RIGA (Latvia) - There is nothing like watching a mastermind craft his plan to rule the basketball world in real time.
Often times, you'll catch yourself thinking back to a detail, to a sentence, which was delivered with surgeon's precision while hitting the right moment to dish it out like there's a metronome in his mind.
Back on August 29, Türkiye defeated Czechia by double digits, and Alperen Sengun was just one assist away from getting a triple-double, sitting out the tail end of the fourth quarter and missing out on the rare EuroBasket milestone.
In all the madness of a six-game Friday, coach Ergin Ataman planted a seed while you weren't looking:
"Don't worry. The EuroBasket is too long, we will go to the Final, and I am sure that until the Final, Alperen will get one more triple-double."
While we concentrated on Alperen and his quest to get that triple-double - which he finally managed to pull off with 19 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists against Poland in the Quarter-Finals - the fine print was that Ataman casually said his team will reach the Final.
That same team, which has now reached the Final Four stage for only the second time ever and for the first time in 24 years. He knew it, just two games into the FIBA EuroBasket 2025.
"What makes him different? Just his unwavering confidence," Shane Larkin talked about his coach.
"Regardless of if it's his first time in a situation, like the very first we went to the (EuroLeague) Final Four, at the press conference he said we're going to win the tournament. He always instills that confidence in his team, he walks around with that confidence and that swagger, and that kind of helps his team have that same level of confidence," Larkin added.
"The stuff that he has done, all around the Europe, the coach that he is, the personality that he has, he never backs up, and he knows how to control the players," Alperen Sengun offered his two cents.
"Working with him is always great. I've known him since 2014, it's been 11 years of playing for him, and it's always great. He gives you freedom, and he teaches you a lot," said Cedi Osman, who's also playing under Ataman at club level at Panathinaikos.
While his on-the-court success is easy to dissect, coach Ataman is dominating off the court, too.
Every press conference is full of soundbites, the media members from all over the world are always in awe with the way he handles all sorts of topics, and there is a method to his craft there, too.
Just ask Steffen Hamann, once the captain for the German national team, a former player who played in four EuroBasket events, two FIBA Basketball World Cups and the 2008 Olympics.
Hence, somebody who knows the ins and outs of how a successful basketball team operates:
"He directs the focus to himself, so he also provokes a bit, like 'give us Sengun and we'll beat the Houston Rockets,' or 'we don't want to win against them now, but in the Final.' These are the kind of games I think he does consciously in order to direct the focus a bit on himself, and not on the players, and get the players to calm down," Hamann was talking to BasketNews.de.
It sounds like a valid point. Ataman's attitude works like a shield, deflecting all attempts that could derail the Turkish freight train en route to the Final in Riga on Sunday.
Just two stops left now.
FIBA