Over the next 11 days, Lokomotiv will play 5 games at the Gloria training complex in Antalya, where dozens of teams from Turkey, Russia and some other countries are preparing for the season. Until last year, all friendly matches there were called the Gloria Cup, but in fact it was not a single competition, and its winner and prize-winners were not determined. And from now on, it is simply the Gloria pre-season games.
Here is the schedule of Gloria pre-season games involving Lokomotiv (all times are MSK):
• September 4, 7:15 PM – Türk Telekom;
• September 6, 3:45 PM – Trabzonspor;
• September 10, 2:00 PM – Galatasaray;
• September 12, 7:00 PM – Anadolu Efes;
• September 14, 7:30 PM – Bahçeşehir Koleji.
You can watch these games on Gloria’s YouTube channel.
Loko vs. Türk Telekom game broadcast
Loko vs. Trabzonspor game broadcast
During the final week of the Turkish training camp, our team will move to Ankara, where they will take part in a tournament called Ankara Yalçin Efe. This competition will be held in the “final four” format, and here is our schedule:
• September 18, 4 or 6:15 PM – Karşıyaka;
• September 20, 4 or 6:15 PM – someone of the Maroussi/Türk Telekom pair.
There will be a separate review of Ankara Yalçin Efe where we will inform you about opponents and broadcasts. Right now we will tell you about Lokomotiv’s opponents in the Gloria pre-season games.
Türk Telekom (September 4, 7:15 PM)
Founded in 1991, the club represents the capital of Turkey, Ankara. In the 1996/97 and 2007/08 seasons, Türk Telekom finished second in the national championship, after which they also won the Super Cup each time, and in 2008 they added the Turkish Cup to this. In the spring of 2023, the team reached the Eurocup final, where they lost to Gran Canaria, 67:71.
The only one to stay in the club since that game is the head coach Erdem Can, who in 2023 was named the best coach not only in the Eurocup, but in the Turkish Super League also. This specialist has also won Euroleague with Fenerbahçe and spent five games in the NBA Summer league with the Utah Jazz (all as an assistant).
Against us, Türk Telekom will probably play their numerous newcomers (of the significant players from last year, the team only has forward Berkan Durmaz stayed). In the summer, our opponent’s roster was replenished with:
• point guard Jaleen Smith, who played almost a hundred matches in the Euroleague for Alba, Virtus and Partizan;
• shooting guard Kyle Allman – MVP of the Latvian playoffs in the 2020/21 season, where his VEF became champion;
• combo guard Michael Devoe – the MVP of the 2024/25 German Cup final, in which he scored 27 points against Bamberg and helped the SYNTAINICS MBC Weißenfels win their first trophy ever;
• The 34th pick in the 2015 NBA draft, small forward Anthony Brown, who played 41 games in the NBA for the Lakers, New Orleans, Orlando and Minnesota;
• another small forward, Jordan Usher, who averaged 14.3 points per game while playing for Beşiktaş;
• center Chris Bankston, who was the second best at high jump at the 2023 NBA Draft Combine – 87.6 cm.
Türk Telekom will probably have some problems in the 4th and 5th numbers positions in the match with us, since two of their tall and powerful newcomers are currently with their national teams at EuroBasket – Montenegrin Marko Šimonović and Latvian Andrejs Gražulis, who played two seasons in the VTB United League for PARMA and VEF.
Trabzonspor (September 6, 3:45 PM)
The basketball club from the Black Sea city of Trabzon was founded in 2008, in 2015 it reached 4th place in the Turkish Super League, but in 2018 it suspended operations due to funding issues.
The team was revived before a year ago and won the second division championship in its first attempt. The core of that team remains in Trabzonspor to this day: point guards İsmail Ulusoy and Ty Gordon, forwards Okben Ulubay, Nusret Yıldırım and Alican Güney, shooting guard Dorukhan Engindeniz, center Ege Arar.
Before returning to the top tier of Turkish basketball, the team strengthened significantly. The following players have arrived:
• shooting guard Marqueese Reed, the top scorer in the Turkish Super League over the past two seasons, and also the MVP of the previous regular championship, despite the fact that his Tofaş finished 4th;
• small forward Akwasi Yeboah (who, however, is unlikely to play against us, since by that time he will have just returned from EuroBasket, where the player helped the UK team win their first victory in this tournament);
• power forward Tres Tinkle, who was included in the All-Pac-12 symbolic team of the NCAA championship for three seasons in a row;
• the best rebounder of the 2021/22 Spanish championship, the Rookie of the Year in G League in 2019 – Dominican center Ángel Delgado.
