Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun is still giving it his all for his native Turkey at FIBA EuroBasket 2025. In fact, the NBA All-Star just punched their ticket to the semifinals. There, he’ll be up against an NBA star putting forth a Herculean effort of his own.
Alperen Sengun’s EuroBasket Triple-Double Sets Up Giannis Antetokounmpo Semifinal
On Friday, Turkey will play Greece for a spot in the EuroBasket Finals.
Sengun’s wizardry, which has carried his homeland’s national team this far, will be put to the test against Giannis Antetokounmpo. Just like when he suits up for the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, Antetokounmpo is the Greek national team’s top player and perhaps their most ferocious competitor. He’s arguably even the best player in the world.
Facing Lithuania in the quarterfinal round, Antetokounmpo just laid down 29 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals, and a block to drag his team past Denver Nuggets center Jonas Valanciunas‘s squad. Ever-efficient, he went 9-14 from the field and 11-16 from the free-throw line to do so. For the tournament, he’s second in scoring at 29.8 points per game, and fourth in rebounding at 9.0. He’s also been chipping in 3.6 assists and 1.4 steals.
In short, Antetokounmpo has been at his world-beating best. Greece has only picked up one loss during the group stage and it came in a game that he didn’t play. But Turkey isn’t a team that will be flustered by playing even him. They’ve already beaten another contender for the best in the world title earlier in the tournament. Sengun even arguably outplayed Serbian mastermind Nikola Jokic (who Valanciunas will now backup in Denver) in his best game of the event.
His best game until now, at least.
Record-Breaking Masterpiece
In Turkey’s quarterfinal showdown against Poland, Sengun scored 19 points, pulled down 12 rebounds, and dished out 10 assists. He became only the fifth player to achieve a triple-double at EuroBasket. Of those five, which surprisingly doesn’t include Jokic, Sengun was the youngest at only 23 years of age.
He also had 3 steals and, perhaps most impressively, only a single turnover
Turkey’s Tournament
Though 2019 NBA champion Jordan Loyd has been excellent in EuroBasket 2025, Poland wasn’t a team that Turkey should’ve had trouble beating. The Turks were in no mood to mess around either. They’d let things get dicey in their clash with Sweden the game before and had no intention of letting their intensity drop again.
With Sengun leading the way once again, he’s cementing his status as one of the absolute top players in the tournament. His excellent play could even have implications in an NBA context. He’s already an All-Star, albeit a somewhat controversial one. This is EuroBasket, a FIBA tournament with a different set of rules and some inconsistent supporting casts.
“Beraber oynadığım en iyi uzunun Joel Embiid olduğunu düşünüyordum ama…”
Furkan Korkmaz, Alperen Şengün hakkında övgü dolu sözler söyledi:#EuroBasket pic.twitter.com/3yRRqPy6TA
— Eurohoops Türkiye (@EurohoopsTR) September 9, 2025
However, Sengun has looked on par with some of the best players in the world. Not just All-Stars, but All-NBA, MVP candidate-type players. He’ll have the opportunity to send one of them back to stateside before training camp starts in a couple of weeks.
It’s Not Giannis Vs. Sengun
Of course, Sengun hasn’t been going through the tournament completely unaided. Cedi Osman, Shane Larkin, and Ercan Osmani have all been invaluable contributors. Adem Bona, who the Philadelphia 76ers drafted last year, has been a useful defensive tool off the bench as well and added some highlight reel blocks.
So, Friday won’t be all about Antetokounmpo and Sengun by any means. Even they won’t be thinking in those terms. Besides, national competition tends to mean more to international players than the NBA itself. EuroBasket isn’t the Olympics, where any team but the USA winning gold is nearly unheard of. However, both players will have winning gold for their country firmly at the forefront of their minds.
The Last Word On Alperen Sengun
Sengun’s excellent play has been an enormously encouraging sign for Rockets fans looking ahead to 2025-26. The way he’s handled his increased playmaking responsibilities has stood out in particular. The triple-double is nice, but Sengun’s been leading Turkey in assists all tournament.
Perhaps it’s just national competition triggering an out-of-body experience. Whatever the case, he’s in for a Freaky Friday now.
The Wizard and the Greek Freak. Basketball fans the whole world over can’t wait.
© Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
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