Anybody watching besides south and eastern europeans?
European basketball championship
- Thread starter ILBB15
- Start date
Are you talking national teams? Who is going to qualify for the Olympics out of Europe this cycle? The Americas championships ended yesterday, US was 1st, Argentina was 2nd. Both have qualified. Brazil, Canada and Puerto Rico will get a chance to qualify next summer.
There is a real confidence about this current US team. People are calling them the best collection of American talent since the original Dream Team. Will be really dissappointing if this group can't bring home a gold. Went undefeated in the tournament, defeated Argentina twice. None of the games were close.
There is a real confidence about this current US team. People are calling them the best collection of American talent since the original Dream Team. Will be really dissappointing if this group can't bring home a gold. Went undefeated in the tournament, defeated Argentina twice. None of the games were close.
We lost the first gama against Russia. Playing vs. Greece now, if we lose this one it`s game over I think.
The refs stole the win from us last night. That was some of the most disgraceful refereeing I've ever seen.
If we beat Croatia and Latvia in the next group stage we're through to the quarterfinals.
Hi Serbs...
Hi Serbs...
Luckily our U-21, U-19 and U-17 teams all won their european championships so there's no need to worry about upcoming talent for us.
We've been shit since all the old players quit the national team.
Congratulations to you Israel, you have a good basketball league you might become a good national team too.
Sorry holyland, we will have to kick you ass otherwise it`s not looking good for us :-(. Otherwise Id gladely support you!
Actually we have a pretty shit league, with Maccabi TA winning the league in all but 1 of the last 30 years or so. With 4 American players out of the starting 5, the Israeli hardly play a major part in either Maccabi or it's closest rival Hapoel Jerusalem.
How on earth we managed to beat you lot is a mystery.
How on earth we managed to beat you lot is a mystery.
Not much of a suprise to me actually, we are in the middle of a generation change, and many of our best players have not wanted to play for the national team the last couple of years.
If we had won against Greece which we would if the referees hadn't given the game to the greeks we would have won todays game easily.
Otherwise I can't complain about the last 18 years when it comes to serbian basketball. European champions: 1989, 1991, 1995, 1997 and 2001.
World champions: 1990, 1998 and 2002.
Olympic silver medal 1996 against the 2nd american dream team.
Don't forget we were banned from playing between 1992-1995.
Note: 1989, 1990 and 1991 was still under a unified Yugoslavia.
Great game between Croatia and Spain going on right now.
Croats winning with a 3-pointer right at the buzzer.
What a great 24 hours these have been for Serbian basketball.
What a great 24 hours these have been for Serbian basketball.
Hi Serbs...
Hi
So exactly how much separates the best European national teams and US national team?
Give me an example from football.
Give me an example from football.
Depends. Sometimes the best Eastern Euro national teams are really competitive (if not better from a team cohesiveness standpoint) with the US team if the US team doesn't include the best(absolute top tier) American players. You can't really say the same for Western Euro teams. But, it is hard to say since the US hasn't really sent a great team overall to international competition since the 96 Olympics or so. That is probably the last time you could say the USA sent their absolute best. The 2000 Olympic team won a gold medal, but they barely squeaked by some teams.
However, this current USA team just rolled through the Americas tournament, and several teams(like Brazil and Argentina) had NBA players. It is starting to get compared to the 92 and 96 squads. The only huge American superstars not on this team right now are Dwayne Wade, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett. Wade will be on the team next summer when he is back from injury, but Duncan and Garnett are pretty much retired from international competition, which is a shame because two 7 footers as quality as those two guys will always make your team better.
So, if you are asking about England/Ireland/Germany, then it is United vs. Reading. If you are asking about some former teams like Yugoslavia, then it is more like United(having recently bought 5 new good players during transfer period) vs a good team (one with a lot of experience playing together on youth teams for many years).
Unlike Pennypacker, I'd compare national teams. The US in basketball is like Brazil, unquestionable individual talent and probably, at any given time, the "best team in the world." However, just like at the World Cup, slightly less talented teams with a proper work ethic, discipline, fundamental soundness, and conditioning can take them--as in Italy or Germany.
Croats winning with a 3-pointer right at the buzzer.
What a great 24 hours these have been for Serbian basketball.
I don't actually care so much about how they play when they don't play against us. We haven't lost a competitive game against them ever and that's just fine with me.
The video above is from the 1997 european champioship when Serbia(still calling themsleves Yugoslavia) beat Croatia with a buzzer beater from Djordjevic. We were one point down and he scores at the buzzer.
After that 3-pointer I went mental.
I wold have loved to see how Serbia wold have played against the real dream team in 1992 but we were banned from playing then. In 1996 the score was almost tied until it was like 7 minutes left and then Divac got his 5th foul and the US made a good run.
And six players from the Argentine team didn't play during the Fiba Americas.
Still I think that the US will win the olympics, and the reason they will win it is because they have Kobe Bryant in the team now and Carmelo really fits into the European style of play.
Thanks Pennypacker and FresnoBob.
I don't like how everyone keeps saying Argentina was missing people.
The USA was missing everybody in 2004, and nobody bothered to mention that. You play with who you have. Argentina is a good team, especially when they are full strength. But the US could claim that Duncan, Garnett, Shaq, Wade, Bosh and even crazy Artest could really help this current team. In fact, you could put together a great lineup of players NOT on this US team. YOu could have Chris Paul/Dwayne Wade/ Heinrich/Arenas at point, Ray Allen/Dwayne Wade/Arenas at SG, Duncan/Shaq at C, Artest/Wade at SF, Garnett/Bosh at PF.
I don't like how everyone keeps saying Argentina was missing people.
The USA was missing everybody in 2004, and nobody bothered to mention that. You play with who you have. Argentina is a good team, especially when they are full strength. But the US could claim that Duncan, Garnett, Shaq, Wade, Bosh and even crazy Artest could really help this current team. In fact, you could put together a great lineup of players NOT on this US team. YOu could have Chris Paul/Dwayne Wade/ Heinrich/Arenas at point, Ray Allen/Dwayne Wade/Arenas at SG, Duncan/Shaq at C, Artest/Wade at SF, Garnett/Bosh at PF.
What I meant was that these Argentine players that were missing from this competition otherwise always play for the national team. The reason they didn't play in this competition was because Argentina already had a spot in the olympics.
The difference is that the US players in this competition are probably the ones that are going to play in the olympics, but the Argies are going change their roster for the olympics.
Holyland, I bet you're celebrating now
Holyland, I bet you're celebrating now
Just read an update on an Israeli news website. I'm not really following basketball, especially when I'm here in the US. I guess I'd watch the game if I was back home.
Anyway, you seem to be happier than I am. Perhaps I'd celebrate more if we had Croats on the caf.
I'm actually quite happy now because this makes our loss to Israel less embarrassing.
I think that Russia are going to win this european championship, they look superb.
In all honesty, I'd say that the advantage US basketball has on the rest of the globe is of a different scale from the one Brazil football has on other teams.
Brazil has lost in football championships more often than the US in basketball.
Coached by an Israeli, what would you expect?