Aydın Örs

Aydın Örs — Biography

Aydın Örs is the head coach who won the Korać Cup with Efes Pilsen and took the senior national team to the EuroBasket 2001 final. His zone defence became known as the "death" zone defence. Born in Ankara, he won 20 trophies in a 29-year coaching career.

He graduated from Ankara Kurtuluş High School and the Ankara Academy of Economic and Commercial Sciences, started playing in 1963 for DSİ Spor and Şekerspor and earned 35 caps. He began coaching in the Efes Pilsen youth system in 1981 and took over the senior side in 1992. With the club he won five league titles, reached the 1993 Saporta Cup final, won the 1996 Korać Cup and reached the EuroLeague quarter-finals in 1997, 1998 and 1999. He brought Hidayet Türkoğlu and Mirsad Türkcan up from the youth ranks, and won the Balkan title with the junior national team in 1986 and 1992.

Under Örs the national team beat Croatia and Germany at EuroBasket 2001 and lost the final to Yugoslavia for silver. In 2004-05 he took over Fenerbahçe, a club he openly supported; in 2006-07, as Fenerbahçe Ülker, the team beat Efes 4-0 in the play-off final to win the league for the first time in 16 years, though he and the club parted ways before the season ended; his disputes with Will Solomon, whom he benched, made headlines at the time. He remained at the club as a department coordinator until 2012. In 2021 Ergin Ataman brought him Anadolu Efes's European trophy. A sports complex in Beylikdüzü carries his name.