OT : Eurobasket 2025

[lambchop]

Luka with Slovenia reminds me of Dirk playing for Germany. These teams would struggle to beat the likes of Cyprus and Croatia without that one all time great star player.

Doesn't Croatia have NBA-caliber guys in its team?

Where is Croatia anyway? Why aren't they playing?

Still worse than Cyprus and Sweden. Croatia is currently comparable to Luxemburg aka one of the worst teams ever.

[RookieStar]

Luka with Slovenia reminds me of Dirk playing for Germany. These teams would struggle to beat the likes of Cyprus and Croatia without that one all time great star player.

Doesn't Croatia have NBA-caliber guys in its team?

Where is Croatia anyway? Why aren't they playing?

Still worse than Cyprus and Sweden. Croatia is currently comparable to Luxemburg aka one of the worst teams ever.

Huh? Their NBA dudes arent playing for them then?

[pepe1991]

Doesn't Croatia have NBA-caliber guys in its team?

Where is Croatia anyway? Why aren't they playing?

Still worse than Cyprus and Sweden. Croatia is currently comparable to Luxemburg aka one of the worst teams ever.

Huh? Their NBA dudes arent playing for them then?

Nah, dude just smoked crack thinking it was grandpa's tobacco.


Croatia even in pre-qualifier for world cup, because it was played over summer, had Hezonja and Šarić, as outcome of it, over 5 games we had +114 differential

I mean, Croatia beat Cyprus 92:63 in qualifications without Šarić or Zubac.
During preparation for Eurobasket, Croatia played vs Hungary, who is part of Eurobasket, and beat them by 20 ( 85:65). Like 20 days ago.
After that Croatia beat Ukraine 82-71, and once again, Ukraine is at Eurobasket, Croatia isn't. Last summer, Croatia eliminated Dončić led Slovenia from main Olympic tournament.


Thing is, qualifications are played, at least majority of it, in middle of nba and euroleague season. That means you need to make qualification with your local players from domestic league, or hope some Euroleague players will play. Croatia is country of sub 4 million people and simply doesn't have pool of talent to replace nba players that easy.


But if you send best team Croatia can have, you would have:

Zubac ( top 5 -6 nba center, DPOY candidate)
Hezonja- one of best Euroleague players
Šarić- NBA player
Both Ivišić twins from college
Micahel Ružić- first round draft pick projection in 2026
Andrija Jelavić- just made transfer from Mega ( Jokić , Zubac original team) to Kentucky.

Roko Prkačin
Luka Božić
Ante Žižić- former nba player
Luka Šamanić- former nba player

Hez, Šarić and Zubac alone are better than 5/24 teams from current Eurobasket. Matter of fact, Zubac would probably be top 5-8 players in tournament especially because he could just camp below rim without any reason to ever leave paint.

[UcanUwill]

Doesn't Croatia have NBA-caliber guys in its team?

Where is Croatia anyway? Why aren't they playing?

Still worse than Cyprus and Sweden. Croatia is currently comparable to Luxemburg aka one of the worst teams ever.

Huh? Their NBA dudes arent playing for them then?

I think he was joking, but that said, Croatia failed to even qualify. They just played World cup PRE qualifiers against random teams like Denmark, they won every game and qualified for actual qualifying, but for examplle, they needed 30 point game from Saric just to beat Denmark by 3 points, they have not been nice.

I believe Croatia has 3 players in the NBA, one real player in Zubac and 2 borderline players in Dario Saric and Karlo Matkovic. They also have Hezonja, who is pretty good Euro player. On paper Croatia better than a lot underdogs in the Eurobasket, but they been crapping the bed. Even their youth teams, a lot of those were playing in FIBA B division. They lost Euroleague team around 10-15 years ago, National team does not even qualify for tournaments with 24 nations in it, people fear Basketball could become completely insignificant there after all this. SLovenia tho would be even worse if not for one guy.

[pepe1991]

Still worse than Cyprus and Sweden. Croatia is currently comparable to Luxemburg aka one of the worst teams ever.

