IZMIR (Basketball Champions League) – Basketball players from around the world who have played for a top Turkish club will usually testify enthusiastically to how fulfilling an experience it is, from a professional standpoint. 

When that club is Pinar Karsiyaka, who will take part in the inaugural Basketball Champions League this season, new players are pleasantly surprised to find out there are some extra perks to the package. Living in the colourful city of Izmir by the Mediterranean sea is an obvious one, but there are others which are only made possible through the dedication of Karsiyaka's devoted fans.

"We want to keep this enthusiasm alive, we want to be a part of the Basketball Champions League and we want to go as far as we can" - Cinar

“For example, our foreign players are surprised to see that often they will go out for dinner and when they ask to pay they hear 'it's all been taken care of, have a good night',” said Pinar Karsiyaka General Manager Selim Cinar. “That's how close the fans are to the players, that's how much the city loves basketball and things like that give the team great confidence.”

Karsiyaka are starting this summer an exciting new chapter in their long history with Nenad Markovic at the helm, following a superbly successful spell under former coach Ufuk Sarica, which saw them reach the final of EuroChallenge 2012/13, conquer the Turkish Cup the following year and then celebrate in 2014/15 their first BSL league crown in 28 years, to cap off a memorable campaign in the Turkish basketball books.

“We are the basketball section of Karsiyaka SK (sports club), which was founded 104 years ago,” explained Cinar. “Basketball was always loved by people in this city and formed parted of the culture.

“It was alive as part of daily life but in the last years we enjoyed a lot of stability - we had had only two coaches during a seven-year period up until this summer - and we made some improvements in our marketing campaign that helped us bring back the fans to the arena. Support grew even more and thanks to that the team climbed to the top.

"You look at the final list of the teams that will play and you realise that it's not easy, it will be a good challenge" - Cinar

“We are used through our history to challenge the big Istanbul clubs, Anadolu Efes, Fenerbahce, Galatasaray or Besiktas and we were always able to beat them in our gym, but what changed in the last years was that we are able to beat them also in Istanbul.

“That's how we climbed up and won the Turkish Cup and the Turkish league. But of course it is not easy to win every year and let's not forget that every season the level of the competition gets better, the challenge gets tougher. We will have a bit smaller budget this season, we are putting together the team as smart as we can and I hope that we will continue to challenge for the top.”

Aiming to compete once again for top honours in Turkey did not make Karsiyaka ever doubt the importance of a strong European campaign. The club and its faithful fanbase have come to regard competing on two fronts as their natural condition.

“First of all it is important to be part of a European competition for marketing reasons, for the club's brand name,” Cinar said. “Secondly, we are now used to play in Europe every season, we have had a continuous presence in the last years and it would not be possible to tell our fans that we will stop, we cannot go back to the past.

“We want to keep this enthusiasm alive, we want to be a part of the Basketball Champions League and not only that, we want to go as far as we can.

“To be honest, at the very beginning we had some doubts about the competition because we didn't know how many strong teams would be involved. But, day by day, we saw the organisation going well and now you look at the final list of the teams that will play and you realise that it's not easy, it will be a good challenge.

“This is going to be the first year and I believe that if we can show quality and measure up to the challenge, we will get bigger and bigger every year.”