FIBA WORLD CUP 2019 | SPAIN are new WORLD CHAMPIONS

[Cassalien]

Did anyone catch the Iran vs Puerto Rico game? CRAZY END

Watch on YouTube

Didnt watch the game myself but the end of the game was freaking bananas! You wont regret to skip to the last 2 mins of the game!

[Mickey8]

Ffs raduljica is serbias 3rd string centre. That would be far and away the best quality and depth at centre in the nba

raduljica is 4th option at center.

jokic
boban
milutinov
raduljica

Milutinov is 2nd option, he will get the most minutes against better teams, hes the best big defender on the Serbian squad and he can score,finish effectively, Marjanovic i Raduljica to me are part timers, made for the teams such as Angola and Philippines.

[CalL]

32 teams might’ve been too much. Is it that fun watching your country be walloped by 60 points? Basketball is pretty unforgiving. If you’re undersized or not athletic enough, or you can’t shoot at an elite level, then you will be crushed for 40min straight by any team with NBA/EuroLeague talent. That’s not even including chemistry and coaching. The “C” Team USA isn’t gonna have an easy tournament, even with star NBA players and Popovich.

But oh well, the tournament really does zip by. What is it, 2 weeks? I guess it doesn’t hurt to have more involved. Still surprised Slovenia was excluded.

I agree that 32 teams are too much, i think if we would only have 24 teams and more spots for european teams, then this competition would be a lot more competitive. I would like to see a world cup with 24 teams in 4 groups of 6 teams each, something like:

Group A:
USA
Greece
Germany
Italy
Russia/Finland/Czech Republic/Montenegro/Israel/Bosnia
Puerto Rico

Group B:
Serbia
Canada
Turkey
Croatia
Dominican Republic
New Zealand

Group C:
Spain
Australia
Slovenia
Brazil
Cameroon
Japan

Group D:
France
Lithuania
Latvia
Argentina
Nigeria
China

The top 4 teams in each group would make it out of the group and then we could for example have a round of last 16 like this:

USA - Croatia/Dominican Republic
Greece - Turkey
Germany - Canada
Italy - Serbia
Spain - Argentina
Australia - Latvia
Slovenia - Lithuania
France - Brazil

[Bob8]

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I like the way Pop has this team playing. I think the second half (4th quarter in particular) is what we will see going forward. Nice ball movement and quick decision making. The more they play together, the more efficient the offense will be. Ya they seem vulnerable because individual roles still haven't been established, but they have 4 more games until the knockout stage and will get exponentially better with each game.

I think their toughest game will come in the quarterfinals against Australia/Lithuania. That could be a close call (as it's been in years past). But I just don't see anyone beating them once the semifinals/finals come. I like Serbia, but they will still be vastly outmatched at every position other than the 5 and will once again rely on role players to make plays and hit threes in order to win.

Vastly outmatched under Fiba rules? I don’t think so. Attacking the rim is much more difficult under Fiba rules and there goes more or less all advantage USA players have.

[The Moose]

delly now up to 15pts (6/9) 5 assists and 4 rebounds

best dreadful performance of all time

You forgot the 5 turnovers that got Canada back into the game.

He's playing well in the second half because they moved him off the ball, he's fine as a spot up shooter/defender but he's a liability when trying to playmake.

I 100% agree, his role on offense should be no more than spot up shooter really.
Ingles is an infinitely better playmaker, as is Mills, Bogut etc, even Goulding sometimes.

[mixerball]

Ffs raduljica is serbias 3rd string centre. That would be far and away the best quality and depth at centre in the nba

raduljica is 4th option at center.

jokic
boban
milutinov
raduljica

Milutinov is 2nd option, he will get the most minutes against better teams, hes the best big defender on the Serbian squad and he can score,finish effectively, Marjanovic i Raduljica to me are part timers, made for the teams such as Angola and Philippines.

i was only talking about what option raduljica is but still... so far, after 1st game, milutinov is 3rd option. boban is far from part timer and your disrespect is real.

[Mirotic12]

For the complaints about Slovenia and Croatia not being in this tournament......obviously they are way better than several teams in the tournament. But there is an exaggeration about their cases.

With Slovenia, they won EuroBasket with a once in 100 years set of circumstances. It's highly unlikely they ever win any major tournament again, maybe not even getting a medal again. And no one seems to be aware that Dragic retired from their national team, he's always listed as one of their players. But he made it extremely clear he will never play for them again. He obviously realizes that 2017 EuroBasket was a fluke set of circumstances for them and that was the right time to quit.

