Oktay Mahmuti

Oktay Mahmuti — Biography

Oktay Mahmuti was born on 6 March 1968 in Skopje, then part of Yugoslavia, and is a Turkish-Macedonian basketball coach and former player of Albanian descent. A graduate of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Istanbul University, he was initially drawn to football but became interested in basketball from middle school onward, beginning his coaching career at the age of twenty after completing military service.

Influenced by the Yugoslav basketball culture of the era and modeling himself on Božidar Maljković, Mahmuti moved to Turkey in October 1991. Working alongside Aydın Örs and, together with Ergin Ataman, he helped lay the foundations of Efes Pilsen's defense-oriented coaching school during the 1990s.

Known throughout his career for building strong team defenses, Mahmuti coached Galatasaray in two separate spells. In 2026, journalist Naci Özonay published a multi-part interview series about his basketball career in Basketfaul, in which Mahmuti shared recollections from his years in the game. He has two daughters, Lalin and Alya.