Nevriye Yılmaz

Nevriye Yılmaz — Biography

Born on 16 June 1980 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and raised in Istanbul from the age of nine, Nevriye Yılmaz is a retired Turkish national team basketball player who competed as a power forward and center. In 1997 she won the World High School Basketball Championship with Boğaziçi Lisesi and took home a silver medal at that year's Mediterranean Games with the national team.

In 2003 she became the first Turkish player to appear in the WNBA, signing with the Phoenix Mercury before moving to the San Antonio Silver Stars the following season. Returning to Turkey in 2005, she spent seven seasons at Fenerbahçe, winning seven league titles, before joining Galatasaray in 2012 and finishing her club career with ten Turkish Women's Basketball Super League championships in total.

With the national team she was part of the squad that won gold at the 2005 Mediterranean Games and captained Turkey to its best-ever finish, a silver medal at EuroBasket Women 2011, where she was also named to the tournament's all-star five. After adding a bronze medal at EuroBasket Women 2013, Yılmaz announced her retirement from the sport on 23 October 2016.