Eurobasket 2022 (daily OP updates), day 11, all quarter finals teams known, Italy shocks Europe, eliminates Serbia

[SkyhookinUrMom]

Everybody talking naturalized players...did they change the rules mid-tournament or what?

[Bob8]

I didn't say it's the same, I said he couldn't play Lithuania with previous rules, because he played for Canada before.

Rules allow 1 naturalised player. Dorsey is part Greek but he's still naturalised. Fiba doesn't care about players roots, if he hasn't passport by 18, he can play only as naturalised.

About Slovenia. Slovenia has only 2 mio people and it's almost impossible to find someone over 2.10. They have great basketball school, producing many guards, which is the biggest problem in Europe. You can't teach height, so using Fiba's option is the only way to have playable big.

I dont think Dorsey and Brazdeikis count as naturalize players, I might be wrong, but I dont think thats the case at all. Jordan Clarkson is not considered naturalized for Gilas, even Matt Freije was not technically naturalized for Lebanon, him and Joe Vogel were able to play for Lebanon at the same time, so I really doubt Dorsey and Brazdeikis are naturalized, Greece and Lithuania does not have naturalized players, they have players will dual citezenships who had multiple options to choose witch nation to represent without being counted as naturalized. THese players are rare, but they arent naturalized. Personally, I dont know how Ignas is capable of playing for Lithuania, as been said, he played for Canadian youth teams, but obviously I dont know the rules.

Dorsey is naturalised player for sure. I'm not sure about Brazdeikis, but it doesn't make sense anything else. He played for Canada and didn't have Lithuania passport until recently.

[Evenacus]

Croatia starting as bad as expected

[Beorn]

I am sorry but it's not comparable at all. Ignas Brazdeikis has a Lithuanian first name, Lithuanian last name, was born in Lithuania, has Lithuanian parents, and speaks Lithuanian. Anthony Randolph does not have a Slovenian first name, does not have a Slovenian last name, was not born in Slovenia, neither of his parents are Slovenian, and he doesn't speak Slovenian. Yes, Randolph is not Slovenian enough.

Sure it is. They are both (North) American naturalized players competing for European countries at Eurobasket.

Is Gregor Fučka an Italian name?
Serge Ibaka and Nikola Mirotić are Spanish names?
What is Mirsad Türkcan's real name, does it sound Turkish?

So stop this American boo boo game. European powerhouses (Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey) have been doing this for decades within Europe itself. You and I don't get to decide who is Lithuanian or Slovenian, but the repective governments of said countries do. That's how it works.

The only naturalized person that has played in the Greek NT was Alexey Lentkov (or Jake Tsakalidis as he was known) back in the 90s. Shameful, if you ask me.

All the other players that were not born in Greece had either Greek parent(s) like Koufos and Dorsey, or grandparents (e.g. Calathes)

I hope we will not resort in hiring some rando when we run out of competent ballhandlers in a couple of years, as most european nations do at this point.

To me it looks only fair if the foreign-born player has spent some years on the country (e.g the Mirotic, Ibaka cases are fine for me, they lived in Spain for years before playing for the NT). All these Lorenzos, Tobeys, Smiths etc seems ridiculous though.

[edededtut]

Croatia has good referees

[UcanUwill]

Dorsey is naturalised player for sure. I'm not sure about Brazdeikis, but it doesn't make sense anything else. He played for Canada and didn't have Lithuania passport until recently.

Brazdeikis was normal Lithuanian, but he lost his passport at a young age when his family migrated from country. He got his passport reinstated (i think is a key word here) since nowadays dual citenship law is less strict (even tho on paper nothing changed), I dont see why he should be naturalized. Same with Ilgauskas, Ilgauskas lost his Lithuanian passport when he became US citizen, but lets say hypothetically he unretires and wants to play for LTU, he would get his passport reinstated maybe, would he now be naturalized? If anything, he is naturalized American, not naturalized Lithuanian.

Now, Matus Buzelis is a different story. It is funny, because lines and limits are arbitrary, everyone draws the line on a little different spot what is fair square player for national team, and what is a cheat basically. Both of Matas Buzelis' parents are Lithuanian, but he was born in USA, and is flat out American. But Lithuania did expect him to play for them, and they do not feel that it is even similar to Lorenzo Brown or whatever, even tho technically it is at best very similar.

[Foliohattu]

Not in love with the finnish rotations, when Markkanen, Salin and Maxhuni sits at the same time we have zero offense especially in the halfcourt.

[a-French-Fan]

I didn't want Embiid to play for us in the first place, but seeing Lithuania losing to Brown who can't even make a whole Spanish sentence, guess mercenaries are the way to go in Europe these days. At least Embiid has ties to France unlike most of these players..

And Embiid speaks french

Personally i'm against it because he does not have any real ties with France other than speaking the language because it is an official language of Cameroun. It's better than 90% of the mercenaries playing for a country they know nothing about but still, he never lived in France and don't have a french parent.

I think it's really a shame that now almost every country has a fake guy playing for them, it's plain stupid. For me it always feels like "country + that guy". If Embiid joins France (it's likely what's going to happen seeing the federation and GM statements) it will be France + Embiid, not France.

All in all I think a country should rather lose with only legit guys than win with a random imported piece that does not even care about them...

Actually I thought it didn't make sense that Embiid would play for France.
But the big difference between Embiid and other naturalized players who play for a country where they have never lived, is that Embiid could play for team USA if he had chosen.
So, the fact is that we don't know why he choose France. The opportunity to win olympics? It would be easier with Team USA. Money? No, we don't give a penny.

