{"id":142426,"date":"2025-09-14T11:10:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T11:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/142426\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T11:10:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T11:10:20","slug":"shane-larkin-isnt-done-yet-i-would-love-for-that-medal-to-be-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/142426\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane Larkin isn’t done yet: “I would love for that medal to be gold”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Cesare Milanti \/\u00a0info@eurohoops.net<\/a><\/p>\n

Riga, Latvia \u2013\u00a0Shane Larkin dreamed of nights like this, hoping to have his name cemented in the history books. While he previously managed to do it with the club, he\u2019s also one of\u00a0T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s heroes now.<\/p>\n

Ergin Ataman\u2019s team qualified for the gold-medal game at FIBA RuroBasket 2025 by destroying Greece, and Anadolu Efes<\/a>\u2018 point guard stepped up with 14 points and 5 assists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m extremely proud. When I signed on to be on the national team five years ago, this was the only goal that I had in mind: to bring a medal to the country,\u201d he said after the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there had been a drought for quite some time when I joined the team. So to be here right now, guaranteed a medal is a great feeling. But I would really love for that medal to be gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re going to go out here in the next few days and strategize and work on our bodies and try to stay focused and come out there in the next game and try to win a medal, a gold one,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Obviously, this was Ercan Osmani\u2019s dream performance with 28 points to take down Vassilis Spanoulis\u2019 team. \u201cIt\u2019s the same thing that I\u2019ve been saying from the beginning. There are 12 quality players on this team, and at the end of the day, it could be any of us,\u201d Larkin followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be Alpi [Sengun] every game or me, Cedi [Osman], or the bigger names that usually get the notoriety for scoring the ball. There are so many guys on this roster that can come out and have huge moments and huge games.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday it was Ercan, and just extremely happy to have him on my team, especially in Efes<\/a> and on the national team. And with that performance, he showed the world the kind of player that he is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Shane Larkin also touched on Cedi Osman\u2019s game-time decision availability. \u201cWe were all kind of up in the air. He tried some stuff at shootaround this morning, but it was a game-time decision\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut him being the captain and him playing on the national team for the many years that he has to be in this moment, for him to step up and play through pain and be out there and give his all for his teammates is everything. And it\u2019s the sacrifice that you need to have in these kinds of tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that mentality has been what\u2019s pushed us to this moment. It\u2019s all about us. We believe in each other, we\u2019re here for each other. We got each other\u2019s backs. And the fact that he did that today was really huge for our captain,\u201d Larkin added about Panathinaikos<\/a>\u2018 forward.<\/p>\n

Now, they will meet the reigning World Champions. \u201cGermany\u2019s a great team. It\u2019s going to be a challenging game. They\u2019re high octane, play fast, up-tempo,\u201d Larkin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day, I think we\u2019ve shown throughout the tournament that we\u2019re just as qualified as anybody to go out there and win this tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we have to go back, watch some film, understand our game plan, execute it, and then just come out here and fight. And if we come out here and fight and give everything that we have, anything\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

PHOTO CREDIT: FIBA<\/p>\n

Read all the latest news from the basketball world<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Cesare Milanti \/\u00a0info@eurohoops.net Riga, Latvia \u2013\u00a0Shane Larkin dreamed of nights like this, hoping to have his name…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-142426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}