Huh? Their NBA dudes arent playing for them then?

I think he was joking, but that said, Croatia failed to even qualify. They just played World cup PRE qualifiers against random teams like Denmark, they won every game and qualified for actual qualifying, but for examplle, then needed 30 point game from Saric just to beat Denmark by 3 points, they have not been nice.

I believe Croatia has 3 players in the NBA, one real player in Zubac and 2 borderline players in Dario Saric and Karlo Matkovic. They also have Hezonja, who is pretty good Euro player. On paper Croatia better than a lot underdogs in the Eurobasket, but they been crapping the bed. Even their youth teams, a lot of those were playing in FIBA B division. They lost Euroleague team around 10-15 years ago, National team does not even qualify for tournaments with 24 nations in it, people fear Basketball could become completely insignificant there after all this. SLovenia tho would be even worse if not for one guy.

Last game vs Denmark was irrelevant. Denmark had to beat Croatia by 30 points to surpass them. Instead, they even lost game.

Croatia didn't qualify for Eurobasket because they lost by points differential ( lost one, won one) to Bosnia where Šarić, Zubac, as nba players, couldn't participate. In group of 4 ( France, Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus) only Croatia didn't advance because Cyprus had locked spot ( once again, begs the question why team that has to play, is part of qualifications) . Because of it, Croatia is only 3rd place team from qualification cycle that didn't qualify. Despite fact several 4th spot did ( locked spot).

Pure FIBA brilliance. One of most idiotic sports organisations ever.

[UcanUwill]

Last game vs Denmark was irrelevant. Denmark had to beat Croatia by 30 points to surpass them.

I see, I didn't intend to crap on Croatia, I am just stating reality that they been in a rough spot. In was crazy seeing guys from the NBA and Real Madrid in that Pre qualifier, because most other players there were just complete unknowns, Croatia belong in the Eurobasket, not pre qualifier group with Norway and Denmark.

[pepe1991]

Last game vs Denmark was irrelevant. Denmark had to beat Croatia by 30 points to surpass them.

I see, I didn't intend to crap on Croatia, I am just stating reality that they been in a rough spot. In was crazy seeing guys from the NBA and Real Madrid in that Pre qualifier, because most other players there were just complete unknowns, Croatia belong in the Eurobasket, not pre qualifier group with Norway and Denmark.

I edited in upper post in depth how dumb system was and what had to happen in order for Croatia to not qualify.
Cyprus, Poland and Ukraine finished their group qualifications dead last and qualified. Croatia is only 3rd placed team that didn't.

One word: Fiba. Not to mention giving Cyprus hosting.

Home team played vs Bosnia in front of 2400 people in biggest arena in Cyprus, with capacity of... 6200. Might as well host next Eurobasket in school campus somewhere in Africa.

[RookieStar]

Would have been nice to see Crobe play again in the big stage... yeah thats F up... the roster of Croatia is waaaaaay better on paper than the ones im seeing of GB Cyprus Iceland etc etc

[UcanUwill]

Last game vs Denmark was irrelevant. Denmark had to beat Croatia by 30 points to surpass them.

I see, I didn't intend to crap on Croatia, I am just stating reality that they been in a rough spot. In was crazy seeing guys from the NBA and Real Madrid in that Pre qualifier, because most other players there were just complete unknowns, Croatia belong in the Eurobasket, not pre qualifier group with Norway and Denmark.

I edited in upper post in depth how dumb system was and what had to happen in order for Croatia to not qualify.
Cyprus, Poland and Ukraine finished their group qualifications dead last and qualified. Croatia is only 3rd placed team that didn't.

One word: Fiba. Not to mention giving Cyprus hosting.

Home team played vs Bosnia in front of 2400 people in biggest arena in Cyprus, with capacity of... 6200. Might as well host next Eurobasket in school campus somewhere in Africa.

