The Giants of the Semi-Final: Fenerbahçe-Anadolu Efes

The "eternal classic" of Turkish basketball, repeated every year, takes the stage again in the semi-final. The series, starting with the first match on Monday evening at 20:00 at Ülker Sports Arena, will be on screens as one of the most-watched clashes in the Turkish basketball calendar. In the series where the side reaching three wins will book a place in the final, every data from team rosters to season performance, from historical encounters to psychological superiority is being laid on the table. The first frames are already clear: at the end of a double-circuit season, Fenerbahçe Beko is a clear favourite on paper.

How did the yellow-and-navy side reach this point? In the quarter-final series, they easily beat Safiport Erokspor in both matches, closing the series 2-0 with a clear 96-73 score. The 96-73 in the Erokspor match was a positive sign of the players' rhythm and health. Šarūnas Jasikevičius's team had completed the 2024-25 BSL regular season with 27 wins and 3 losses (a 90 percent rate) as the leader, then closed the play-offs against Beşiktaş Fibabanka 4-1 in the final to win their 12th league championship. The peak of the same season came in Abu Dhabi: the 2025 EuroLeague championship, with a roster that defeated Panathinaikos and Monaco in the Final Four, with Nigel Hayes-Davis taking the Final Four MVP. This season, they once again reached the Final Four in Europe but lost to Olympiacos in the semi-final — still, the back-to-back peak seasons bring the team's confidence entering the semi-final close to one hundred percent.

The picture is different on the Anadolu Efes side. The navy-and-white team, the most successful club in Turkish basketball with 16 league championships, had a difficult last season. They finished the 2025-26 EuroLeague in 20th place with 12 wins and 26 losses in 38 matches — this went down in history as one of the toughest European seasons for Efes in the last decade. However, they showed signs of recovery in the BSL regular season; in the league play-off quarter-final, they beat Türk Telekom 2-0 (77-70 away and at home) to advance to the semi-final. This opens a door where the team can rebuild its confidence; but the mental fatigue brought by the poor performance in the EuroLeague cannot be ignored.

The two teams' paths did not cross in the semi-final of the 2024-25 BSL series; Fenerbahçe eliminated Bahçeşehir Koleji while Efes lost to Beşiktaş Fibabanka in the semi-final, ending their play-off journey. Historically, these two giants of Turkish basketball have been sides turning around the cup each season; but in the last five years, the playoff journeys of the two clubs rarely intersected on the same half-road. From a broader historical perspective: Anadolu Efes is at the top with 16 BSL championships, while Fenerbahçe follows closely with 12 league cups. In Europe, the equation reverses: Fenerbahçe is a two-time EuroLeague champion (2017, 2025), while Efes wrote Turkish basketball's proud page in Europe with two consecutive championships (2021, 2022). Apart from mutual playoff series, in the most recent encounters within the regular season, Fenerbahçe has generally managed to take consecutive results; in the 2025-26 EuroLeague regular season, the two teams met on October 24, 2025, with Fenerbahçe winning 79-69 away. In recent BSL encounters too, there is a picture in favour of Fenerbahçe, but basketball history has shown many times that elements that can change roles are important in semi-final and final series.

The key items for the series can be listed as follows. For Fenerbahçe, the performance of the Hayes-Davis, Wade Baldwin, Marko Guduric, Devon Hall, and Tarik Biberovic trio is critical — Lithuanian coach Jasikevičius's deep rotation strategy, which led to great success in Europe over the last two seasons, returns to the court. On the Efes side, mention should be made of the pivots that can directly recover the season and the playmaker stability — after the troubles they experienced in Europe, the motivation to make a leap in the BSL is high. In simpler terms: Fenerbahçe takes the court to win, Efes to prove itself and reduce the damage created by the season.

The series programme is clear: June 1 Monday (Fenerbahçe home), June 3 Wednesday (Fenerbahçe home), June 5 Friday (Efes home); if necessary, June 7 Sunday (Efes home) and June 9 Tuesday (Fenerbahçe home, fifth match). The format is 2-2-1; the home court advantage is at Fenerbahçe, which led the regular season. The picture on paper shows the champions as favourites: against a team that is both the champion of the last season and has played the Final Four in Europe for two terms, Efes — which had a difficult season in Europe — will start the series with two matches away from home. But Turkish basketball history has taught us that valuable derbies of eternal rivals are always open to surprises.

On the road to the final, the other front is also ready for both sides: in the other semi-final formed by Beşiktaş GAİN and Bahçeşehir Koleji, the winning team will compete for the championship. When the tip-off is made at Ülker Sports Arena on Monday night, which of the two eternal rivals on court will move ahead on the road to the final will become clear in the next ten days.

Image: tgrthaber.com