Member Interview: Tamburello

[teej]

Bobcats Planet name: tamburello
Real name (first only): Burak (a common Turkish male name with Arabic roots, see)
Age: 22
Current City: Ankara, Turkey
Hometown: İzmit, Turkey (Actually this is where I was born, I didn’t live there much, we have moved a lot during my childhood)
Occupation: Junior student at college


1) How did you choose your screen name?
- Well, Formula 1 is very popular in Europe unlike US. I'm a big time F1 fan. Tamburello is the name of a curve in the circuit Imola, San Marino. The legendary Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna crashed his car at this very curve and passed away in 1994. I've chosen this name in honor of that "murderer" curve.

2) Could you tell us a little about where you grew up and about your family?
- As I have said above, we have changed so many cities during my childhood. I've lived in 5 different towns until I was 15. I believe this had effected my personality a lot. I've always been shy, and making new friends has always been difficult to me. So I was bounded to basketball and reading more and more. My father is an officer in the army, my mother is a housewife. I have a late brother, who is just 4 years old.

3) Did you play in any sports or where you involved with any High School clubs and such?
-Not in high school years, but during my primary school years, I've played. We had won a local championship when I was at fifth grade, and that's still the peak of my so-called playing career . Other than basketball, I played soccer recreationally, as each Turkish boy did. But I don't like soccer much.

4) What is your fondest memory of your teenage years?
-Definitely my High School years. I highly doubt I'll ever have better years in rest of my life. I don't have a specific memory to mention, because me and my friends had great years, telling one of them would be disrespectful to the others

5) What was your first job?
-Actually I didn't have a real job until now. At 14, I had briefly worked in a kiosk. Currently I write some articles about sports history and NBA for some websites, and once I had paid for it.
You wouldn't believe but I'm writing Bobcats articles for a Turkish NBA site. The article is in Turkish, but you'll definitely get the whole idea once you read the title

6) What lead to your dedicated following of the Bobcat's?
-Nothing specially. I was an avid follower of NBA, but I wasn't supporting any of teams. When I had heard a 30th franchise will be added to NBA, I suddenly decided to be a supporter of them. The year was 2003, even the Bobcats name hadn't been decided yet. I honestly might be the first ever international Bobcats fan.

7) Could you tell us one of your favorite memories of the Bobcat's?
-The Lakers game with 3 OT was a nice moment for me. Kobe had scored 58 but we had won. I was still hopeful about the team back in those days. The roster wasn't filled with overpaids and underachievers. We had capspace, which would be the key to the championship if used smartly. Anyway, we just screwed everything up.

8 ) How did you find the Bobcats Planet and what keeps you active on the site?
I don't remember exactly, I think I googled for a Bobcats fan forum and I'm still here and I'm very pleased to be here. It's great to read the people who actually "sees" Bobcats. I will probably never watch a Bobcats game live, that's why I value people's opinions.

And I'm also enshrined to the stuff, thanks to Mr. Ziggy

9) What other sports teams do you follow?
-Not much. My favorite team in Turkey is Beşiktaş, and I don't support any team in Europe as well. Also I'm a big tennis fan, and I've been following Russian Elena Dementieva for almost 6 years now. I watch a lot of sports and I always support the underdog.

The only major American sport popular in Turkey is basketball, and I have absolutely no idea about NHL, NFL or MLB.

10) When you’re not on Bobcats Planet what could you likely be found doing with your spare time?
-Internet surfing. It’s like an addiction, and I’m doing my best to reduce my surfing time. Once my college starts, I’ll hopefully say I’d more likely be found studying

11) If you could have one moment being part of the Bobcats organization, what would it be?
-I'd like to be the GM at 2005 Draft Night. I would have traded #5 and #13 to Trail Blazers for #3 pick, before Jazz did it with #6, #27 and a future first round pick!! And guess who I'd have drafted

12) How many trips have you made to the Time Warner Cable Arena?
-None. And as I said previously, I'll probably never do.

13) What is your worst fear?
-To hurt other people by any means. I don’t have a strong body enough to hurt people physically, but I’m a little outspoken, that’s why I sometimes hurt their feelings unintentionally. I try to avoid this, but sometimes I just can’t help… All in all, I’m a human being, I wish I’m making mistakes and I will.

14) What type of hobbies do you enjoy?
-Playing basketball, watching any kinds of sports, either at sport halls, stadiums or on TV.
I also enjoy walking for long distances. When I get upset about something, walking helps me to regroup.
I like to watch movies. My favorite genre is Drama-Thriller, and I hate action, animation and horror.
… and I love reading. Russian Literature is my absolute favorite, Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, Oblomov… these are masterpieces to me. American Literature is kinda young IMHO and not among my favorites, but I have the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, I’ve heard he’s a great writer, I’ll read him as soon as possible.