I think I appreciate that they give some weak nations to host, but I mean there should be some kind of bar. You would never see like Lithuania host FIFA Euros and just get in the tournament just cause of it (and it is not because we do not have a single stadium that aint a piggery). I mean Indonesia hosted FIBA world cup 2 years ago, but they still didn't put Indonesian NT there, because it would have been ridiculous.

Poland, Latvia hosting is fine, but Cypras, now you pushing it, Cyprus is easily the worst team here, and the worst team in a long time that was in Eurobasket I imagine. I get they try to expand the game, but you have to have at least some kind of resemblance of talent to get automatic spot in a tournament like this.

We already talked about how crappy FIBA window system is, Croatia is just one of the firsts real casualties of it. Lithuania also almost did not qualify to Eurobasket last time I think, we would not have if Mantas Kalnietis did not block Ife Lunberg at the last second. And ok, we should beat Denmark even with our FIBA window squad, but fact is, we still couldn't have used most of our top players because it was stupid FIBA window, and if we did not qualify cause of that, everyone would have been so angry... We will see more and more situations like these with this asinine FIBA window system.

[Mirotic12]

I edited in upper post in depth how dumb system was and what had to happen in order for Croatia to not qualify.
Cyprus, Poland and Ukraine finished their group qualifications dead last and qualified. Croatia is only 3rd placed team that didn't.

One word: Fiba. Not to mention giving Cyprus hosting.

Home team played vs Bosnia in front of 2400 people in biggest arena in Cyprus, with capacity of... 6200. Might as well host next Eurobasket in school campus somewhere in Africa.

No way that is accurate. That arena looks way bigger than that.

[Mirotic12]

I think I appreciate that they give some weak nations to host, but I mean there should be some kind of bar. You would never see like Lithuania host FIFA Euros and just get in the tournament just cause of it (and it is not because we do not have a single stadium that aint a piggery). I mean Indonesia hosted FIBA world cup 2 years ago, but they still didn't put Indonesian NT there, because it would have been ridiculous.

Poland, Latvia hosting is fine, but Cypras, now you pushing it, Cyprus is easily the worst team here, and the worst team in a long time that was in Eurobasket I imagine. I get they try to expand the game, but you have to have at least some kind of resemblance of talent to get automatic spot in a tournament like this.

We already talked about how crappy FIBA window system is, Croatia is just one of the firsts real casualties of it. Lithuania also almost did not qualify to Eurobasket last time I think, we would not have if Mantas Kalnietis did not block Ife Lunberg at the last second. And ok, we should beat Denmark even with our FIBA window squad, but fact is, we still couldn't have used most of our top players because it was stupid FIBA window, and if we did not qualify cause of that, everyone would have been so angry... We will see more and more situations like these with this asinine FIBA window system.

The only reason FIBA is doing the windows is because USA only has to play against teams from the Americas to qualify. The same thing with Canada.

If the USA sent the kind of teams they use to qualify in the Americas to Europe, they couldn't qualify.

USA and Canada without NBA and EuroLeague players, playing in Europe's system, would be out just like Croatia.

There is no chance FIBA would have the windows if the US had to qualify through a difficult region.

Nonetheless, as you said, it's going to backfire on both FIBA and USA eventually, and they will fail to qualify. They've already had multiples of losses each to teams like Mexico and Uruguay, like 3 or 4 losses to each of them. They even lost to Cuba.

It's going to happen if they keep this system. Just watch, as soon as it happens, FIBA will immediately scrap the windows system and grant USA a wild card. Then we won't here about the windows again.

[Nuntius]

Luka with Slovenia reminds me of Dirk playing for Germany. These teams would struggle to beat the likes of Cyprus and Croatia without that one all time great star player.

Doesn't Croatia have NBA-caliber guys in its team?

Where is Croatia anyway? Why aren't they playing?

They didn't qualify. They were in a group with France, Bosnia and Cyprus in the qualifiers and since Cyprus was a host and would qualify anyway that means that there were only 2 spots available. France won the group and qualified while Bosnia and Croatia were tied with 3 wins and 3 losses. But since Bosnia had a better head to head difference, they were the ones that qualified, knocking Croatia out.

