ISTANBUL  The heyday of the television series “The White Shadow” was three decades ago, but Ken Howard, who played its main character, is still recognized on the street. American men who were in their teens in the late 1970s and early ’80s will lock eyes with him, smile and utter the same greeting: “Hey, Coach.”

Howard, who played Coach Ken Reeves, would no doubt receive the same response from 40-something men here, in a city that is locked in a basketball frenzy.

“The White Shadow” was about a white former N.B.A. player, Reeves, who takes over as coach of a mostly black high school basketball team after his career was cut short by a knee injury. While the series holds a strong legacy of innovation in American television for casting African-Americans in a drama and addressing social problems, it has also resonated in Turkey, whose national team is seemingly on course to play the United States on Sunday in the final of the basketball world championships.

Turkey’s rapid rise as a basketball power can be traced, in part, to “The White Shadow,” whose 54 episodes appeared on black-and-white TV here from 1980 to 1982.