FIBA WORLD CUP 2019 | SPAIN are new WORLD CHAMPIONS

[Inspektor1312]

People here are seriously underestimating this USA team. They are probably the worst US team talent-wise since 2002, but they are still clear cut favorites in my opinion. And I'm not liking all this Serbia hype, I hope coach Djordjevic is not letting the players think that they're already in the finals, anything can happen in an elimination game.

[dodongo]

I think the calls are like 3\5 in favour of Serbia, so I can't really complain about that ))
The spd was -35,5 when it came out on bwin, -36,5 when I bought it (x1,833) and -38,5 before the game started, so seems aight, but who knows. I totally don't expect pinoys to play their 3rd unit and Serbia might do that as soon as the end of the 3rd.

Just, our secound unit is still strong. Boban didn't entered the game at all.

I just cant figure it out how Phillippines can't be better at basketball? As I heard they like it really much, and have population around 104 millions. Maybe size and athletic disadvantages, really don't know...

We got around 7 million people and played last 3 finals of most important competitions.

Their excuse is that they are short, but its hard for me to believe that they have less basketball size people than lets say Slovenia or Lithuania, countries with literally 100X lesser populations. Their domestic league is absolutely terrible, could be worst professional league first division in the entire world, doesnt look professional whatsoever if you watch it.

Not trying to defend my country or anything (TBH, I hate most of the people here... a big chunk of the people here are the kind of people who defend Gilas after the brawl and who voted for and defend anything Duterte does.). And I rarely watch the PBA.

But this mainly stems from the massive corruption in the country. Most of the people are in poverty and have more pressing needs than sports. There is a lack of infrastructure, im pretty sure most children are malnourished, no proper programs outside a handful of major cities and mostly just available to the privileged.

Just to give you an idea how bad it is, our best player the #15 guy and most likely will end up PBA GOAT, June Mar Fajardo, was only discovered when he was in his 20s. A 6'10 guy, where 6'6 Centers is the norm didn't even get any attention from any of the major schools in Manila. (College basketball is huge here too).

The PBA is really just a glorified corporate league. Heck, the names of the teams are just brands. A handful of owners own more than one team and trades are often obviously rigged in favor of the bigger name teams.

[LuDux1]

"Detroit Pistons" took place of better team based on purpose of "inclusion"

What?

They're Angola of NBA playoffs

[gh123]

Bet Czech to win both halves and Montenegro to win. Another express is on Lithuania -7,5 (Canada is trash) and USA -20,5 although I hesitated on the last one, coz turks are pretty solid and the US don't look scary.

[Pachinko_]

Not trying to defend my country or anything (TBH, I hate most of the people here... a big chunk of the people here are the kind of people who defend Gilas after the brawl and who voted for and defend anything Duterte does.). And I rarely watch the PBA.

But this mainly stems from the massive corruption in the country. Most of the people are in poverty and have more pressing needs than sports. There is a lack of infrastructure, im pretty sure most children are malnourished, no proper programs outside a handful of major cities and mostly just available to the privileged.

Just to give you an idea how bad it is, our best player the #15 guy and most likely will end up PBA GOAT, June Mar Fajardo, was only discovered when he was in his 20s. A 6'10 guy, where 6'6 Centers is the norm didn't even get any attention from any of the major schools in Manila. (College basketball is huge here too).

The PBA is really just a glorified corporate league. Heck, the names of the teams are just brands. A handful of owners own more than one team and trades are often obviously rigged in favor of the bigger name teams.

Yes but you always have Efren Reyes and Manny Pacquiao
IMO the main thing about basketball is to play it and watch it, that's where most of the fun is anyway.
Keep hooping

[Chuck Diesel]

You can compare the talent on the roster of this 2019 team to the 6th place 2002 squad, but the USA Basketball staff, infrastructure and detailed knowledge of the opposition is night and day. Back then the NBA dudes had no idea about their FIBA opponents. Now there’s a lot of awareness and respect.

[Pachinko_]

Never underestimate Pop. He's not just a top NBA coach but he's also been following Int'l basketball closely and in person for decades.

[rale93lfc]

Good stuff ))
What have you got for tomorrow? I'm thinking Lithuania +7,5 should be fine and Turkey +21,5 ain't bad either. NZ vs Montenegro +3,5 on Zealand seems reasonable and maybe Czech -7,5 against Japan.

Congratz, easy win on Serbia

Be aware of Montenegro. I think they will beat NZ. Lithuania looks ok and USA also. Czech, they played pretty solid agains USA. Pass them, I think they will beat Japan easily. Rui Hachimura can't do all the stuff alone.

Rui got schooled by old Ilyasova last game )) And yeah, they did look solid, Japan not so much, even though Turkey are about average themselves. Montenegro I don't know, they're weird, might blow easy games when you don't expect. If NZ gets it going from distance I think they can be super close, like 1-3 points difference, which is enough.

Bet anything? Pass Montenegro, I insist on that one. They got enough talent to blow NZ. Maybe I will be wrong, but I have some feeling it will be easy win for Montenegro.

[The Rodzilla]

my feelings are Senegal are going to have a hard time trying to stop the delly

[rale93lfc]

my feelings are Senegal are going to have a hard time trying to stop the delly

Want you all to take a look at Jock Landale. Since he played in my favorite team last season, I watched almost every game. Pretty talented strech center with ability to pass the ball nicely.

