Ceyhun Cabadak, the experienced coach of Manisa Metropolitan Municipality, the new team of the Basketball Super League, said that he wants to pass a position with only local players in the new season and train players for 12 Giant Men. General Manager Nihat Mala and Head of Basketball Branch Bora Çaylan gave full support to this brave project.
Manisa Metropolitan Municipality, which received the return of a 5-year planned investment as a result of a great struggle in the Turkish Basketball League and had its name written in the Basketball Super League as a champion, while determining its primary goal as being permanent in the league by extending its foot according to its quilt, it also aims to serve Turkish basketball with a different mission. He aims… To train players for the National Team!..
General Manager Nihat Mala, who broke new ground in many clubs he served, said, “Basketball does not need Manisa to go to the European Cup immediately and finish the league in the top four. He pointed out that Manisa needs to be permanent for the spread of basketball in Anatolia.” He pointed out that they had their feet firmly on the ground. One of Manisa’s goals this year is to win a position with only a local player and bring a young player to the national team. However, support is needed for this project,” said Coach Ceyhun Çabadak, and revealed a very important vision. In such cases, the support of the management is very important. Because in a possible worst scenario, the bill is immediately charged to the coach… Branch President Bora Çaylan has clarified whether they will stand behind the coaches who will take this risk. Çaylan clearly stated that they definitely support this project, and that they will support the technical team they have been with for 5 years and Nihat Mala, who added great strength to them with his experience after joining them last year.
Here is what the three names in charge of the business said before the first Super League experience, which is a historical success and highly anticipated for Manisa basketball:
BORA ÇAYLAN
(MANİSA BRANCH SK SECRETARY GENERAL-HEAD OF BASKETBALL BRANCH)
- Actually, everything started at the end of last season, at that time Nihat Mala joined us as General Manager. In fact, we were waiting to see if we would make a move in the play-off at that time, we threw in the towel early for reasons such as covid cases and the injury of our tall American. But when the season was over, we determined this year as the target season in the meeting we had with our Metropolitan Mayor, without wasting time. Thankfully, he paved the way for us, and he approached all our demands positively.
- We met with Nihat Mala and our coach Ceyhun Cabadak and entered the team structure. We have been together for 5 years with our technical team, who are already very experienced. We formed a squad of the hottest players of the league. We started the season early, we made a semi-camp environment in our facility, and we went very ready for the Federation Cup and won the first championship of the season in a dominant way. There, everybody started to say for us that they can easily win the league, maybe this created some complacency on the team as well. Baki, one of our very important names, had an injury and broke his hand. This situation shook us at the beginning of the season, we lost 3 away games, but we knew that everything would be alright.
- We recovered quickly, and Baki returned after the 7th week. Afterwards, we finished the season as we wanted with only 3 defeats. We were proud to keep our promises, to make the people of Manisa experience the excitement of the Super League for the first time, and to witness how happy this makes people. It is an indescribable feeling to see the excitement and happiness of people when we become champions.
- Our Mayor, Cengiz Ergün, is a person who loves sports, is extremely passionate about sports, wants to win, and was the president of the football team before. He is also very enthusiastic about establishing in sports. We are very lucky in this regard. As long as we continue in this way, we have no doubt that it will open new avenues for us. When we spoke at the championship celebrations, he asked how we would go further. He immediately began to experience her excitement and thinks one step ahead. As long as we have a president, we never think that we will have problems like other teams, that we will say ‘no, we are closing’. We are also thinking of taking this club up step by step, together with our president, by using the opportunities at our disposal very well.
- We will speed up the work on infrastructure. Whether it is BGL or other age groups, we will go to a good structuring. We need to be realistic for our position in the Super League, first of all we will try to hold on. We are aware that it is difficult to hold on there. If we can do this, we will begin to plan further goals in the years ahead.
- There is a reaction from the city like this; everyone started asking for a combination, maybe it won’t save us, but I think we will earn an income from there. We haven’t had a sponsor meeting yet, but I’m from Manisa, born and raised, and I know this region well. We all know how strong Manisa Organized Industry is and I sincerely believe that there will be a direction from there as we come to the agenda with our basketball team. Being in the organization of our Mayor will obviously be attractive in the OIZ. Because it is not possible to experience the unhealthy structure experienced in some other clubs here. Everything will go smoothly here. I think it will become a sponsor over time, but we know that we can easily meet the budgets of the average clubs in the Super League with the support of our Municipality and local organizations in Manisa.