Another important change took place this summer in the coaching position of Trabzonspor – the team was headed by Selçuk Ernak, the best coach of the Polish championship in the 2024/25 season, who led Anwil Włocławek to the semi-finals. What kind of game he sets for his new team – we will find out on Saturday.
Galatasaray (September 10, 2:00 PM)
The Istanbul club, whose full name is Galatasaray MCT Technik at the moment, was founded back in 1911 by a big basketball enthusiast named Ahmet Robinson. It is no wonder that no other club have won the Turkish championship more often than yellow-reds – 18 times. Most of these titles were achieved in 1940-1960s, but in modern times, Galatasaray also has something to show: the 2012/13 Turkish title, the 2015/16 Eurocup triumph, and the 2013/14 Euroleague quarterfinals. Last season, our opponent finished 7th in the Turkish league, and reached the FIBA Champions League final, where they lost to Unicaja 67:83.
Two names that are very familiar to Loko fans immediately catch the eye in Galatasaray’s roster.
Point guard Will Cummings (#7) played for us for two seasons from 2019 to 2021; before that, he was the best scorer in the Greek and German championships, the winner of the EuroCup (in 2018, his Darüşşafaka won in the final against Lokomotiv); after playing for us, he became the MVP in the French league. The upcoming season will be his second at Galatasaray.
Errick McCollum (#3), who also gravitates toward the point guard position, had a brilliant 2020/21 season in Krasnodar – he became the best scorer of the regular championship, for which (plus three more bright years at UNICS and Khimki) he was included in the VTB United League Hall of Fame in 2023. Errick moved to Galatasaray from Fenerbahçe, with whom he had just won the Euroleague.
Also among the leaders of the Istanbul club are shooting guards #1 Jerome Robinson (the namesake of the founder of Galatasaray was selected 13th in the NBA draft in 2018 and spent the 2020/21 season in this league quite decently, scoring 9.4 points as part of Washington) and #12 James Palmer (in his debut game in the G-league, he scored 40 points, also, last season he was included in the FIBA Champions League First Team), as well as forwards #9 John Meeks (in his school years he was considered a basketball prodigy, 15 colleges fought for him) and #35 Fabian White (just transferred from the Al Ahli Tripoli, which he helped win the Africa League, playing side by side with Avtodor’s last year’s main star Caleb Agada).
The red-yellows are coached by a charismatic specialist, who looks like he came straight out of a Turkish TV series, named Yakup Sekizkök, for whom the upcoming season will be his third as a head coach; and as an assistant, he won the Euroleague twice with Anadolu Efes.
This pre-season, Galatasaray have already played several friendly games. On August 28, they won against the club Aliağa Petkim Spor, which has just been re-established after a 10-year hiatus and will begin the season in the second Turkish league. The score of the game was 86:83; White scored 18 points, Meeks and Robinson – 14 each, guard Buğrahan Tuncer added 11 points, and the center Muhsin Yaşar – 10 more.
On September 4, Galatasaray defeated Fenerbahçe – 91:82. Palmer was impressive – 25 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists; Cummings scored 17 points, White 15+9, Yaşar – 8+10; McCollum made 8 points.
Anadolu Efes (September 12, 7:00 PM)
This is probably the strongest opponent we will face in Türkiye. Anadolu Efes enters their 50th anniversary season as a 16-time national champion and two-time Euroleague winner (these triumphs were consecutive – in 2021 and 2022).
The Istanbul club sent six players to Eurobasket: Shane Larkin, Şehmus Hazer, Ercan Osmani and Erkan Yılmaz play for the Turkish national team, Rolands Smidts for Latvia, and Isaiah Cordinier for France. But even without them, the blue-white roster looks very strong:
• Georgios Papagiannis (#9) is a real star of European basketball, a 28-year-old center who has already managed to collect an armful of titles on the continent (including winning the dunk contest at the Greek All-Star Game) and play in the NBA, being selected under the 13th number in the draft; he did not go to EuroBasket of his own free will, otherwise he would probably have played in the starting five of Greece;
• PJ Dozier (#15) is a point guard who spent several seasons in the NBA, and in 2020/21 was quite an important player in Denver;
• Nick Weiler-Babb (#8) is a German combo guard, who last season as part of Bayern became the leader in steals in the Euroleague and received the DPOY title of this tournament;
• Rodrigue Beaubois (#1) is the 2010/11 NBA champion with Dallas and a true legend of Efes, where the French shooting guard has been playing for 9 seasons, and in one of his winning seasons in the Euroleague he showed a grandmasterly percentage line of “50-40-90”.