As for Croatia...for the last 23 years they have always been two things...

1. One of the most talented teams in the world.

2. The biggest chokers and underachievers of any team in the world.

They have basically become a joke in European basketball at this point, with over 2 decades of underachieving and choke jobs. In theory, it would be great to have such a deep team in the tournament, but in reality, they are much like Italy of the last 12 years.....the pure definition of paper tigers.

[Bob8]

For the complaints about Slovenia and Croatia not being in this tournament......obviously they are way better than several teams in the tournament. But there is an exaggeration about their cases.

With Slovenia, they won EuroBasket with a once in 100 years set of circumstances. It's highly unlikely they ever win any major tournament again, maybe not even getting a medal again. And no one seems to be aware that Dragic retired from their national team, he's always listed as one of their players. But he made it extremely clear he will never play for them again. He obviously realizes that 2017 EuroBasket was a fluke set of circumstances for them and that was the right time to quit.

As for Croatia...for the last 23 years they have always been two things...

1. One of the most talented teams in the world.

2. The biggest chokers and underachievers of any team in the world.

They have basically become a joke in European basketball at this point, with over 2 decades of underachieving and choke jobs. In theory, it would be great to have such a deep team in the tournament, but in reality, they are much like Italy of the last 12 years.....the pure definition of paper tigers.

Like it or not Slovenia is European champion. Beating France, Greece, Latvia with KP in Qf, Spain with 7 Nba players in semis and Serbia in Final. Difficult to have more difficult road.

Even if we leave Dragic out, Slovenia couldn’t have Doncic, Omic(Randolph), Prepelic and Blazic because of the format and Z. Dragic because of the injury for Qualifiers. For a country with 2 mio people that’s a bit tooo much. Spain with 50 mio doesn’t have that problem of course.

[Mirotic12]

Like it or not Slovenia is European champion. Beating France, Greece, Latvia with KP in Qf, Spain with 7 Nba players in semis and Serbia in Final. Difficult to have more difficult road.

Even if we leave Dragic out, Slovenia couldn’t have Doncic, Omic(Randolph), Prepelic and Blazic because of the format and Z. Dragic because of the injury for Qualifiers. For a country with 2 mio people that’s a bit tooo much. Spain with 50 mio doesn’t have that problem of course.

For many years (until the NBA started controlling schedules) FIBA worked that way though. Just as an example, Greece won the 1987 EuroBasket and couldn't play at the 1988 Olympics.

I personally hate the qualifying windows, but the complaints are a bit too much in some cases I think. Basically, this awards the very deep teams, and the very weak teams, and crushes the in between teams.

Look at teams like Spain and Greece that have depth, because their national leagues are loaded with players based on domestic talent. They send B or C teams and dominated at the World Cup qualifiers.

Then you have teams with very little depth (Slovenia) get punished. It's not fair, as compared to much worse teams getting in from other regions, or to weaker European teams getting in (like Poland or whatever), but at the same time, the previous system wasn't really fair either.

A team like Slovenia could have 7 good players, or 4 good players in total, and have a chance at winning a major tournament, while a team like Lithuania or Greece could have 25-30 players that could contribute in a national team and not win a medal at the same tournament. Both ways are unfair to Europe, it is just that they changed it to be more fair to the teams with more depth.

The whole obvious real problem is FIBA has always been unfair to Europe as a region. Europe should always have the majority of the teams in the major tournaments, and instead they never do, in favor of 6-8 joke teams from weaker regions. They always choose marketing gimmicks over basketball level, and it's gotten progressively worse as the NBA has gotten more and more power in FIBA decision making.

But it wasn't at all fair either, when teams with depth up to 2 national teams deep, were put at even chances, or even sometimes less chances (if players didn't play and/or injuries) as some team like Finland. We actually had under the old system teams like Italy and Greece and Turkey being left out of tournaments for teams like Finland.........so actually the old system was even more unfair.

NBA marketing just sees "Lauri Markannen gets to play"........with zero regard as to Finland basketball as a whole being a joke compared to other countries that were getting left out. Hell, France had 10-15 NBA players for the last 15 years, and missed the Olympics more than once........precisely because of this kind of nonsense.

