The Mysterious Story of an Uzbek basketball player in the NBA. Who is Ersan Ilyasova?

“Uzbek cuisine” – about the best basketball player of the Uzbekistan national team in history, who never played

More recently, the author of “Uzbek Cuisine” decided to write the layouts of the Uzbekistan team at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and, having reached the letter “B,” he remembered the existence of the Turkish basketball player Ersan Ilyasova, who played in the NBA for a long time.

How and what it is connected with Uzbekistan is a complete detective story. And theThe Mysterious Story of an Uzbek basketball player in the NBA. Who is Ersan Ilyasova? story takes us to Bukhara. An eighth-grade student at one of the local schools had an incredible height of 1 meter 95 centimeters. It is logical that this guy decided to take up basketball, joining the section at the age of 11.

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Local coach Igor Burnashev, who trained this boy, said the following: “He came to my section in the eighth grade and even then had outstanding physical characteristics. He was a true basketball fanatic. I stayed in the gym after training and practiced my throws. He graduated from school here in Bukhara, grew up to two meters, and in the tenth grade received the title of master of sports. I was even a candidate for the senior national team.”

That guy’s name was Arsen Ilyasov. He is a Tatar by nationality; his parents Anvar and Iraliya Ilyasov also lived in Bukhara. Once there, as a result of Soviet repression of the Crimean Tatars.

He was indeed listed in the Uzbek basketball database. He was on the list of candidates for the Uzbekistan national team. Until August 2002 arrived in Indianapolis, USA. The Yugoslavia national team won the World Basketball Championship for the last time.

The hosts failed, taking 6th place, which by dream team standards was an extremely unsatisfactory result, and no one made it into the symbolic top five of the tournament. But there were cult personalities there – Manu Ginobili, Yao Ming, Dirk Nowitzki. The Turkish national team, which is a strong and strong team, did not even reach the quarter finals.

A couple of weeks later, the Uzbekistan youth team flew to Turkey for the tournament. Naturally, Ilyasov was in the lineup. After the tournament, it suddenly turned out that Arsen had disappeared. People began searching for him, but in the minds of the leaders there was already the idea that Ilyasov would not return again

Istanbul. September 2002. As is usually the case, for each child born, a so-called registration is issued at the registry office. called “metrics”. A common everyday procedure that every parent goes through. But not 15 years after the birth of my son. A certain Semsetin Bulut appeared at one of the local offices and suddenly remembered that his son needed to issue a birth certificate. It was the same Arsen Ilyasov. But under the name Ersan Ilyasova.

As soon as the Uzbekistan Basketball Federation discovered the similarity, a request was immediately submitted to FIBA with a protest. At the same time, Uzbek basketball officials provided a complete package of documents indicating that Arsen Ilyasov/Ersan Ilyasova are the same person.

In addition, there was evidence indicating that Ilyasov’s age was changed. In Turkey, he was “rejuvenated” by three years, making him a native of the city of Eskisehir. However, the arguments of the Uzbek side did not convince FIBA, which referred to the authenticity of Ilyasova’s document, simply turning a blind eye to the rest.

Perhaps the reason for this was the strong position of the Turkish Basketball Federation in FIBA and ULEB. After all, we were talking about falsification of documents and a big scandal, up to the possible disqualification of all Turkish teams

In 2010, the then vice-president of the FBU, Roman Itskov, in an interview with Izvestia, said the following: “Arsen played basketball in Bukhara since childhood. But his parents decided to move to Turkey and took their son with them. We filed a protest and tried to resolve the issue.

They asked the Turks to pay for the transfer of only $100, but, alas, they lost the process.” Another possible factor indicating a changed age was Ilyasova’s call to the Turkish national team for the home European U-20 Championship.

If we adhere to the theory of the Uzbek side, then Ilyasov competed at that tournament at a biological age clearly exceeding 20 years. At that tournament, the newly minted Turk received the title of “Most Valuable Basketball Player.” Turkish functionaries have resorted to similar tactics before.

A decade earlier, in a similar – albeit slightly more civilized – manner, the Bosnian youth Mirsad Jahovic was recruited, who received continental fame under the name Mirsad Turkzhan

After all this, Ersan Ilyasova’s career went even further up. In 2005, he was selected 36th overall in the NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. At first it was difficult for him to find himself in the leading league in the world, he played on loan in the Development League, went back to Europe, playing in Barcelona. But soon, he began to show good results. As a result, since 2005, the basketball player has been consistently playing for various NBA clubs.

In addition to Milwaukee, Ersan played for the Detroit Pistons, Orlando, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and this season his Utah reached the quarter finals of the playoffs, winning in the regular season Western Conference.

True, Ilyasova himself has only started for the Jazzmen once this season. Ersan Ilyasova never talks about her past, childhood, or parents in her interviews. About that same eighth-grader Arsen Ilyasov.

He has been living in the USA for a long time and is married to a Belarusian woman, with whom they are raising two children born in Milwaukee. And the Uzbekistan national team, by its own (or someone else’s) will, lost an athlete who would be admired, admired, and set an example. Who was constantly mentioned in the news reports of the “Khabarlar” program. And the Uzbek land could be proud of another magnificent athlete.

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