Greece HC Fires Back at Alperen Sengun Over Giannis Comments

What was meant as a simple postgame answer from Alperen Sengun has quickly turned into one of EuroBasket 2025’s biggest storylines.

After Turkey stunned Greece 94-68 in the semifinals, Sengun praised teammate Ercan Osmani’s defense on Giannis Antetokounmpo while slipping in a jab.

“We just put Ercan [Osmani] on him and we helped as much we can,” Sengun said. “Ercan did a great job today. Of course, Giannis is one of the best players in the world. We just tried to help Ercan and think we did a good job. He’s not a great passer. He’s an amazing player but he’s not a great passer. We just tried to help, jump, and close the paint.”

Those words didn’t sit well with Greece head coach Vassilis Spanoulis, who went out of his way to defend his star after his team secured bronze against Finland.

“I want to say about the previous question you had for Giannis: Sengun is a very small kid to talk about Giannis,” Spanoulis said. “Second, he has to know that because we hear a lot of different ideas from people that don’t have any idea about basketball [saying], ‘that Turkey team, they locked Giannis.’ This is bullsh-t. We were not on a good day. They played the same defense to Giannis. He missed four times a layup. He found his teammates more than six times, but we didn’t score. So I don’t want to hear this bullshit. This is bullshit. This is for media and for you that a lot of people that don’t have any idea about basketball.”

“Sengun is a very small kid to talk about Giannis [Antetokounmpo]… We hear different ideas from people… That [the Turkish team locked] Giannis. This is bullsh*t.”

Greece coach Vassilis Spanoulis on Alperen Sengun’s comment 👀

(via @EuroBasket)pic.twitter.com/pmThz42sHI https://t.co/fQVTYp3QJx

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) September 15, 2025

Spanoulis doubled down while still giving credit to Turkey.

“Some of you, you’ve never caught a basketball,” he added. “I’m a man that always says the truth. I respect [Turkey] coach [Ergin] Ataman. We have a very good relationship, we are friends, we exchange opinions, and he’s a great coach. But it’s another story when I hear all these stories. It makes me mad because it’s not the truth and it’s not fair. We had an unbelievable tournament. We put ourselves in this situation…”