France, Serbia, Greece....missed the Olympics twice just in recent years. So the old system was objectively more unfair than the current one.

[Bob8]

For the complaints about Slovenia and Croatia not being in this tournament......obviously they are way better than several teams in the tournament. But there is an exaggeration about their cases.

With Slovenia, they won EuroBasket with a once in 100 years set of circumstances. It's highly unlikely they ever win any major tournament again, maybe not even getting a medal again. And no one seems to be aware that Dragic retired from their national team, he's always listed as one of their players. But he made it extremely clear he will never play for them again. He obviously realizes that 2017 EuroBasket was a fluke set of circumstances for them and that was the right time to quit.

As for Croatia...for the last 23 years they have always been two things...

1. One of the most talented teams in the world.

2. The biggest chokers and underachievers of any team in the world.

They have basically become a joke in European basketball at this point, with over 2 decades of underachieving and choke jobs. In theory, it would be great to have such a deep team in the tournament, but in reality, they are much like Italy of the last 12 years.....the pure definition of paper tigers.

Like it or not Slovenia is European champion. Beating France, Greece, Latvia with KP in Qf, Spain with 7 Nba players in semis and Serbia in Final. Difficult to have more difficult road.

Even if we leave Dragic out, Slovenia couldn’t have Doncic, Omic(Randolph), Prepelic and Blazic because of the format and Z. Dragic because of the injury for Qualifiers. For a country with 2 mio people that’s a bit tooo much. Spain with 50 mio doesn’t have that problem of course.

For many years (until the NBA started controlling schedules) FIBA worked that way though. Just as an example, Greece won the 1987 EuroBasket and couldn't play at the 1988 Olympics.

I personally hate the qualifiying windows, but the complaints are a bit too much in some cases I think. Basically, this awards the very deep teams, and the very weak teams, and crushes the in between teams.

Look at teams like Spain and Greece that have super depth, because their national leagues are loaded with players based on deomstic talent. They send B or C teams and dominated at the World Cup qualifiers.

Then you have teams with very little depth (Slovenia) get punished. It's not fair, as compared to much worse teams getting in from other regions, or to weaker European teams getting (like Poland or whatever), but at the same time, the previous system wasn't really fair either.

A team like Slovenia could have 7 good players, or 4 good players in total, and have a chance at winning a major tournament, while a team like Lithuania or Greece could have 25-30 players that could contribute in a national team and not win a medal at the same tournament. Both ways are unfair to Europe, it is just that they changed it to be more fair to to the teams with more depth.

The whole obvious real problem is FIBA has always been unfair to Europe as a region. Europe should always have the majority of the teams in the major tournaments, and instead they never do, in favor of 6-8 joke teams from weaker regions. They always choose marketing gimmicks or basketball level, and it's gotten progressively worse as the NBA has gotten more and more power in FIBA decision making.

But it wasn't at all fair either, when teams with depth up to 3 national teams deep, were put an even chances or even sometimes less chances (if players didn't play and/or injuries) as some team like Finland. We actually had under the old system teams like Italy and Greece and Turkey being left out of tournaments for teams like Finland.........so actually the old system was even more unfair.

Depth never wins you medal in tournament system. You need few stars and good role players.

The problem with windows is that the best couldn’t play even if they want. It’s like that qualifiers for WC or EC in football will be without best players and some of the best teams wouldn’t qualify. It’s impossible to see that. Even the biggest superstars like Messi and Ronaldo are playing those qualifiers. In basketball they cannot by default. And that’s unfair, wrong and incredibly stupid. You’re just making your product that less appealing.

Slovenia has 2 mio people and basketball in not sport number 1. They will never have depth like some others, but nevertheless they’re the champions.

[Mirotic12]

Depth never wins you medal in tournament system. You need few stars and good role players.

The problem with windows is that the best couldn’t play even if they want. It’s like that qualifiers for WC or EC in football will be without best players and some of the best teams wouldn’t qualify. It’s impossible to see that. Even the biggest superstars like Messi and Ronaldo are playing those qualifiers. In basketball they cannot by default.

I know, but what this strange windows system does do, is reward the country's with the best basketball systems. So it really showed how like Spain and Greece used B teams and dominated at the qualifiers, while Serbia (with less depth) was even having some problems.

