FIBA World Cup 2023 part 2 SEMIS (USA vs GERMANY : SERBIA vs CANADA) poll added

[Muizha]

WOW! What a game by Latvia, so proud of the guys! If somebody wouldve said to me before the game that france will shoot 52% on threes, I wouldve thought that we surely lost. But not this time
A few notes:
ARTURS ZAGARS (all caps for a reason) - his agent should receive a lot of calls tonight, as he is somehow still a free agent. Career game
Rodions Kurucs - remember this guy Nets fans? He scored only 2pts, but may have been the most important player on our team with his defensive effort (shoutout to Arturs Kurucs for that matter as well)
Rolands Smits - suuper solid and trying to fill the KP sized hole on our team.
Speaking of KP, maaan... what couldve been if he was healthy. As well as Strelnieks, Lomazs and even Timma, who was battling injury from the start of the camp as well. But we are still advancing to top 16!
Gobert - hes obviously more of a defensive guy, but maaan was he a non-factor on offense today
Batum - quite dissapointed with his comments about players playing in a country that inexplicably started a war in Europe in 21st century. If you dont get, why this guy shouldnt be on the team, then you probably deserved to lose

Next up Canada, it will be a though game, but everything after tonight will just be a bonus for the great Latvian team

[Jasen777]

Also, I just realized that Finland's Jacob Grandison plays for Duke and has been playing NCAA ball since 2017. I didn't realize you could play that many seasons of college ball.

He's done with college now, he won't be playing for them in the upcoming season. He did his 4 seasons and a transfer/redshirt season (in which he couldn't play) and then the extra year everyone got due to covid.

[MagicMamba88]

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[homecourtloss]

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It pays dividends to be a Los Angeles Laker.

[Oscirus]

Just read that embid could possibly play for france, didnt know that

[___Rand___]

The sizable Lebanese Canadian community will not be happy with what team Canada did to team Lebanon, have some mercy...

There goes my falafel.

[___Rand___]

Phillipines with the **** midget ball. Freak show out there.

They have like 3 guys who are good sized for basketball as regular 'bigs', and a bunch of 6'0-6'3 midgets who play even the 4 spot because they don't have other dudes. And Clarkson who's only half filipino at 6'5.

The discrepancy is off the charts. I mean, you couldn't find a bunch of 6'8-6'9 dudes out there?

Filipinos are pretty short. And Basketball is the biggest sport in the country. That's the irony of it. can't fault them for loving a game despite whatever disadvantages they have.

[Sofia]

The sizable Lebanese Canadian community will not be happy with what team Canada did to team Lebanon, have some mercy...

There goes my falafel.

Did Omari Spellman eat it? He looks like he ate everything else.

[baldur]

Phillipines with the **** midget ball. Freak show out there.

They have like 3 guys who are good sized for basketball as regular 'bigs', and a bunch of 6'0-6'3 midgets who play even the 4 spot because they don't have other dudes. And Clarkson who's only half filipino at 6'5.

The discrepancy is off the charts. I mean, you couldn't find a bunch of 6'8-6'9 dudes out there?

Filipinos are pretty short. And Basketball is the biggest sport in the country. That's the irony of it. can't fault them for loving a game despite whatever disadvantages they have.

It is so ironic though basketball is the most popular sport thanks to the American colonisation yet here Americans make fun of them being too short despite/because basketball is so popular there.

[Yallbecrazy]

Just read that embid could possibly play for france, didnt know that

Siakam , Embiid, Koloko, if they have any guards Cameroon could be really good.

[___Rand___]

Phillipines with the **** midget ball. Freak show out there.

They have like 3 guys who are good sized for basketball as regular 'bigs', and a bunch of 6'0-6'3 midgets who play even the 4 spot because they don't have other dudes. And Clarkson who's only half filipino at 6'5.

The discrepancy is off the charts. I mean, you couldn't find a bunch of 6'8-6'9 dudes out there?

Filipinos are pretty short. And Basketball is the biggest sport in the country. That's the irony of it. can't fault them for loving a game despite whatever disadvantages they have.

It is so ironic though basketball is the most popular sport thanks to the American colonisation yet here Americans make fun of them being too short despite/because basketball is so popular there.

yeah do they? that's a shame. I think they could be decent at soccer if they ever play that game. lol.

[Savage_Mode]

Haha France lol. That’s what what happens when you spend too much time playing European trash ball. Go USA & Canada.