[pepe1991]

I edited in upper post in depth how dumb system was and what had to happen in order for Croatia to not qualify.
Cyprus, Poland and Ukraine finished their group qualifications dead last and qualified. Croatia is only 3rd placed team that didn't.

One word: Fiba. Not to mention giving Cyprus hosting.

Home team played vs Bosnia in front of 2400 people in biggest arena in Cyprus, with capacity of... 6200. Might as well host next Eurobasket in school campus somewhere in Africa.

No way that is accurate. That arena looks way bigger than that.

Built in 2005, named Spyros Kyprianou Arena, they have 6255 seats, but for Eurobasket they did some renovations so max capacity is 8000 to even fit minimum standard to be host.
From pictures, they just added lower floor seats.

[Nuntius]

Last game vs Denmark was irrelevant. Denmark had to beat Croatia by 30 points to surpass them.

I see, I didn't intend to crap on Croatia, I am just stating reality that they been in a rough spot. In was crazy seeing guys from the NBA and Real Madrid in that Pre qualifier, because most other players there were just complete unknowns, Croatia belong in the Eurobasket, not pre qualifier group with Norway and Denmark.

I edited in upper post in depth how dumb system was and what had to happen in order for Croatia to not qualify.
Cyprus, Poland and Ukraine finished their group qualifications dead last and qualified. Croatia is only 3rd placed team that didn't.

Ukraine didn't qualify. Poland and Cyprus did because they were hosts. North Macedonia also finished 3rd but failed to qualify, just like Croatia.

Wondering why the hosts play in the qualifiers is a valid question. It definitely makes qualifying harder for other teams in their groups.

[lambchop]

Still worse than Cyprus and Sweden. Croatia is currently comparable to Luxemburg aka one of the worst teams ever.

Huh? Their NBA dudes arent playing for them then?

Nah, dude just smoked crack thinking it was grandpa's tobacco.


Croatia even in pre-qualifier for world cup, because it was played over summer, had Hezonja and Šarić, as outcome of it, over 5 games we had +114 differential

I mean, Croatia beat Cyprus 92:63 in qualifications without Šarić or Zubac.
During preparation for Eurobasket, Croatia played vs Hungary, who is part of Eurobasket, and beat them by 20 ( 85:65). Like 20 days ago.
After that Croatia beat Ukraine 82-71, and once again, Ukraine is at Eurobasket, Croatia isn't. Last summer, Croatia eliminated Dončić led Slovenia from main Olympic tournament.


Thing is, qualifications are played, at least majority of it, in middle of nba and euroleague season. That means you need to make qualification with your local players from domestic league, or hope some Euroleague players will play. Croatia is country of sub 4 million people and simply doesn't have pool of talent to replace nba players that easy.


But if you send best team Croatia can have, you would have:

Zubac ( top 5 -6 nba center, DPOY candidate)
Hezonja- one of best Euroleague players
Šarić- NBA player
Both Ivišić twins from college
Micahel Ružić- first round draft pick projection in 2026
Andrija Jelavić- just made transfer from Mega ( Jokić , Zubac original team) to Kentucky.

Roko Prkačin
Luka Božić
Ante Žižić- former nba player
Luka Šamanić- former nba player

Hez, Šarić and Zubac alone are better than 5/24 teams from current Eurobasket. Matter of fact, Zubac would probably be top 5-8 players in tournament especially because he could just camp below rim without any reason to ever leave paint.

Yea, you need depth for these qualifiers. Even Bosnia has decent depth. Keep in mind that only 40% of their population is even willing to play. It's a tough system that favours countries with a large pool of professional players. It's literally something that has to be built up over years.

And, yea, Croatia is definitely better than Luxemburg. However, it is true that most of their youth teams are stuck in Eurobasket B division. But they've got extremely talented individual guys. That young point guard that plays for Madrid has nice potential.

I'm not a fan of Božić cause he's more of a point forward outside of aba liga. Thus, he looked just OK in Spain. Still a nice player.

