Haluk Yıldırım

Haluk Yıldırım — Biography

Haluk Yıldırım left his mark on Turkish basketball first as a defence-minded forward at Ülkerspor and later as a club and federation executive. He was a member of the national team that reached the final of EuroBasket 2001 and won silver, and he pulled on the national jersey more than 200 times. Today he is general manager of Bandırma Bordo Basketbol.

The longest part of his playing career was spent at Ülkerspor: he joined in the club's early years and stayed for about ten years. Although he rarely led the scoring charts, his defensive work, his contribution off the bench and a three-point percentage close to 40 per cent made him useful to coaches. He won the league title in 1995, 1998 and 2001, took the Turkish Cup in 2003 and also won the President's Cup. In 2004 he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma and returned to basketball after treatment; in 2004-05 at Beşiktaş he was among the players who carried the team to the play-off final. He played for Türk Telekom, again for Beşiktaş and finally, from 2010, for Galatasaray, and retired as a player in 2012.

He began his executive career as general manager at Beşiktaş, served as manager of the men's A national team after 2015 and worked within the Turkish Basketball Federation. In July 2024 he became general manager of Pınar Karşıyaka, parted ways with the club in October of the same year, and then moved to Bandırma Bordo.