Petkim Spor

Petkim Spor were finishing out a season nobody got to finish. In the 2019–20 campaign the Turkish Basketball League was halted by the pandemic and the standings frozen where they stood, and Petkim Spor happened to be sitting on top of them. The league declared the season over and sent them up to the Basketbol Süper Ligi without a single game left to play for it.

The promotion held. Petkim Spor kept their top-flight place the following year too, after Sigortam.Net İTÜ dropped out for financial reasons and a BSL licence came free.

None of this traces back far. The basketball section only started play in 2013–14, in the third tier, under the ownership of the Petkim petrochemical company in Aliağa, and the club plays home games at the Enka Spor Salonu. Fans and local media know the team by its colours rather than any mascot — Kırmızı-beyazlılar, the red-whites.

The fixture that matters most in İzmir has nothing to do with any of that run. It is the derby against Pınar Karşıyaka, and it draws a different kind of attention than a European night does.