Like I said, I don't like the windows, but there is something to reward the country's for their overall basketball system in how much players it produces and not just can it make 10 good players for a national team. For example, if Australia was placed in Europe, I doubt they even would have qualified. It definitely makes the main tournament worse, but it also shows some other countries that they have to improve their systems and infrastructure.

Slovenia 2nd team would have zero chance against 2nd teams of any other main European national team. But they look like a top 5 team in the world based on if you only consider tournaments under the old system. I love Doncic as a player and wish he was at this tournament, but Slovenia is always getting called one of the best European basketball countries in these forums, when in reality they are near the bottom in talent and depth.

So in a way, this stupid windows system is actually rewarding some teams it was punishing before. You can't ignore that Serbia, Greece and France missed 2 Olympics each just since 2004............under that old system. It was really unfair to some of the bigger basketball countries in Europe.

[Bob8]

Depth never wins you medal in tournament system. You need few stars and good role players.

The problem with windows is that the best couldn’t play even if they want. It’s like that qualifiers for WC or EC in football will be without best players and some of the best teams wouldn’t qualify. It’s impossible to see that. Even the biggest superstars like Messi and Ronaldo are playing those qualifiers. In basketball they cannot by default.

I know, but what this strange windows system does do, is reward the country's with the best basketball systems. So it really showed how like Spain and Greece used B teams and dominated at the qualifiers, while Serbia (with less depth) was even having some problems.

Like I said, I don't like the windows, but there is something to reward the country's for their overall basketball system in how much players it produces and not just can it make 10 good players for a national team. For example, if Australia was placed in Europe, I doubt they even would have qualified. It definitely makes the main tournament worse, but it also shows some other countries that they have to improve their systems and infrastructure.

Slovenia 2nd team would have zero chance against 2nd teams of any other main European national team. But they look like a top 5 team in the world based on if you only consider tournaments under the old system. I love Doncic as a player and wish he was at this tournament, but Slovenia is always getting called one of the best European basketball countries in these forums, when in reality they are near the bottom in talent and depth.

So in a way, this stupid windows system is actually rewarding some teams it was punishing before. You can't ignore that Serbia, Greece and France missed 2 Olympics each just since 2004............under that old system. It was really unfair to some of the bigger basketball countries in Europe.

Man, Slovenia with 2 mio people, wouldn’t have chance in any sport with that stupid system. They cannot play basketball, football, volleyball, handball, judo, skiing... without their 5 best players. That’s just the number game.

That untalented team is current champion btw.

[Mirotic12]

Man, Slovenia with 2 mio people, wouldn’t have chance in any sport with that stupid system. They cannot play basketball, football, volleyball, handball, judo, skiing... without their 5 best players. That’s just the number game.

That untalented team is current champion btw.

The point is, the old system put too much emphasis on having 4-5 good players perform well at one tournament. The new system sucks also, but let's not pretend the old system didn't - because it was awful for some ways also.

The old system guaranteed teams like Turkey, Italy, Serbia, France, Lithuania, Greece were missing multiple Olympics and/or World Cups, and that wasn't necessarily due to their poor performance (was for Italy), but mainly was just because there was no overall competitive system to over time judge the level of the countries. That's OK for Americas region, for Asia, and Africa - for Europe it was always a disaster.

Every time, only 12 teams in the Olympics (half of them terrible, 2-3 of them outright joke teams), and having Nigeria for example over Greece and Croatia that one year - I think it was 2012....probably the single biggest joke and embarrassment in the entire history of FIBA.

So yes, the new system sucks, but the whole approach they have sucks. And it also sucked before. They need to make lots of changes, and not just change it back, because the previous system was ridiculous also.

[FlatearthZorro]

US lack willing passers. Barnes, Brown, Tatum, Turner. Still waiting for them to pass out of a drive.

Imagine my shock.

*lobs grenade and runs*

Imagine my shock at a Nets fan hating on Celtics players after 1 official game.

[FlatearthZorro]

Tatum is such a creative driver but he does himself such a great disservice by not using fundamentals of the glass! Missed bunnies drive me crazy. Hopefully he learns quickly to get into using the glass habit.

You're right. He did miss at least 3 to 4 lay ups(super easy ones). Hopefully he will get it together for next game. I think he will make those if they come around again.

[BadWolf]

Mirotic, your argument is weird... Depth over top talent?

