years of absence, but finished 11th among 16 teams. Turkey finished 13th among 14 teams at the EuroBasket 1995, 8th among 16 teams at the EuroBasket 1997, and again 8th among 16 teams at the EuroBasket 1999.

2000s

As the host country of the EuroBasket 2001, the Turkish national basketball team, led by coach Aydın Örs, reached the EuroBasket final for the first time in their history. Turkey defeated Croatia in the quarter-finals and Germany in the semis, before their showdown with FR Yugoslavia in the final. Turkey would ultimately lose the game {69–78}, finishing the Euros with the silver medal. Furthermore, Turkish stars İbrahim Kutluay scored 19 points in the final game, while Hidayet Türkoğlu was named to the All-Tournament team.

Due to their surprising finish at EuroBasket 2001, Turkey qualified for their first appearance to the FIBA World Cup in 2002. Turkey, however, would accumulate just four wins against four defeats at the World Cup to finish the tournament in ninth.

At the EuroBasket 2003, Turkey reached the second round where they got eliminated by Serbia and Montenegro.

Turkey qualified for the EuroBasket 2005 held in Serbia and Montenegro, but lost to Lithuania (87–75) and Croatia (80–67), defeating only Bulgaria (94–89) in the preliminary round. This win brought Turkey to the knock-out stage, where Germany eliminated the team 66–57. Turkey ended the tournament with a 9–12 rank.

Turkey was awarded one of the four wild cards by FIBA for the qualification to the 2006 FIBA World Cup in Japan.

The Turkish squad completed the preliminary round in Group C in second place behind the Greek team, and was entitled to play in the Round of 16. There the team defeated Slovenia 90–84, to advance into the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time in their history. However, In the quarter-finals, Turkey lost to Argentina, and was relegated to the classification round. There, Turkey would go on to defeat Lithuania once again, before losing to France to finish the tournament in sixth place.

After their surprising results at the tournament, a new nickname, 12 Cesur Yürek (12 Brave Hearts) was proposed after the young and inexperienced teams' fearless performance at the 2006 FIBA World Cup, despite not having star players Hidayet Türkoğlu, Mehmet Okur, Mirsad Türkcan, Kerem Tunçeri and Hüseyin Beşok.

At the EuroBasket 2007, Turkey played in Group C with Lithuania, Germany and the Czech Republic. Turkey began by losing 86–69 to Lithuania and was then blown out 79–49 by Germany. The team ended group play with an 80–72 win over fellow bottom-of-the-group team Czech Republic. With that win Turkey advanced to the next round, although the team lost all of its games (66–51 to Slovenia, 84–75 to Italy and 85–64 to France) in that phase. The three results eliminated Turkey from the EuroBasket 2007 with an (1–5) record and an 11th-place finish.

At the EuroBasket 2009, Turkey played in Group D with hosts Poland, Lithuania and Bulgaria. The Group D matches took place in Wrocław, Poland. Turkey won all three of its group matches and qualified for the second round. Turkey enjoyed a strong start in the second round, as they won their first match against World Champions Spain 63–60; when Ömer Aşık and Ersan İlyasova rejected a last-second shot by Sergio Llull. Turkey then beat Serbia in overtime. Turkey's winning streak came to an end against Slovenia, when, despite a 19-point comeback, Engin Atsür missed a desperation three pointer in a 69–67 loss. In the knockout stage, Turkey were against Greece and lost a close game in overtime, finishing the tournament 8th. Yet, in the same year, Turkey won the bronze medal at the 2009 Mediterranean Games.

2010s

As the host country, Turkey, led by coach Bogdan Tanjević, automatically qualified for the 2010 FIBA World Cup. Turkey topped their group, winning all of their games against the Ivory Coast, Russia, Greece, Puerto Rico and China. In the knockout stages Turkey managed to defeat France, Slovenia and Serbia in a thrilling semi-final match which Turkey won 83–82. The national team enjoyed their greatest success to date on the international stage going undefeated in group play and progressing to the final, where they eventually lost to the United States to come away with the silver medal. Each player was awarded a prize of 1,500,000 TL (approximately $1,000,000 in September 2010) from the Turkish government for being the runner-up in the competition.

Orhun Ene, who was the assistant coach of Turkey next to Tanjević and had a successful career as a player, was appointed the head coach to lead Turkey during the EuroBasket 2011. The team had a bad tournament as they got eliminated in the second group phase after losing three straight games. Turkey and Serbia were the only teams that managed to defeat the eventual EuroBasket 2011 champions Spain during the tournament.

Two years later, Turkey won their second gold medal at the 2013 Mediterranean Games by defeating Serbia in the final. A few months later at the EuroBasket 2013, Turkey managed to defeat only Sweden, before finishing the competition with a (1–4) record to fail making it out of the group stage.

On 22 March 2014, the Turkish Basketball Federation announced that Ergin Ataman would lead Turkey during the 2014 FIBA World Cup, EuroBasket 2015 and the 2016 Summer Olympics. After receiving a wild card bid, Turkey qualified for the 2014 FIBA World Cup. The team was slotted into Group C, to begin their tournament run. Turkey would eventually accumulate a (3–2) record during the group phase to advance into the knockout rounds. In the Round of 16, Turkey earned a hard-fought victory over Australia 65–64. In the quarter-finals, Turkey's tournament appearance would come to an end as the national team fell to Lithuania 73–61.

At EuroBasket 2015, Turkey arrived on to the continental stage with confidence, after their solid play at the 2014 FIBA World Cup. Although the team would suffer a setback after getting past the group stage, as they were thoroughly outplayed in their Round of 16 match against France 76–53. After the disappointment for Turkey in 2015, head coach Ergin Ataman still had the responsibility to guide Turkey to the 2016 Olympic Tournament. The national team would once again have a let down, coming away with a (1–2) record during qualifying and being eliminated.

On 19 January 2017, Ufuk Sarıca succeeded Ergin Ataman as Turkey's new head coach. Sarıca was among the star players of Efes Pilsen in the 1990s, winning the 1995–96 FIBA Korać Cup and reaching the final of the 1992–93 FIBA Saporta Cup with the Istanbul-based club under head coach Aydın Örs.

Turkey was named one of four co-hosts for the EuroBasket 2017. However, the national team put up a near identical performance as they did at the 2015 edition. Turkey was knocked out in the Round of 16 both times, although winning one fewer game in 2017.

In qualification for Turkey to make it to the 2019 FIBA World Cup, the national team posted an (8–4) record during European Qualifiers to make it to their fifth consecutive World Cup finals appearance. Entering the 2019 FIBA World Cup, Turkey was placed into Group E where they defeated Japan in their first match 86–67. In their next game the national team were up against the United States. In the highly competitive back and forth battle between the two sides that needed overtime to decide a winner, it was the Americans who pulled out the narrow 93–92 victory. After the demoralizing loss, Turkey would go on to lose their final match of the preliminary phase 76–91 to the Czech Republic, which relegated the team to the classification round to finish out the tournament.