Anadolu Efes basketball players defeated Barcelona 74:73 in an exciting game in the Euroleague last night, and the hero was Aizea Cordinia, who hit two free throws with three tenths of a second left.
The celebration in Istanbul, however, quickly faded into the background, and the culprit was a journalist from the local Sport newspaper who incorrectly translated a statement by Efes coach Igor Kokoškov and created a real stir.
Kokoškov joked and said that Kordinius - who missed the penalty - ran a "kamikaze" in training the next day.
He said all this with the phrase:
"Run suicides whole day".
Journalist Emre Gurkajnak translated it by mentioning the word suicide, and chaos ensued in the public.
Efes reacted and clarified the situation, followed by an apology:
"The mistake in this case is 100 percent mine. First, because I was not familiar with this expression, secondly, because of the simultaneous translation, since I translated at the same time even though I was not sure of the meaning. I want to apologize to everyone in Efes for having to explain things after an important victory. I also apologize to everyone I misled while watching," Gurkaynak wrote on the social network X.
There was no bad blood, they apologized and accepted in Ephesus:
"Emre, working on a simulcast with headphones amidst the noise created by over 10.000 people, with the adrenaline of such an important match... All of that is a challenge for anyone, even a professional translator. I know what it's like. You are a quality journalist and a man. We will continue to watch you with pleasure," Efes sports director Ismail Senol emphasized.
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