[Catchall]

This US team looks better coached and more disciplined than the USA team in London in 2012. If they have a weakness though it's rebounding. Again, they're soft at the 4, both defensively and on the boards. They may need to try a line-up with Turner and Plumlee on the floor together.

[Bob8]

I know, but what this strange windows system does do, is reward the country's with the best basketball systems. So it really showed how like Spain and Greece used B teams and dominated at the qualifiers, while Serbia (with less depth) was even having some problems.

Like I said, I don't like the windows, but there is something to reward the country's for their overall basketball system in how much players it produces and not just can it make 10 good players for a national team. For example, if Australia was placed in Europe, I doubt they even would have qualified. It definitely makes the main tournament worse, but it also shows some other countries that they have to improve their systems and infrastructure.

Slovenia 2nd team would have zero chance against 2nd teams of any other main European national team. But they look like a top 5 team in the world based on if you only consider tournaments under the old system. I love Doncic as a player and wish he was at this tournament, but Slovenia is always getting called one of the best European basketball countries in these forums, when in reality they are near the bottom in talent and depth.

So in a way, this stupid windows system is actually rewarding some teams it was punishing before. You can't ignore that Serbia, Greece and France missed 2 Olympics each just since 2004............under that old system. It was really unfair to some of the bigger basketball countries in Europe.

Man, Slovenia with 2 mio people, wouldn’t have chance in any sport with that stupid system. They cannot play basketball, football, volleyball, handball, judo, skiing... without their 5 best players. That’s just the number game.

That untalented team is current champion btw.

The point is, the old system put too much emphasis on having 4-5 good players perform well at one tournament. The new system sucks also, but let's not pretend the old system didn't - because it was awful for some ways also.

The old system guaranteed teams like Turkey, Italy, Serbia, France, Lithuania, Greece were missing multiple Olympics and/or World Cups, and that wasn't necessarily due to their poor performance (was for Italy), but mainly was just because their was no overall competitive system to over time judge the level of the countries. That's OK for Americas region, for Asia, and Africa - for Europe it was always a disaster.

12 teams in the Olympics and having Nigeria for example over Greece and Lithuania that one year - I think it was 2012....probably the single biggest joke and embarrassment in the entire history of FIBA.

I agree that Europe should have more teams in that kind of tournaments, but that’s not what we’re debating about. For me it’s incredible stupid that you have system which de facto prevents the best players of the national team to play for their national team. It’s obvious that small nations with few superstars will suffer the most. Spain with 25x more people will have always much bigger depth. But they have still lost by 20 in semis against Slovenia. Who cares that Spain B is much better than Slovenia B.

[Slartibartfast]

Nonsense, Germany doesn't have anybody decent beside Shroeder right now. Be truthful please.

Zipser, Theis, Kelber... They've got some solid players.

Not a first tier team but their roster is above average in this tournament.

Lol, definitely not above average.

USA, Serbia, Greece, France have the best overall talent, IMHO.

Then very close behind them I have Spain, Australia, Lithuania. Then Italy, Germany and Brazil.

I rank those 10 teams above the rest of the pack. NBA grade size/shooting/playmaking - each of those teams can claim those 3 qualities. After that it gets sketchy, tho maybe that's unfamiliarity talking.

[mixerball]

Like it or not Slovenia is European champion. Beating France, Greece, Latvia with KP in Qf, Spain with 7 Nba players in semis and Serbia in Final. Difficult to have more difficult road.

Even if we leave Dragic out, Slovenia couldn’t have Doncic, Omic(Randolph), Prepelic and Blazic because of the format and Z. Dragic because of the injury for Qualifiers. For a country with 2 mio people that’s a bit tooo much. Spain with 50 mio doesn’t have that problem of course.

Then you have teams with very little depth (Slovenia) get punished. It's not fair, as compared to much worse teams getting in from other regions, or to weaker European teams getting in (like Poland or whatever), but at the same time, the previous system wasn't really fair either.

A team like Slovenia could have 7 good players, or 4 good players in total, and have a chance at winning a major tournament, while a team like Lithuania or Greece could have 25-30 players that could contribute in a national team and not win a medal at the same tournament. Both ways are unfair to Europe, it is just that they changed it to be more fair to the teams with more depth.

France, Serbia, Greece....missed the Olympics twice just in recent years. So the old system was objectively more unfair than the current one.

this makes no sense. the old system was more unfair? where is your logic?
lets see who has a better B or C team so an A team can battle it out in the tournament?