Eurobasket 2022 Finals : SPAIN are European champions!!!

[UcanUwill]

Lol So Giannis, Jokic and Doncic (Real GM's top 3) all likely won't be making the Eurobasket All Tournament Team. Classic.

Damn, I didnt even think of that. Thats interesting. Who is making it, of course last few games will make a huge impact, but right now I imagine Ponitka, Gobert, Wagner are strong candidates. at least one of the ones you mentioned will make it though. Giannis and Luka will probably, they put numbers not seen in 30 years, right?

[peja_the_legend]

I'm really stunned by this lack of love for upsets.

In the end of the day most people want to watch the superstar,not Pontika.That's the harsh truth but the games are played on the court,not on paper.By the way everyone complains about FIBA refs but the fact that they didn't help Slovenia after losing already Jokic and Giannis tells me they have integrity.From a marketing point Poland advancing is a disaster for them.

[Taikuri]

Man Spain absolutely blew them out in the end. Props to Lauri for still putting up nice stats with good effort, but Finland had 19 TOs to Spains 8. That was the difference in the game.

Yeah poor Lauri, I felt bad for him in the second half,he was great, getting fouled,doubled like he was Shaq or something and his teammates kept giving up silly turnovers. More like they couldn't handle the defensive pressure Spain showed in second half.

Spain is very flawed, a team with better bigs than Wily Hernandgomez or a better star than Lauri will destroy them. Finland bigs is so small,skinny and couldn't stop anyone inside.

If the Finnish laws allowed to give passports to anyone at any time, Finland should get some American defensive specialist big straight from the Euroleague who has no connection to Finland, just like most of these other teams who are abusing the FIBA rule, like Slovenia, Poland, Spain and Croatia to mention a few.

[UcanUwill]

Still don't get it how the last foul not being called doesn't seem to be an issue. It wasn't a 3pt shooting foul, but the Polish guy made the foul precisely so Slovenia can't shoot a 3. And the referee just ignored it.

These type of non calls actually happen so often these days, or is it just me? But Slovenian did everything right, I do think it probably should have been 3 free throws, he knew the foul was coming and made a smart play. Sadly, beside amazing talent this Eurobasket had, it will also be remembered as a terribly officiated one in many cases.

[Mirotic12]

Amazing comeback by Slovenia, but that said, Goran is washed, man proved in 2017 that his peak was at euro great level, but man is just not good anymore.

Dragic might be the most overrated European player ever. He had just one FIBA tournament where he was at a top level, out of many over many years.

And now in this tournament, the refs stopped rewarding his ridiculous flopping. We see the result, if they don't give him the whistle on all those ridiculous flops, when he just drives into the lane and piles into the defenders, then waits for the refs to bail him, NBA reffing style.

For whatever reason, the FIBA refs kept giving him those ridiculous calls all through the2017 EuroBasket. There must have been complaints after that, because they cleaned up all of that nonsense in this tournament, and just let him flop like a clown, without rewarding it.

[greekbuck34]

nba Basketball relies too much on individual skill by design. it is no surprise that they struggle with fiba rules

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But they don't struggle Jokic, Giannis, Doncic, Markannen, Wagner etc have been great and were head and shoulders above their competition

from the top 15 scorers, at least 10 play in the nba (and a couple more have played there)

Struggling not with individual output.
They are clearly frustrated.
Not only with losses. This is not comparable to College March Madness.

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A team without a single NBA or euroleague player just took down the previous euro champions. Fiba is just 90% luck and randomness.

If the same teams and same players play in a semi NBA long format and fiba rules, baring major injuries, it will always end up like that.

Giannis/Jokic/Luca MVP
Greece/Serbia/Slovenia top 3.

99% of the time.

A few regular games to build some chemistry between the NBA superstar and the random euro scrubs he is surrounded with.
3 or more games in each knockout series to have time to dominate and recover from random great oppenent or trash teammate shooting nights.

But it's not happenning. They just meet up each 2 or 4 years and play together for 7-8 games before they go back to their normal jobs.

[Mirotic12]

USA will be having nightmares if they add Embid , Decolo and Wembanyama to this team

De Colo was once a great player, but he is miles and miles past his prime. He's barely even good enough to play in EuroLeague now.

i'll frame that post and ship to you whenever you watch ASVEL games this yr ! guess you'be be saying the same words abt CP last yrs ...

De Colo was a great player in EuroLeague and French NT. But I watched him the last two seasons in EuroLeague, and he had a severe decline in his level. It was dramatic last season, where in game after game, he just disappeared, like he wasn't even on the court.

Unless he had bad injuries he played through the last 2 years and suddenly is healthy now, he's nowhere near the player he once was. The mere fact that he signed with ASVEL, a team with one of the lowest budgets in EuroLeague, and with zero expectations of competing for a EuroLeague title, would be proof of that, after he was only in big EuroLeague clubs for many years.

If he was still a great player, there is zero chance that ASVEL could have signed him.

