The Constantinople Kid: Emre Gedik, Omaha Westside

When he tells new people the story it sorta throws them back in their chair. Not many people you know fly from Nebraska to Istanbul.

But Emre Gedik does. Often.

With his father a former European pro basketball player who was born in that beautiful city in Turkey – hard by the Marmara Sea and just opposite the Black Sea – Emre travels there with his family each summer. Exotic? Sure is, and not at all like living back here in US flyover country.

“The streets are crowded and noisy, with people walking and taking mopeds or motorcycles to get around,” says Emre, painting us a picture. For the record, the Gedik family usually flies to Minneapolis, from there to Paris (Paris!) before continuing on to Istanbul. Total flight time, right at 14 hours. “It’s a different culture, but it is beautiful there, and the food is really great.”

Gotta be honest, seems all that navigating the crowded streets of that historic and lovely city, which straddles Europe and Asia, have proven a great testing ground for Emre, who knows his way around while dominating the crowded lane for his Omaha Westside basketball team.

Building on the foundation of a breakout sophomore season, when he averaged 14 points and five rebounds per game, Emre last season took the proverbial next step in his basketball development. He was named first-team all-state after averaging 17 points and seven rebounds per game, never better than in his team’s state tournament drive, which ended with the Warriors Class A state runners-up.

And he’s one of those guys who is also taking care of business both inside and outside the game. Just ask his coach, Jim Simons.

“Emre has been enjoyable to coach during his four years at Westside. He’s a really good kid, does well in the classroom and is the type of student athlete you want to represent your school and your program,” credits Coach Simons. “He’s a hard worker who is oftentimes asking me to get in the gym outside of our scheduled practice time.  As a result, he has improved every year throughout his high school career, really committing himself to basketball and becoming the best player he can be.”

 Emre’s introduction to the game of basketball came when he was five or six years old, when Santa, who it turns out played pro ball in Europe, gifted him a mini hoop at Christmas. “I wore that thing out,” remembers Emre. “It’s funny how a little something like that can spark your interest, but since that day I have always had a basketball in my hands. My dad has always inspired me, and encouraged me to try my best once I committed to the game.”

Which he did, but it was a crooked road to the top. After being the “big kid” on his third-, fourth- and fifth-grade teams, Emre sorta stopped growing. “I was a scrawny kid, not very strong at all, and in about sixth grade I started to wonder if the game was for me,” he recalls. He was still frail as a freshman and sophomore in high school – his words, not mine – but put on some muscle prior to his junior year, and you see what happened.

“I now have the physical assets to play the game, and I am working so hard in the gym all the time to get better,” he adds. “I have had coaches and trainers tell me I have a bright future in this game, and getting bigger and stronger helped me believe it.”

Born in Omaha, Emre has a sister who is a senior at UNL, and for fun he’s apparently a poker player of note. “I’m decent,” he allows. Introduced to the game by a member of his Core Four, Jack Hawkins, he must be decent at poker as the boys go out to eat afterwards, and last I knew you needed money to pay for food. Speaking of food, Mexican is his favorite fare, though he allows Oriental food is also quite delicious, with Pad Thai, a Thai stir-fried noodle dish, his go-to in that arena. He enjoys many different genres of music, before games listening to a playlist of songs with special memories attached to each. Not much of a movie watcher, Emre, along with his father, watches his share of NBA and NFL games on TV.

In a very basketball sort of tribute, Emre wears No. 3 at Westside as a tip of the hat to former Warriors great Kevin Stubblefield, who graduated the year Emre was a sophomore. “He told me to take the number, and to keep the legacy of No. 3 alive, and I have done my best to live up to that,” says Emre, who certainly has.

An outstanding student with a 3.6 GPA, Emre particularly enjoys the AP US History course he took last year. “I love knowing more about our history, especially back in the 17th and 18th century,” he notes. He’s also an avid member of the Westside student section, the Red Shield, during football season.

Emre is all signed up to play basketball Augustana University starting next year, choosing the Sioux Falls, South Dakota school partly for basketball, partly for family. “I have a bunch of family up there, it’s like a second home, and the school has a great campus and basketball program that is a good fit for me,” says Emre.

Coach Simons has no doubt Emre’s game will travel well in the college game. “It’s been fun to see his work pay off and I know he will continue to do the same things at Augustana next year to help their program.”

And once at Augustana Emre won’t be lacking for study major options. Kid’s got three. Originally, he was a hard lean toward studying pre-med with the idea of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. “I have had injuries, and I thought it would be great to learn how to treat and prevent injuries, especially with athletes,” explains Emre, who lost much his freshman season after breaking his wrist on an ill-fated dunk attempt. That might be where the ”prevention” came in.

But there’s always medical equipment sales – “mom knows a guy in the business” – and he’s also long harbored the idea of becoming a pilot. You fly 14 hours one way to Istanbul once a year, you get the itch.

As we reach mid-January, Emre’s team is in plenty good shape, 11-2 entering the weekend and considered by many the best bet to win state in March. And that could be the case, but for it to happen Emre believes the Warriors are going to need to take care of the little things, so they don’t become big things.

“We have the athletes and coaching to get the job done,” he confirms. “But we need to be consistent and pay attention to detail, both in games and in practice. This is a great team to play with, the closest bunch of guys I have played with, and if we do that and keep up our work on defense, the offense will come and we will be OK.”

Quite possibly more than OK.