Best Basketball Country Relative to Population

[Blame Turk]

Generally Slovenians and Lithuanians have this argument with Serbians. They are all close, but Serbia may be right after US in this respect.

[Red Star]

Generally Slovenians and Lithuanians have this argument with Serbians. They are all close, but Serbia may be right after US in this respect.

+1 agreed

[King d]

I would say Lithuania, and Slovenia not too far from them

[dr. strangelove]

You should take into account other aspects apart from population. e.g. in Spain the space in media for basketball or other sports is nearly marginal, 90% in football (soccer). The biggest daily sports magazine last for around 45 minutes, 43 of them (no exaggeration) is football, the other 2 is "rest of sports".

And in "rest of sports", as for tv audience, motorcycling and formula one are clearly ahead of basketball.

[MAURI]

Lithuania and the Balkan countries..

[Chalk1]

Virgin Islands

Tim Duncan

nuff said

[Livno]

What about Bosnia and Herzegovina?

There are many players born in BIH, but playing for other countrys!

[donkki]

Has to be Lithuania and Slovenia.

[pohani komarac]

Euroleague players – where they come from

Lithuania and Serbia are known as the hotbeds of European basketball. How about Bosnia & Herzegovina? With a ratio of 602 Euroleague minutes per 1,000,000 people, Bosnia & Herzegovina is fourth in the ranking behind Lithuania (786), Croatia (752) and Montenegro (692, very small sample). Slovenia (585) is fifth, followed by Serbia (403) and Greece (244).

http://www.in-the-game.org/?p=17434#more-17434

[Perdi]

Former Yugoslavian nations have a natural or phyisical sense for sports.

They are small countrys with low population...ant they are always on top in Handball, Waterpolo, voleyball, Football, Basket, Tenis,... Special mention to Slovenia!

That's amazing.

My top 5 is:

1-Slovenia
2-Lithuania
3-Spain
4-Croatia
5-Serbia

[Brokejumper]

In terms of success vs population density I would go with Spain, Argentina, Greece, Macedonia, Lithuania, Puerto Rico, New Zealand. China would be the worst.

[celticspierce34]

New Zealand does pretty freakin good.

4million

[Regression2u]

New Zealand does pretty freakin good.

4million

Populations:

Slovenia: 2M
Lithuania: 3.2M

Both countries have significantly lower populations and consistently beat New Zealand.

Also, Spain has a population of 46M so while they are the strongest in Europe I wouldn't add them to this list.

[Nuntius]

You should take into account other aspects apart from population. e.g. in Spain the space in media for basketball or other sports is nearly marginal, 90% in football (soccer). The biggest daily sports magazine last for around 45 minutes, 43 of them (no exaggeration) is football, the other 2 is "rest of sports".

That's exactly how the situation in Greece is as well.

To answer the OP, though. If we're talking about relative to population it's Lithuania by a country mile. Slovenia has some great talent is smaller but Lithuania is so much better than the little increase in the population does not matter a lot.

[carloslisboa]

Slovenia bearing in mind there is quantity, a weak league, and the political problems of the last 150 years.

The worst is India, for sure. 1/6 of the world population and I can't even name a player.