Cat culture thrives in Istanbul

As the basketball championship starts in Turkey, cats will get a publicity boost; since famous Van cat, or bascat, is the mascot.

This month, cats will get a publicity boost when the world basketball championships begin in Istanbul and three other Turkish cities. The official mascot is “Bascat,” a white cat with one blue eye and one green eye, similar to an unusual breed native to the eastern city of Van.

Quoted from: here

I forgot what basketball is living in UK. They never transmit a thing on basketball, volleybal, hockey, instead they adore ckricket and rugby that are played only in former colonies. Silly English.

You forgot to mention snooker which is IMHO fun to watch.

Hahaha, my boring husband watches boring stuff like snooker.

Eveybody sees things differently. I think it´s fun to watch.

I si, you are boring too. 

Sorry, I cannot bother myself with making you excited. ı

You can´t call rugby boring though. I watch it whenever it is on Dutch tv (or when I can get the BBC )

I really wonder if the popularity of the cat will change outside of Turkey because of the basketball thing. I doubt it I think it is such an odd choice for a mascot. Cats seem so... non-basketbally.

Rugby isnt boring, esp. when you see those bunch of muscles running round the field fighting for a huge egg.

At the first glance me too thought of the same thing that cat isnt a good mascot for basketball, but its a relative of leopards, lampards, tigers and lions. Then why not?

I though maybe a giraffe, but those aren´t native to Turkey... I can´t think of any tall Turkish animals...

Camel is tall

rte is tall as well

I don´t think that choosing a Van cat for the mascote is a mistake.

Basketball players don´t have to be just tall, they must be supple, mobile, they have to jump well, and these are all characteristics of cats.

And Van cat is really characteric native of Turkia.

But camels are cooler...