Philly Sports Jabronis
By Max Rappaport, Sixers.com
For the first seven weeks of the NBA season, Turkish forward Furkan Aldemir was limited to watching highlights of Sixers games on YouTube and perusing postgame box scores on NBA.com. His only familiarity with the city of Philadelphia was derived from television and movies, and the majority of his NBA knowledge came from friend fellow countryman Enes Kanter of the Utah Jazz.
On Sunday, he arrived in Philadelphia with his wife, Ahsen, and his pet cat, Firuze. And On Monday, he officially signed with the Sixers. When head coach Brett Brown was asked before Monday’s game against the Celtics if the 6’10” big man would make his debut despite only arriving in America 24 hours prior, he chuckled. “Welcome to Philadelphia. You’ve got Sullinger…”
He wasn’t kidding.
Recently acquired forward Furkan Aldemir made his 76er debut during Monday’s loss to Boston. Photo credit – Philadelphia 76ers
Aldemir logged 10 minutes in the Sixers’ 105-87 home loss to Boston, but in that short time he was able to show off some of the value he can provide the Sixers on the offensive glass. In addition to scoring two points, dishing out an assist, and grabbing a pair of offensive rebounds, he also drew a foul on an offensive box out and stripped the ball loose and off the leg of a Boston player, creating a total of four extra offensive possessions for Philadelphia.
“[In Turkey] I tried to follow rebounds offensively and defensively, and I’ll try to [do that] for this team,” he told reporters earlier in the day. “I believe I can improve my other skills, especially on the offensive end, and I expect very good things.”
The Sixers are off until Friday, and the rare three-day break will give Aldemir a chance to begin to situate himself in the city that will now be his home.
“[Philadelphia’s] not so different from Turkey, just a little bit colder,” he said, laughing. “I like the city, and my wife likes the city. I hope [my cat] will like it too.”
