Best Basketball Country Relative to Population

[Mefisto]

Lithuania. END of thread. Name any slovenian close to caliber of Sabonis, Ilgauskas or Marciulionis, and we could continue.

[carloslisboa]

Lithuania. END of thread. Name any slovenian close to caliber of Sabonis, Ilgauskas or Marciulionis, and we could continue.

There was no Slovenia nor Lithuania when Sabas, Marciulionis came out.
I mean right now, or at least the last five years.
Since then Ilgauskas, Jaskevicius (i'd add Praskevicius) and little else.

Timinskas looked good when young...

[carloslisboa]

A comprehensive list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fo ... BA_players

[Nuntius]

A comprehensive list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fo ... BA_players

That list is not that relevant to this argument.

Certain basketball schools produce players that are more suited for the NBA than others. Take the French school for example. French players tend to be more suited to play in the NBA but they are not necessarily more successful from other European schools when it comes to European competitions (like the Eurobasket).

[carloslisboa]

A comprehensive list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fo ... BA_players

That list is not that relevant to this argument.

Certain basketball schools produce players that are more suited for the NBA than others. Take the French school for example. French players tend to be more suited to play in the NBA but they are not necessarily more successful from other European schools when it comes to European competitions (like the Eurobasket).

Despite being a European, I do not agree.
The best play with the best, and that is the NBA.

[Nuntius]

Despite being a European, I do not agree.
The best play with the best, and that is the NBA.

Which is irrelevant with this thread for 2 reasons.

1) The thread takes into consideration population. France is big. Lithuania is a very small country.

2) Lithuania has proved several times that they are at least on par (if not better) with France.

Is France better than Spain? Because Spain is a powerhouse both in European and International basketball (Spain's national team is probably the second best worldwide) but Spain has produced less NBA players than France.

That's because France models its league after the NBA. Most other European basketball schools do not do that and thus produce less NBA players.

[carloslisboa]

Despite being a European, I do not agree.
The best play with the best, and that is the NBA.

Which is irrelevant with this thread for 2 reasons.

1) The thread takes into consideration population. France is big. Lithuania is a very small country.

2) Lithuania has proved several times that they are at least on par (if not better) with France.

Is France better than Spain? Because Spain is a powerhouse both in European and International basketball (Spain's national team is probably the second best worldwide) but Spain has produced less NBA players than France.

That's because France models its league after the NBA. Most other European basketball schools do not do that and thus produce less NBA players.

Lithuania 3M€ people.
Slovenia 2M€.

[Nuntius]

Lithuania 3M€ people.
Slovenia 2M€.

True. However, Lithuania is a lot better than Slovenia. France is not so much better than Lithuania. Spain is better but the population is so much bigger that once can easily make the claim that Lithuania is the best relative to its population.

[Mefisto]

SLO and LTU are not even on the same list, just compare medal count in the last decade, wiki will help you. And slovenians have loser's mentality, they always have strong players and are in favourites list, but when important games come- they collapse, Lakovich is a joke. Not bad for a 2M country, but liths do soooo much better in basketball, that is not even comparable.

[carloslisboa]

OK.
Let's talk about individual players.
Sabas was the best centre. No Divac or anyone other was even close.
Sarunas Marciulionis was one of the best 2 guards IN THE NBA behind MJ, Drexler, he just got injured when he could have been starter. His competitiveness was first line with Petro, but he was phisically stronger, quicker, and drove a lot to the basket. Petro was a far better shooter, and point scorer.
Then some other just go tlost. Karnisovas had everything to be in the NBA, but playing for.. Dijon one season out of Seton Hall? YEs he did go to Barça but played well only a couple of seasons.

What happened to Timinskas?



You'll love this, this is footage from the 1995, games for the under22 Euro1996 qualification:

[Nuntius]

Good points. But I was not talking about the NBA careers of relative players either.

I'm mostly talking about national team success in the Eurobasket, WC and the Olympics. You cannot get better than Lithuania relative to its population.

This was my point

[pohani komarac]

A comprehensive list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fo ... BA_players

That list is not that relevant to this argument.

Certain basketball schools produce players that are more suited for the NBA than others. Take the French school for example. French players tend to be more suited to play in the NBA but they are not necessarily more successful from other European schools when it comes to European competitions (like the Eurobasket).

Despite being a European, I do not agree.
The best play with the best, and that is the NBA.

yes, nba players are best in world but not all nba players are good. like bruno sundov, who was siting on bench for many nba teams and he was never top 30 euro centars.

lithuania is on top of my list

[Yoga]

Lithuania.

[Fran Vasquez]

lithuania is top in the world no doubt but its a (Please Use More Appropriate Word) statistic, population trying to play basketball would be the interesting number, not total population

[weberoth]

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".

Wow, I didn't realize basketball coverage was that bad in a country like Spain, especially when they have so many good basketball players.

I guess there are many factors that could be taken into consideration, such as amount of funding for basketball youth programs. But I decided to just take into account population size in this thread for simplicity sake.

Spain,the place when our selection team can fight with usa,but when u pass 22 or 25 u almost can´t play amateur,because there are no clubs,no leagues,and no caring about the game at all.The only way to play is going to Madrid or Barcelona.