[yannisk]

This is a two week tournament, we are now in the knockout phase every match is a do or die, this leads to surprise results but also very exciting games that are played at 100%

NBA regular season is 82 games that are only used to determine the home court for the playoffs which let's not kid ourselves is not a huge advantage. Many teams want to tank so that they get a higher draft position. This leads in games during the regular season that are more like exhibition games, most people don't give all their effort, lots of load management etc.

NBA must do something to make games more meaningful, maybe shorten the regular season? or give a stronger incentive for the win

[Sgt Major]

I'm really stunned by this lack of love for upsets.

In the end of the day most people want to watch the superstar,not Pontika.That's the harsh truth but the games are played on the court,not on paper.By the way everyone complains about FIBA refs but the fact that they didn't help Slovenia after losing already Jokic and Giannis tells me they have integrity.From a marketing point Poland advancing is a disaster for them.

Yeah, looks like American fans only watch superstars and heavily favored teams. That's bull, IMO.

[UcanUwill]

But they don't struggle Jokic, Giannis, Doncic, Markannen, Wagner etc have been great and were head and shoulders above their competition

from the top 15 scorers, at least 10 play in the nba (and a couple more have played there)

Struggling not with individual output.
They are clearly frustrated.
Not only with losses. This is not comparable to College March Madness.

Gesendet von meinem SM-G780F mit Tapatalk

A team without a single NBA or euroleague player just took down the previous euro champions. Fiba is just 90% luck and randomness.

If the same teams and same players play in a semi NBA long format and fiba rules, baring major injuries, it will always end up like that.

Giannis/Jokic/Luca MVP
Greece/Serbia/Slovenia top 3.

99% of the time.

A few regular games to build some chemistry between the NBA superstar and the random euro scrubs he is surrounded with.
3 or more games in each knockout series to have time to dominate and recover from random great oppenent or trash teammate shooting nights.

But it's not happenning. They just meet up each 2 or 4 years and play together for 7-8 games before they go back to their normal jobs.

There are two opinions about single elimination games. That it is too luck based and doesn't prove much of anything, but some say it is the most earned, hardest championships, that reveal real character of the players.

You are definitely correct that upsets like that in 7 game series will almost never happen, but is it what sports is all about? Maybe, I dont know... But is having extra game cushing a good thing, or is it better than you have no safety to back on, it is one moment, if you not level headed, if you precise in that moment, if you get scared, you lose. What sports like that is all about really? You will say it is to determine the best, and I completely understand your reasoning, but there is other side of the coin. Some say ones who rely on cushing like that, are they really the best?

To me, one game proved more about Lorenzo Brown than all series could, Man is a killer and he proved it.

[XTraderXL]

Ponitka with one of the best Eurobasket performances in history, Dončič with 33% from the field, 25% FTs, 6 TOs, 10kg overweight (at least) and shameful behaviour.

Poland deserved to win this one. Congrats!

[UcanUwill]

Doncic taking clasy route and blaming himsel for the loss. Stated that he played terribly, let down his team and country.

[fteru6uhre54ew]

This is a two week tournament, we are now in the knockout phase every match is a do or die, this leads to surprise results but also very exciting games that are played at 100%

NBA regular season is 82 games that are only used to determine the home court for the playoffs which let's not kid ourselves is not a huge advantage. Many teams want to tank so that they get a higher draft position. This leads in games during the regular season that are more like exhibition games, most people don't give all their effort, lots of load management etc.

NBA must do something to make games more meaningful, maybe shorten the regular season? or give a stronger incentive for the win

Or does like most of the domestic leagues in Europe and have a short tournament in the middle of the season. Teams and Fans of the teams don't think about the Euroleague championship or the domestic league champions. First they think about go and win the King's cup or National cup what is called at the end of february a fun short tournament in a weekend with the 8 best teams of the competition in the same stadium and all the fans of the teams inside together.

[UcanUwill]

THEY DID IT!

[Taikuri]

Man, I'm not going to lie. The way that this second half played out hurt. Finland was sooo close to making it to the semis. I have been rooting for Finland ever since the 2013 EuroBasket.

Edit: Despite my disappointment, this is not a dark day for Finnish basketball. If anything, it should be a joyous day. A top 8 finish is the best that Finland has had ever since 1967. This tournament was definitely a success for Finland and the team has a bright future ahead.

As you know, Finland is already in the World Cup, so next year is the time to shine. Finland will have many new players and I expect these players to already be effective next summer.

Miro Little will gain one more year of experience. Nkamhoua who is a player with size, weight and some skill made a breakthrough into team Finland's line up this summer. He formed the 4 big men rotation with Markkanen, Jantunen and Madsen. This allowed Finland to use the starting line up of 3 bigger guys, when Jantunen would be put to SF position instead of PF. So Markkanen+Nkamhoua+Jantunen+Salin+Maxhuni was the ideal starting line up and the starting line up that Finland used one week before the Eurobasket started in the World Cup qualifiers. Finland obviously couldn't do this in the Eurobasket, because Nkamhoua wasn't there. The university of Tennessee decided all of a sudden few days before the Eurobasket started that the guy won't play in the Eurobasket. This surprised our coaches even. Next year Tennessee's NCAA team can't stop him from joining the team anymore as it's Nkamhoua's last year in the university and NBA draft year too. I don't know if he will be picked, it depends how well his next season goes.