NİHAT MALA (GENERAL MANAGER)
- Frankly, everything was ready when I got here. We had already worked with Ceyhun in Karşıyaka and Trabzon, he knew very well what to do and how and a good order was established. This place has been prepared for this success by knitting stitch by knot for 4 years. In other words, this result is not just the result of a couple of reinforcements and work done this season. Organization, hall, facilities, everything was prepared. This year, the only thing left to do was to form the right squad with the right budget and go to the league.
- Since the infrastructure is very well established here, we are considering staying in the Super League. Otherwise, we would panic, we were afraid that we would spend a lot of money to stay in the Super League, get more players, but the organization is already ready here. There are opportunities that many clubs do not have. We have opportunities that many clubs do not have in terms of logistics, facilities, financial strength and supporters. Only as Manisa, as a club, we are inexperienced for the Super League. We need to develop in this area and create a basketball culture here. If we think about the populist side of things and say, let’s go to the league this year, let’s play the play-offs right away, we will go to the European Cup next year, we would be wrong. There are examples of this in the past. We will gradually grow within the organization we have planned within the rules we set ourselves.
- Basketball needs that too. Basketball doesn’t need Manisa to play the European Cup or to be in the top 4 in the league. Such beautiful organizations that basketball needs, people who are devoted to sports need to stay in this business for a long time. If names such as Manisa Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cengiz Ergün, Club President Mehmet Güzgülü, Bora Çaylan continue in the same way, both Manisa and basketball will win. Such structures are needed in order to spread to Anatolia. We started on August 9 last year, we came to the hall every day until the league ended, saying ‘we will go to the league’, we didn’t even think about the opposite for a day. This year, too, we will come every day saying ‘We will be here to stay’. We will continue to think about how we can be beneficial to basketball, how we can spread basketball to Anatolia, and how we can give back what we have taken from basketball.
- We are both lucky and unlucky in infrastructure. After the pandemic, everything turned to individuality, everyone started individual coaching. With a serious organization, we can gather serious players. The hall we are in will now only be at the service of the infrastructure. If people also help us, if they don’t immediately try to take a player out of your hands when you remove them, if there is respect here why not. This place is very strong logistically. We have everything, there are dormitories for the infrastructure, there are training halls, but we also need parents and players who will just believe in us. Now that we are in the Super League, I think his perspective will change. Our moves regarding infrastructure will also increase.
CEYHUN CABADAK (COACH)
- When things are going well, everything flows like water. At the beginning of the season, a very critical player of ours was injured in the cup semi-finals. As such, the roles in the team changed, we gave the players different tasks. We had to make two additions and part ways with two players. While we were saying that we had a full squad, another player’s hand was broken and we were always missing in terms of the number of players in his long rotation, but we were able to close it somehow within the squad. Afterwards, we achieved the goal by reaching a very difficult number of wins in this league. The budgets are very close to each other here. There are no gaps like the Super League. Therefore, a good organization is essential to catch this series in such a league, we used this advantage.
- I’ve been here for 5 years. In the first year, we formed the team at the latest. We had to establish the team on August 25, I was in the lower league, but we formed a good team with the names remaining in the pool and we were promoted to the TBL. The next year, our first goal was to stay here. The next year, there was a serious economic crisis, our budget fell even more, but we approached from a different perspective and established the youngest team in the league. We were the best defensive team.
- Last year, we made a team with the goal of play-off for the first time. We protected ourselves very well there all year, but with 3 games left, 17 people became covid. If we won 2 of 3 games, we would be 2nd, but we finished the league 9th. We matched with Samsun and although we fought well, we lost both games and finished the season. We thought it was time for us this season. While a very experienced name like Nihat (Mala) brother, with whom I worked before, joined us, we set the goal as the Super League. Last year, we recruited local players who played well in this league, two experienced foreign players, and most importantly, players suitable for our system.
- I also have the idea of stretching our feet according to our quilt on target. After all, there are teams that have been playing in the Super League for 30-40-50 years. If we say that we, as Manisa, will go out and play the play-offs in our first year, it would not be realistic. On the contrary, it creates a negative pressure on everyone. But we will try to be permanent. We have a different model in mind. Maybe we will pass a position with a completely Turkish player and try to prepare players for the national team. Of course, we need support from other circles for this. In terms of players, we have such a project in mind. Taking a young player and preparing him for the national team can also be a goal for Manisa. We will go the way of being a sympathetic and young team and try to stay in the league.
