Ironically, viewers in Philadelphia, who can watch the game live at 5:00 p.m, will have advantages of television spectators in Istanbul as the game will air at midnight since the tip-off will be at the unusually late hour of 10:00 p.m. local time in England.
Team USA beat Team Turkey by 19 points in a pre-Olympic friendly in Istanbul earlier this summer. Many American players, including stand-out Diana Taurasi (pictured bottom), a star at the University of Connecticut and in the WNBA, have played professionally in Turkey.
Interestingly enough, there is actually one American Quanitra Hollingsworth* (pictured top), who played college basketball for the VCU Rams, who is playing center for Turkey. Hollingsworth obtained Turkish citizenship earlier this year to play for Turkey's national team.
Turkey has defeated Angola 72-50 and the Czech Republic 61-57, which means both teams head into the game undefeated at 2-0.
Hollingsworth is not the only Turkish team player who was born outside Turkey. Esmeral Tuncluer (pictured middle), reported to be the team's strongest shooter, was born in the Netherlands to Turkish parents. Neriye Yilmaz, one of Turkey's top forwards who has WNBA experience, was born in Bulgaria, which until 25 years ago had a significant Turkish minority.
http://www.usabasketball.com
http://www.womenshoops.wordpress.com
http://ww.tbf.org.tr/
*- Her name is not spelled correctly in the tags
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