Furkan Korkmaz to play for Sixers tonight, remain with team
The Turkish player will dress for the first time as a Sixer when the team faces the Jazz in Utah.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Newly signed Furkan Korkmaz will play for the 76ers' summer league team tonight.
The Turkish basketball player, who signed his rookie contract Tuesday here at the Sixers hotel, will start in the 9 p.m. game against the host Jazz at the University of Utah's Jon M. Huntsman Center.
"Finally, we made it," said Korkmaz, who was selected with the 26th pick in the 2016 NBA draft.
"I can't wait to play," he said. "Tonight, I'm going to play. So it's a real special day for me. I think it's going to be nice."
The 6-foot-8 shooting guard is expected to start alongside point guard Markelle Fultz, shooting guard Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, power forward Alex Poythress and center Kaleb Tarczewski.
Korkmaz then will remain with the Sixers, who next will face the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday. They then will travel to Las Vegas to compete in the NBA Summer League starting Saturday.
The 19-year-old originally was scheduled be with Turkey's under-20 team, which will compete in the U-20 European Championship from July 15-23 in Greece. But now that's he's under contract with the Sixers, he would need their consent to compete in the U-20 competition. The team decided not to grant that, thinking it was better for his development to be with its organization in the summer leagues.
The Sixers, however, will support his participating in the Eurobasket 2017 from Aug. 31 to Sept. 17 with the Turkish senior men's team if selected.
But his lack of participation in the U-20 competitive was the Sixers' decision.
Terms of his deal with the Sixers were not announced, but Korkmaz was slotted to make $1.2 million this season. However, the Sixers could have paid him 20 percent more than that, and might have done so considering Korkmaz's Efes buyout was for $2 million. NBA teams are permitted to contribute only $675,000 to buyouts.
The shooting guard averaged 10.4 points and shot 48.8 percent on three-pointers in 10 BCL games with Banvit. He averaged 8.4 points and shot 34.4 percent on threes in 16 Turkish games with the club.
He did play in 12 games for Efes before being loaned to Banvit in December. He averaged just 4.4 points and 12.1 minutes despite shooting 50 percent in 10 Turkish games with Anadolu Efes. He averaged 1.5 points and 6.5 minutes and missed his lone three-pointer in two EuroLeague games with the club.
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