While we were in Istanbul, I felt like a bridge between my city and my team, connecting everyone to our love of tea, our super-large breakfasts, our fascinating history that dates back to 512 B.C.E. and how friendly the people are despite living in a place where earthquakes — like the one that struck in February and affected nearly 18 million people — are common.
I would have loved to have taken the team to my home and showed them the neighborhood where I grew up, but our hotel in Istanbul was on the European side of the city and my home in the Fenerbahce district is on the Asian side. If there’s a lot of traffic, it could take two hours to get there. We got close, though. On our third night we went to watch and cheer for a former Badger, Nigel Hayes-Davis, as he played for the local pro basketball team.
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