15) What’s your favorite food?
-Rice with beans. This is a very common food in Turkey and although people do not appreciate it much, I love it! I’d prefer it to any kind of kebabs.

16) Where are some of the places you’ve been, and where are some of your favorites.
-I’ve never stepped outside Turkey. Inside Turkey, I’ve seen a lot of places, but a lot of them are tiny towns. Ankara is the city that I’m happy to be living in, however, İstanbul is a magical one. It has a lot of disadvantages for inhabitants, but for tourists like me, it’s nothing but a heaven.

17) What is one thing you've always wanted to do, but haven't done yet in your lifetime?
-Being a professional basketball player. It was the ultimate goal of my life while I was still at my mid-teens. Maybe I wasn’t ambitious enough, I don’t blame anyone or lack of opportunities. Maybe I was confined to suck, since I’m extremely skinny for a basketball player, in fact for a six-footer person (145 lbs) Somehow, it didn’t go real and now I’m in a different position now, taking engineering education and who knows what’s next for me?

18 ) If you could live anywhere where would it be?
-Probably I’d look for a tranquil place. In Turkey, young people generally want to go to Europe and -especially- USA. But I’d prefer New Zealand. A country with low population and almost no wars, no terror attacks and no controversial issues surrounding it is what I look for.

But I’m still extremely pleased with living in Ankara, if I were to remain in Turkey, I’d never want another city.

19) Name your favorite 3 Bobcats all time and explain the reason for one of them.
Matt Carroll: Being overpaid doesn’t change his value to me a bit. He was a classy, hard-working guy. I’d like to see him as a Bobcat again… after his current contract expires of course

Walter Herrmann: He was one of my favorites even before arriving to Charlotte. I’ve always loved role players, and Herrmann was certainly among best of them who has ever worn that orange jersey

Gerald Wallace: He’s a real warrior. He’s never afraid of injuries (although he should be now, take care of himself more), and it’s no surprise he’s a fan favorite.

20) Up to this date, what is one of your favorite Bobcats Planet memories?
-Draft Night of 2007 is a very interesting one. Just before the draft, there were rumors that indicated Amare will be traded to us for capspace. I stil remember how pumped everybody was! Maybe even more than some people were during Iverson saga Night went on, we have ended up with Jason Richardson. I was the only guy who objected that trade, eventually he proved me wrong. J-Rich experiment didn’t go through as expected, though.

21) Anything else you'd like to add?
-Me and you American fellows have grown up in very different cultures. Therefore some of my answers would be long, stupid or irrelevant. Also my native language is not English as you know that’s why I had to consult to a dictionary at times. However I enjoyed doing this interview, as well as I enjoy being a part of this forum. Hopefully you have learnt something about me, take care everybody.

Who would you like to nominate to be interviewed next?
-Muttley hasn’t been interviewed yet, if my eyes aren’t misleading me.

[bing!]

Nice interview, especially the scrawny 'Maybe I was confined to suck' bit (that had me chuckling), seeing as I, with the imposing ~150lbs cleverly distributed on my 6-5 body, know exactly what you mean... still, it hasn't stopped others from hating my wonky shots and dribble moves. We, skinny dudes, have to make do and enjoy the game nonetheless. I hope your studies and corporal shortcomings aren't stopping you from investing time playing hoops.

[Dunk]

I went to Izmir, Turkey once for a day on vacation. I just did tourist stuff which was basically go to Ephesus and see a rug making demonstration. It was pretty cool. The people were nice (a lot of fellow vacationers were pretty worried given that we were American and so forth).

Any Turkish food you could recommend besides that candy stuff (turkish delight). We used to have a restaurant in Charlotte but I'm sure we could find something.

[ziggy]

Nice interview Tamb If you were to recommend one piece of Russian literature for me to read, what would it be?



And Bing, 6'5" and 150 pounds?!?!?!?!? Did they outlaw 3 meals a day in the country that you live in?

[tamburello]

Mr. Ziggy, I'm not an expert of course, but I suggest you to read Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. That'a a real classic of the World Literature. My personal favorite is Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, but Crime and Punishment is regarded as the best Russian novel, and it really deserves it to be honest...

And Dunk, I also hate that delight, it has a lot of sugar I personally like vegetables more than meat, but I'd suggest any kind of kebabs. If there are many kinds of kebabs there, I'd suggest "Iskender" kebab...

And Adnan, it appears as you are much worse than me dude It brings to my mind the question ziggy asked Also congratulations for your first ever World Cup berth

[bing!]

@ziggy - nope, the rest of my family is surprisingly chubby, I just can't seem to gain weight, not that I mind though (the situation is not as drastic as numbers would have it)

@tamb - all is not final yet, as runners-up, we'll have to face another in the additional qualifying playoffs, unless we manage to lose to Estonia & Spain and you guys win both

EDIT: woah, I just checked with the converter, I weigh ~72 kilos, which comes at about 160lbs, metric system, what'cha gonna do?