Yalçın Granit

Yalçın Granit — Biography

Yalçın Granit is one of the best-known figures of Turkish basketball, who left his mark as a player, coach, administrator and writer. He was the top scorer of Galatasaray's "Invincible Armada" generation, the first Turkish basketball player to play in Europe, and the national team's first assistant coach and later head coach. He was also a geologist by training. He died on 1 November 2020 and was buried at Kilyos Cemetery.

He took up basketball at Darüşşafaka and became one of the three founders of the school's basketball section. At 17 he became Galatasaray's first professional player and won six Istanbul League and five Turkish titles in eight seasons. In 1955 he moved to Racing Club Paris but returned after a few months at Galatasaray's insistence. When he stopped playing in 1957 he had 68 caps for Turkey, 16 of them as captain; he was in the squad at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and the team's top scorer at the 1951, 1955 and 1957 European championships. He graduated in geology from Istanbul University in 1954.

He began coaching at Darüşşafaka, winning the club's only Istanbul League title in 1959-60, then coached Beyoğluspor and İTÜ. In February 1961 he became head coach of the national team; in 1962 he was named the Balkans' Best Coach, in 1963-64 he made Galatasaray champions, and from 1971 he took Eczacıbaşı up to the top league in three years. He was basketball branch manager at Galatasaray and its branch president in 2002. For nearly fifty years he wrote for Milliyet and Hürriyet, and his life was told in the book Adanmak.