Other players to name are Gustavson from NCAA. He has Salin type strengths, so defense and long range shooting but he is bigger than Salin. Another interesting player is Jacob Grandison who is a NCAA guy as well, playing his last year there and he is a 3 point shooting specialist and is capable of doing many other things as well, like defense and some ball handling. I think that someone said that there are 12 Finnish male players in the NCAA at the moment. Some have bigger roles than others in their teams. So those are the ones with the most potential. Many Finnish people expect many of these guys to already be featuring in the World Cup team. It's also good not to forget that NCAA is not the only route. We got some young guys in Europe as well.

So people shouldn't be surprised if in the future Finland will do better than Finland did in this Eurobasket. The Finnish team is now very young and all of them are getting better. Hopefully Markkanen can remain in this form for many years as well. The new coach Tuovi is actually better than Dettman. Actually I don't know where this guy's ceiling is as a coach. It could be very high. That is also a positive. Right now he is coaching in the French league and the team he is coaching is IG Strasbourg. Then when you also factor in the the growing interest of fans in Finland towards basketball. I don't see it impossible for Finland to be a true top country in Europe soon if we compare to the likes of Germany and Italy for example.

Finland's problem in sports is that ice hockey dominates everything in here and steals a lot of the good talent from other sports. For example if a talented sport person has multiple sports as a hobby the likelihood of that person choosing ice hockey as his main sport is higher, because it's easier to turn that into a profession when you live in Finland, because the infrastructure and machinery is there in producing good ice hockey players. Many soccer first countries have the same problem as Finland has with ice hockey, but it's instead soccer that is taking most of the talent.

[UcanUwill]

This is a two week tournament, we are now in the knockout phase every match is a do or die, this leads to surprise results but also very exciting games that are played at 100%

NBA regular season is 82 games that are only used to determine the home court for the playoffs which let's not kid ourselves is not a huge advantage. Many teams want to tank so that they get a higher draft position. This leads in games during the regular season that are more like exhibition games, most people don't give all their effort, lots of load management etc.

NBA must do something to make games more meaningful, maybe shorten the regular season? or give a stronger incentive for the win

Or does like most of the domestic leagues in Europe and have a short tournament in the middle of the season. Teams and Fans of the teams don't think about the Euroleague championship or the domestic league champions. First they think about go and win the King's cup or National cup what is called at the end of february a fun short tournament in a weekend with the 8 best teams of the competition in the same stadium and all the fans of the teams inside together.

I think CUP is good for one thing. That is, that you can actually shorten the regular season a bit, while not losing many games, just for historian sake. Everyone knows that NBA season is way too long and is essentially meaningless anyway, especially singular games, like what is the difference if Warriors lose a game in January, it has no value.

NBA fans always say that CUP would have no prestige and no one would care about it. Look, no one really cares about cups in Europe, not in Soccer, not in Basketball. No one rememeber who won cups in a long run, league title is what matters. So NBA and AMerica wouldn't be unique in this, they would be just like everyone else.
That said, at a time cup actually happen, it is a fun short time. Fans still care because they want their team to win as many titles as possible, they arent as important as league, but it is still fun and something you can brag about. And players will always want to win, win title especially. So anti Cup people, stop BSing that no one would care.
I think it would be interesting to make NBA cup U24 or something like that, any team can win still, but it would be somewhat aimed to younger teams. I think it would be interesting, because we ALWYAS have debate which young core is the best and stuff like that. Well, this would make it official. I think it would be fun.

[a-French-Fan]

**** Slovenia. Now France has an easy semifinal

Like our quarterfinal?

[XTraderXL]

Doncic taking clasy route and blaming himsel for the loss. Stated that he played terribly, let down his team and country.

Classy?? Did you watch how he was acting at the end of the game? Boy needs to grow up and start behaving like a man. This was shameful.

[zaymon]

So proud of my national team. Some say its luck, some say its heart. Switching defense, hitting 3s and huge balls is what wins in the end

[remi_222]

De Colo was once a great player, but he is miles and miles past his prime. He's barely even good enough to play in EuroLeague now.

i'll frame that post and ship to you whenever you watch ASVEL games this yr ! guess you'be be saying the same words abt CP last yrs ...

De Colo was a great player in EuroLeague and French NT. But I watched him the last two seasons in EuroLeague, and he had a severe decline in his level. It was dramatic last season, where in game after game, he just disappeared, like he wasn't even on the court.

Unless he had bad injuries he played through the last 2 years and suddenly is healthy now, he's nowhere near the player he once was. The mere fact that he signed with ASVEL, a team with one of the lowest budgets in EuroLeague, and with zero expectations of competing for a EuroLeague title, would be proof of that, after he was only in big EuroLeague clubs for many years.

If he was still a great player, there is zero chance that ASVEL could have signed him.

And guess why him and Batum didnt come this summer : to rest and have a great season !! If he had played, pls, and i see you pretty often here so i know you know bball well : France would have a hell of a weapon more in their pocket !! Just from experience !
for him being back to France, how abt he wanted to come back to his country ? Nando de Colo chooses where he plays, no coach in europe would say no to coach him.