The leaders who left for Eurobasket are a good chance for our opponent’s bench to prove themselves, where there are many interesting players:
• Brice Dessert (#13) is a promising center who, at 22 years old, already several appearances for the French national team;
• Cole Swider (#21) is a 26-year-old forward, for whom Efes is the first team in Europe; last season he played an average of 20 minutes (7.4 points) for the Toronto Raptors, although this lasted only 8 matches.
• David Mutaf (#23) is a player who can play as a shooting guard and small forward and who, in addition to Turkish, has Russian citizenship.
This star team is coached by an equally star mentor – Igor Kokoškov, a specialist who sensationally led the Slovenian national team to victory at the Eurobasket-2017, and can also boast an NBA championship ring (2004, Detroit Pistons, as an assistant) and participation in the 2006 NBA All-Star Game. Kokoškov was invited to the club this summer – probably so that he could improve on the team’s last year’s result (3rd place in the championship). The previous head coach, Tomislav Mijatović, remained on the team as an assistant.
On September 3, Anadolu Efes played their first friendly game of the current off-season, confidently beating the Turkish 2nd tier team Bandırma Bordo, 87:72. Swiider scored 24 points, Papagiannis – 17, Dessert – 11+6 rebounds, Mutaf – 11+4 assists + 4 steals, Dozier – 7+6 rebounds.
On the evening of September 10, Efes will play against Bahçeşehir Koleji, which will be our final opponent at the Gloria pre-season games.
Bahçeşehir Koleji (September 14, 7:30 PM)
The Istanbul University Bahçeşehir established their basketball club in 2017. In such a small time, the team managed to secure the place in the top of Turkish basketball – this is approved by the 5th place in the last national championship, and the victory in the 2021/22 EuroCup (Reggio Emilia was beaten twice in the finals, 72:69, 90:74).
Mateusz Ponitka‘s name immediately draws attention in the Bahçeşehir roster – the small forward spent the 2018/19 season with Loko, after which he moved to Zenit, where he rose to the rank of team captain, but in March 2022 he terminated his contract, so it is not entirely clear whether he should be considered the champion of that season or not. In any case, Ponitka is unlikely to play against us, since he is called up to the Polish national team for EuroBasket. There (as part of the Turkish national team) is also the point guard of Bahçeşehir Kenan Sipahi.
The chances of seeing the captain of the red-blues, power forward Tyler Cavanaugh (#34), are pretty good, since enough time has passed since the end of the FIBA AmeriCup, where the player won bronze medals as part of the US national team, which is quite unusual for this team.
This summer, the Bahçeşehir roster was replenished with a large number of newcomers who will definitely claim leadership roles:
• point guard Malachi Flynn (#22) was included in the All-NBA G-League 1st team last season, having played 223 games in the NBA during his career, 21 of which were in the starting lineup;
• combo guard İsmet Akpınar (#33) was once considered one of the main prodigies of German basketball, three years ago he became the champion of Turkey with Fenerbahçe, and now, probably, he will prove that 30 years is only the beginning of some good times;
• shooting guard Hunter Hale (#77) came from AEK, where he played good enough to be included in the All-FIBA Champions League 1st Team (by the way, Caleb Homesley (#5), who played a bit for Zenit in the 2022/23 season, will share minutes with Hale on the court);
• forward Matt Mitchell (#11) was famous for his double-doubles with 30+ points in his school years, but after not being selected in the draft, he went to conquer Europe – he joins Koleji team as a Lithuanian champion with Žalgiris Kaunas;
• center Trevion Williams (#50) in the 2023/24 season, playing for Alba, became the best in rebounds in the Bundesliga and EuroCup, in which he was also included in the First Team; then there was a not very successful year in Tel Aviv Maccabi, and Williams clearly moved to Istanbul in pursuit of his former confidence;
• another center, 216-centimeter Balša Koprivica (#8), is a rising star of Serbian basketball; last season, he won both the ABA and Serbian leagues as part of Partizan.
Special mention should be made of Maxim Mutaf (#17), a 34-year-old forward with Turkish-Russian citizenship, the older brother of David Mutaf, about whom we wrote in the section dedicated to Anadolu Efes. On September 12, the brothers will meet on the court, and this will be the first friendly game for Bahçeşehir Koleji in the current off-season. For now, their game is a mystery, especially considering that the team also has a new coach – Marko Barač, who until recently headed Belgrade’s Mega.
Thanks for reading! Let us remind you that we will tell you about Lokomotiv’s opponents in the Ankara Yalçin Efe tournament in a separate article.