[Swuul]

During preparation for Eurobasket, Croatia played vs Hungary, who is part of Eurobasket, and beat them by 20 ( 85:65). Like 20 days ago.
After that Croatia beat Ukraine 82-71, and once again, Ukraine is at Eurobasket, Croatia isn't.

This is totally and utterly false. Neither Hungary, Ukraine or Denmark are in Eurobasket. Croatia is playing with the other special-needs teams of Europe, not with Eurobasket teams. Cyprus also isn't an Eurobasket team, but they got in as one of the hosts (as their Russian collaborators bribed enough FIBA officials to make that happen).

[nomansland]

I can't tell if Georgia is actually good or if Spain is just washed up. They both obviously have some good players, maybe even a couple of really good ones.

[BadaBoom]

I was a bit shocked by the amount of teams with a naturalized player in their rank and I'm interested in my fellow european realgmers opinion on this topic.

I distinguish three types of naturalized players:
1- Players that have a "blood connection" to the country even though they never lived there or even speak the language (ie: Khris Kaman playing for Germany because great-grandparents were German while never been there before nor speaking the language)
2- Players that lived in the country for a certain period (ie: Serge Ibaka playing for Spain after living there about 3 years)
3- Players having absolutely no tie with a country, purely a "free agency" deal (ie: Jordan Loyd for Poland)

Personally the naturalizations that don't really bother me are the one from the second category, those who really spent a decent amount of time in a country, especially as youth, and grew a cultural/emotional attachment to the country.
The one that are naturalized solely on their lineage but have no real ties with the country are already quite lame from a sport perspective I think.

Now the one I have a real problem with and that I really can't understand are the random naturalization, for example Jordan Loyd playing for Poland (just an example) makes so little sense to me.

The purpose of the national teams is to represent the nation in sport competition. What's its value if you're best player, or one of your main player, is a random American that don't give a rat a** about the country and could not even put it on a map before he was approached by the federation?

I'm French and I personally was very very much against Embiid playing with our NT as the guy as literally zero ties with the country. I prefer that our NT lose with the legit squad rather than win a medal with some random guy, it's just tainted when it's the case.

What's your opinion about this?

[-Luke-]

I was a bit shocked by the amount of teams with a naturalized player in their rank and I'm interested in my fellow european realgmers opinion on this topic.

I distinguish three types of naturalized players:
1- Players that have a "blood connection" to the country even though they never lived there or even speak the language (ie: Khris Kaman playing for Germany because great-grandparents were German while never been there before nor speaking the language)
2- Players that lived in the country for a certain period (ie: Serge Ibaka playing for Spain after living there about 3 years)
3- Players having absolutely no tie with a country, purely a "free agency" deal (ie: Jordan Loyd for Poland)

Personally the naturalizations that don't really bother me are the one from the second category, those who really spent a decent amount of time in a country, especially as youth, and grew a cultural/emotional attachment to the country.
The one that are naturalized solely on their lineage but have no real ties with the country are already quite lame from a sport perspective I think.

Now the one I have a real problem with and that I really can't understand are the random naturalization, for example Jordan Loyd playing for Poland (just an example) makes so little sense to me.

The purpose of the national teams is to represent the nation in sport competition. What's its value if you're best player, or one of your main player, is a random American that don't give a rat a** about the country and could not even put it on a map before he was approached by the federation?

I'm French and I personally was very very much against Embiid playing with our NT as the guy as literally zero ties with the country. I prefer that our NT lose with the legit squad rather than win a medal with some random guy, it's just tainted when it's the case.

What's your opinion about this?

Yeah, pretty much agree. Signing a player as a 'free agent' is pretty absurd for national teams. We have club competitions for that.

I also don't know how it works in some cases. Kyle Allman plays for Montenegro even though he has as much to do with Montenegro as you or I. But in the timeouts coaches and players speak their native language. Does Allman understand what they are saying?

[Mavrelous]

I agree, before the Bosman ruling this was the case also at club level, in house grown players were harder to move, though I think before the Bosman ruling it wasn't fair game for the players.