[durden_tyler]

Day 4 Odds

China +7.5 vs South Sudan (curious line, China really this bad this tournament?) - Must win for both to have a shot at next round
Cape Verde +7.5 vs Venezuala
Jordan +7.5 vs NZ
Iran +6.5 vs Ivory Coast
Georgia +7.5 vs Slovenia (Too tempting a line for Slovenia)
Puerto Rico +18.5 vs Serbia
Greece +23.5 vs USA (i guess US covers for the first time this Worlds)
Brazil +9.5 vs Spain

Leaning and locking picks in a bit:

China, Jordan, Georgia and US.

[UcanUwill]

You still either don't get it ir in your fashion shifting goals to your narrative, we were not debating which tournament was better, we were talking which was more prestigious, and it's no debatable, Olympic FIBA is FAR FAR more prestigious sadly. You think me, as huge basketball fan wouldn't want to real basketball wc where everything about only basketball was more prestigious, of course I would, but it isn't, even just a niche of basketball fans care about this thing, and me lying to myself and everyone your style, won't change facts.

Now which tournament is actually better, now that IS debatable. I personally like that wc has a lot of teams, but a lot of people could argue half of these teams shouldn't be here at all and it just makes everything boring. We had 16 games so far, I believe only two were remotely close.

Just like FIBA said, they did a big survey in the 6 continents and North America was the only one that considered Olympics basketball to be more important and "more prestigious" than the World Basketball Cup. The other continents all viewed the World Cup as being more important and more prestigious.

You are just basing everything on your opinion and opinions of those countries that were a part of that Olympics East versus West Cold War era propaganda. As was already explained in the first World Cup thread, it's only really those countries that were involved in that Col War Olympics propaganda that care so much about the Olympics. The other countries of course consider the actual World Cup to be much more important.

So you are actually basing this on your own personal opinion.

If that’s the case, why do most teams don’t take it seriously? Jokic? Wemby? Murray and others? While US sends a second rate squad and has a big chance to win it all.

Miro just keep pretending we were born yesterday. I have watched this FIBA thing for decades, players and federations has always took this thing far less seriously, all the time, it's a fact. Out if all bs Miro has said, I am stunned he tries to convince this bs on us the most. I don't care who did FIBA studied, players has always scheduled their free summers around wc, that includes almost every euro and both America's countries. EuroBasket were taken far more seriously when it was qualifying to Olympics rather than han wc, and direct thing...

FIBA WC IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW, and what are the goals of 85% of those teams when they speak - qualifyng to the Olympics rofl, wcs prizes positions is afterthought in it's own tournament. How do you keep starring at something we clearly see Is white, and tell us studies show it's black. Just stfu once instead of digging a hole as usual.

[UcanUwill]

Zagars is one of the most pleasant players to watch. When I found out he signed with small Lithuanian team last year, I was shocked. If you remember, he was huge prospect and I loved him at a time. Not sure what wrong happened to his development but landing on crappy Lithuanian team was great bottom to restart and re kick off his career.

[peja_the_legend]

France being out isnt' THAT shocking.It was the hardest group by far,and yeah they were the favorites but Latvia even without Porzingis is a solid team.Furthermore same France had a really bad Eurobasket last year.They almost lost to Hungary ffs,had 2 group stage losses and needed unbelievable chokes by Italy and Turkey to reach the final where they got their asses kicked..So yeah France needs renewal,most of their guys are getting real old and a lot of their hyped prospects didn't really turn out to be very good(Hayes,Maledon,Doumbouya,Dilikina).Especially in pg position i see a real problem for them.

Having said all that they choked yesterday.Being up for 39.20 minutes only for Gobert to commit the most stupid foul going for an offensive rebound(i hate these fouls) and give Latvia the lead and put all the pressure on them for the final possesion which was a disaster.

[KillMonger]

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It pays dividends to be a Los Angeles Laker.

it's part of the package, to be stanned way beyond normal whether you deserve it or not

[mariller]

Why they are hating their own players for playing in Russia???

I think it has to do with their choosing to play in Russia after it attacked Ukraine. I think those players are not allowed to play for the national team as a result.

French association is a bunch of idiots, like all the other virtue-signalling morons.

Yeah no, this is not virtue signaling. This is a real issue. F*** R*****

[Phreak50]

This is a serious question and I’m interested in everyone’s opinion.

Giddey’s hair…

He pushes it back behind his ears after he passes the ball.

Once last night he was doing just that and nearly didn’t get his hands up in time to catch the ball back

On defence he is shaking his head to get the hair away from his face.

I mean seriously. Why let something so trivial and avoidable, have to come into play in the middle of the action?

[Pachinko_]

As a fellow long hair man I agree with Giddey. Never let something trivial like basketball interfere with great looking hair.