I sincerly would like to ear him about his choice. We know that he went a summer to see his cousins as a child. Maybe he thinks "ok I am a NBA player now, but their childhood was better in France" .
Maybe it's only for sport, but for personnal reasons he wouldn't like to win Olympics for USA.

The truth is that he should explain his choice.

Now, whatever how he became french, he is french, and so has to be treated as any other french basketball player : he is the best option, he has to play. If he is not selected because he is naturalized, I would see that as a discrimination. Until he wasn't french we could give our opinion, but now he has same rights and duties as any french citizen.

[UcanUwill]

Sad to see Ukraine go down. After yesterday, I am more sensitive to Slaughters and Brown's when usual. How is Len an NBA player though, he is terrible, and I dont mean terrible for an NBA guy, but just terrible. Half of Ukraine's team is better than him, and they are a bunch of no names.

Can you elaborate on Len?, I watch him play in the NBA, he seems fine, his talent is good, sometimes he doesn't know what his doing on the court.

the only thing Len has going on is that he is 7 feet tall, man has no skill. Balvin from Czech team is a better player. Len was absolutely terrible for the Raptors, but a lot of decent players were terrible in the NBA - Hezonja, Guduric, Melli... SO I wrote that off, but no, this Len gu, he doesn't even look up to par in a lot of Eurobasket games, brutal how big of a nothing he is.

[darmani]

Read on Twitter

[KokoKaizer]

And Embiid speaks french

Personally i'm against it because he does not have any real ties with France other than speaking the language because it is an official language of Cameroun. It's better than 90% of the mercenaries playing for a country they know nothing about but still, he never lived in France and don't have a french parent.

I think it's really a shame that now almost every country has a fake guy playing for them, it's plain stupid. For me it always feels like "country + that guy". If Embiid joins France (it's likely what's going to happen seeing the federation and GM statements) it will be France + Embiid, not France.

All in all I think a country should rather lose with only legit guys than win with a random imported piece that does not even care about them...

Actually I thought it didn't make sense that Embiid would play for France.
But the big difference between Embiid and other naturalized players who play for a country where they have never lived, is that Embiid could play for team USA if he had chosen.
So, the fact is that we don't know why he choose France. The opportunity to win olympics? It would be easier with Team USA. Money? No, we don't give a penny.

I sincerly would like to ear him about his choice. We know that he went a summer to see his cousins as a child. Maybe he thinks "ok I am a NBA player now, but their childhood was better in France" .
Maybe it's only for sport, but for personnal reasons he wouldn't like to win Olympics for USA.

The truth is that he should explain his choice.

Now, whatever how he became french, he is french, and so has to be treated as any other french basketball player : he is the best option, he has to play. If he is not selected because he is naturalized, I would see that as a discrimination. Until he wasn't french we could give our opinion, but now he has same rights and duties as any french citizen.

Easy.

Because of our Health System

[Bodiroga13]

Mulaomerovic seems like, eventually, he's gonna punch a ref

[Bob8]

Dorsey is naturalised player for sure. I'm not sure about Brazdeikis, but it doesn't make sense anything else. He played for Canada and didn't have Lithuania passport until recently.

Brazdeikis was normal Lithuanian, but he lost his passport at a young age when his family migrated from country. He got his passport reinstated (i think is a key word here) since nowadays dual citenship law is less strict (even tho on paper nothing changed), I dont see why he should be naturalized. Same with Ilgauskas, Ilgauskas lost his Lithuanian passport when he became US citizen, but lets say hypothetically he unretires and wants to play for LTU, he would get his passport reinstated maybe, would he now be naturalized? If anything, he is naturalized American, not naturalized Lithuanian.

Now, Matus Buzelis is a different story. It is funny, because lines and limits are arbitrary, everyone draws the line on a little different spot what is fair square player for national team, and what is a cheat basically. Both of Matas Buzelis' parents are Lithuanian, but he was born in USA, and is flat out American. But Lithuania did expect him to play for them, and they do not feel that it is even similar to Lorenzo Brown or whatever, even tho technically it is at best very similar.

Fiba concern is only if he have played for other country before and if he had passport, when he was 18. Like Dorsey, he theoretically could have Greece passport because of his mum, but he didn't have, so he's naturalised player.

[edededtut]

This is ridiculous

[zzzyyxyyxzzz]

Brazdeikis was normal Lithuanian, but he lost his passport at a young age when his family migrated from country. He got his passport reinstated (i think is a key word here) since nowadays dual citenship law is less strict (even tho on paper nothing changed), I dont see why he should be naturalized.

He is technically a Canadian naturalized Lithuanian, in the eyes of FIBA (I know he's Lithuanian born, of Lithuanian parents, speaks etc... ). But FIBA only cares about your citizenship at 17, and he was Canadian at the time, since Lithuania didn't (doesn't) allow dual citizenship (unless born pre 1990 or other weird circumstances) and you loose your citizenship when you get a different one. Since he moved to Canada at 3 it was only natural he became Canadian, as any immigrant will understand (residency, education, healthcare...). Lithuania ammended their citizenship law last year to allow exceptions if the President of the country allows it (good luck if you're not an excellent professional athlete or of special use to the country), so he is technically a Canadian naturalized Lithuanian.

This is my understanding, Lithuanians please correct me if I am wrong, as I am no expert on the subject.

[edededtut]

What the **** ?

Incredible

Bailout call after bailout call

[TasteThePainbow]

Markkanen absolutely dominating. Wild stuff.

Refs are trying hard to gift it to Croatia though.

[UcanUwill]

Lauri is damn good player.

[edededtut]

This is just sad

[UcanUwill]

Read on Twitter

Ponitka - underrated player.