Shane Larkin’s perspective on the controversy surrounding Turkey’s NT during the summer

In addition to discussing his strategy for Anadolu Efes in upcoming Turkish Airlines EuroLeague seasons and domestic tournaments in Turkey, Shane Larkin also shared his thoughts on the ongoing developments concerning the Turkish national team.

Q: A lot of drama in the summer about Turkey’s national team. What happened from your side?

A: The national team wanted me to come here. I had an injury in my knee. I came here and saw the national team doctor at the hospital. We got an MRI. We sat there and waited for the MRI to be read by a specialist. Afterward, a national team doctor came into the room. He had this look on his face… He said ‘You have a real bad problem in your knee’. I asked ‘Is it that bad?’. He said ‘yes’ and added: ‘Don’t do anything, stay off of your knee, don’t run, don’t jog, don’t bike, don’t do anything because your knee is really in a bad shape. If you do any of those things and injure your knee more, you probably going to need surgery.

That surgery will keep you out for an extended period. You’ll miss months of the season. After that day, they gave me some medicine, I started taking some pills. We were really aggressive in the rehab process. I took the medicines, I got really sick for three days because the medicines tore up my body. Then I came back here a few days after that. I got another MRI. My knee was progressing but it wasn’t anywhere near the shape of playing any kind of basketball. The doctor said ‘Maybe you can start doing some bike, something like that’. I said ‘Okay, I am going to go home, see my doctor in the States and take his opinions about my knee’. He texted me ‘Good luck back home, wish you well, says greetings to your doctor back home’.

Everybody knew where I was, everybody knew where I was going, and everybody knew exactly what was going on. In my opinion, from my side of it, I thought that would have been communicated with the team.