A Basketball Star for the Pellicani
When, in European basketball you want to highlight the fact that a player is talented, you say "he could play in Euroleague". Engin Atsur, 37, Turkish on his father's side and German on his mother's side, played for real in the Euroleague, in the midst of a high-profile career that saw him also playing in Benetton Treviso, Alba Berlin, and for the two big names of Turkish basketball, Efes and Fenerbache, after college basketball at North Carolina State. He won three league titles in Turkey, and played in the Turkish national team during the 2006 World Championships in Japan, as well as the European Championships of 2007 and 2009. Engin now collaborates with Bocconi Sport Team to organize sporting events aimed at valorizing the brand-new sports facilities of the University and involving a growing number of students. He also plays in the Pellicani team currently competing in the C-Gold division, forming with Riccardo Santolamazza (Director of Sport Operations of the Bocconi Sport Team) the kind of backcourt that not many years ago would have played in the top league.
"I started playing mainly because my father was a professional player and my older brother too," says Engin: "In my house you could breathe basketball everywhere. But since I also wanted to study, when I finished high school I made a precise choice: to continue my basketball career and at the same time enroll at university". A complex choice in Europe, much less in the US, to where Engin moved thanks to a scholarship from North Carolina State. He spent four fundamental years playing in the NCAA and managed to graduate in business administration: "The culture of sport is deeply rooted in the American school system and playing and studying at the same time is much easier, because everyone does sports there, not necessarily competitively, thanks also to the availability of adequate facilities".
The first professional experience after college was coming to Italy to play in Treviso. Then the return to Turkey, where the most prestigious clubs in the country and some of the strongest in Europe awaited him. In 2004, he made his debut in the national team, called by a basketball legend like Bogdan Tanjevic. "With the national team I played in the 2006 World Cup in Japan, then in two editions of the European Championships". A stellar career, until mishap got in the way: "We were just days away from the start of the 2010 World Championships, which took place right in Turkey. It was my dream to take part in it, it would have been the height of my career. But I broke my Achilles' tendon". A devastating injury and a long recovery, an absence from the basketball court of about one year. Then the return to ball games and a new injury to the Achilles' tendon of the other leg. A tremendous blow. "These two injuries undoubtedly held back my career", Engin sums up, "but they strengthened me mentally, made me grow. I didn't give up, I returned to a high level at Galatasaray, Besiktas, and then in Germany, at Alba Berlin. I ended my professional career in Italy, in Capo d'Orlando, where my first child was born".
Engin Atsur lives in Monza, where his wife, the Dutch volleyball star Floortje Mejners, plays, although she is now on maternity leave. So he lives close to Milano and Bocconi, where he has decided to continue playing, albeit at an amateur level. In C-Gold he is a star, but life is not easy there even for someone with his talent: "The opponents know who I am and about my career, from the look in their eyes and their words you understand that they are particularly keen on stopping you, but so far I have found very clean play. I have superior technique and experience, but it's not easy, because they are young and athletic".
Engin's first child is four years old, will he choose his father's or his mother's sport? "I don't know, it's still too early to understand." But his eyes light up only at the mention of the word basketball.