[The Rodzilla]

my feelings are Senegal are going to have a hard time trying to stop the delly

Want you all to take a look at Jock Landale. Since he played in my favorite team last season, I watched almost every game. Pretty talented strech center with ability to pass the ball nicely.

yes he is a good finisher and i predict some highlight plays between him and delly

this is a great chance for senegal basketball to get crushed by 40pts and learn

[rale93lfc]

my feelings are Senegal are going to have a hard time trying to stop the delly

Want you all to take a look at Jock Landale. Since he played in my favorite team last season, I watched almost every game. Pretty talented strech center with ability to pass the ball nicely.

yes he is a good finisher and i predict some highlight plays between him and delly

this is a great chance for senegal basketball to get crushed by 40pts and learn

Don't think it will be that high margin, but I rate australia one of the biggest contenders to Serbia and USA. Would love to see AUS - USA semi final.

[The Rodzilla]

ingles looks asleep so delly had to get in there and yell at them

[Nuntius]

I think the calls are like 3\5 in favour of Serbia, so I can't really complain about that ))
The spd was -35,5 when it came out on bwin, -36,5 when I bought it (x1,833) and -38,5 before the game started, so seems aight, but who knows. I totally don't expect pinoys to play their 3rd unit and Serbia might do that as soon as the end of the 3rd.

Just, our secound unit is still strong. Boban didn't entered the game at all.

I just cant figure it out how Phillippines can't be better at basketball? As I heard they like it really much, and have population around 104 millions. Maybe size and athletic disadvantages, really don't know...

We got around 7 million people and played last 3 finals of most important competitions.

Their excuse is that they are short, but its hard for me to believe that they have less basketball size people than lets say Slovenia or Lithuania, countries with literally 100X lesser populations.

You'd think but when you take a look at the actual players in their league you'll see that one of the most dominant Centers to ever play in the PBA is Asi Taulava, standing at 6'9. At 6'9 he towered over most of his competition and he was able to average a double-double even when he was 43 years old.

Being short isn't an excuse. It's a reality for Filipinos. The average male height in the Philippines is 5'4, one of the lowest in the world. On the other hand, the average male height in Lithuania and Slovenia is 5'10 and 5'11 respectively -> https://ourworldindata.org/human-height

That is an extremely significant difference. It doesn't matter if the Philippines have 100 million people if only 1% of them is tall enough to play basketball.

Here's another way to look at it. Let's use 6'6 as our guideline. We agree that 6'6 is a pretty average size for basketball, right? There is a site that calculates height percentile. It has the data for the average height in a country, it has the standard deviation in height (based on CDC and WHO numbers) and all you have to input is the height and the country -> https://tall.life/height-percentile-calculator-age-country/

If we input 6'6 in Slovenia, we'll see that the person in question would be in the 99.174 percentile. He would obviously be considered tall and only 1 in 121 would be taller than him. The total male population of Slovenia is 960,076 (data based on this -> https://www.indexmundi.com/slovenia/demographics_profile.html ). 960,076/121 equals 7,934 people. That's the pool of 6'6+ people that Slovenia has. About 8k.

If we do the same for Lithuania, we'll see that the person in question would be in the 99.751 percentile. He would be obviously be considered tall and only 1 in 401 would be taller than him. The total male population of Lithuania is 1,301,923 (data based on this -> https://www.indexmundi.com/lithuania/demographics_profile.html ). 1,301,923/401 equals 3,246 people. That's the pool of 6'6+ people that Lithuania has. It's about half the pool that Slovenia has.

Now, let's do the same for the Philippines. A 6'6 guy in the Philippines would be considered extremely tall and he'd be in the 100th percentile. Only 1 in 2,055,057 would be taller than him. Yes, 1 in a bit more than 2 million. That's how rare it is to find someone above 6'6 in the Philippines. The total male population of the Philippines is 52,336,902. 52,336,902/2,055,057 equals 25,5 people. That's the pool of players taller than 6'6 that the Philippines have. Yes, that pool is less than 26 people.

If we do the exact same thing for the Philippines but instead of 6'6 we look at 6'8, we will see that only 1 in 83,987,084 are taller than 6'8. And yes, that number is higher than the total male population of the Philippines. This means that there are basically no males in the Philippines that are 6'9. None. Zero. That's why Asi Taulava (that is actually half-Tongan which explains why he's taller than the average Filipino) was able to tower over everybody else and average a double-double at age 42. There was literally no other player that could match his height. And that height was 6'9, not 7'1.

I agree with you that the level of the PBA is not very high. That's true. But to say that height is an excuse that Filipinos use is just not true. The pool of people that are actually tall enough to play basketball (above 6 foot) is exceedingly small and countries like Slovenia and Lithuania definitely have a much bigger pool of tall players to choose from.

[rale93lfc]

That's some pretty depth analysis and a good one.

But what I saw from game vs Serbia, even the small guards was not that good.

[gh123]

Congratz, easy win on Serbia

Be aware of Montenegro. I think they will beat NZ. Lithuania looks ok and USA also. Czech, they played pretty solid agains USA. Pass them, I think they will beat Japan easily. Rui Hachimura can't do all the stuff alone.

Rui got schooled by old Ilyasova last game )) And yeah, they did look solid, Japan not so much, even though Turkey are about average themselves. Montenegro I don't know, they're weird, might blow easy games when you don't expect. If NZ gets it going from distance I think they can be super close, like 1-3 points difference, which is enough.

Bet anything? Pass Montenegro, I insist on that one. They got enough talent to blow NZ. Maybe I will be wrong, but I have some feeling it will be easy win for Montenegro.

My main bet is Montenegro just win and Czech to win 1st half and Full time.
My 2nd bet Lithuania -7,5 and USA-20,5.
And my fun bet (10$) includes 4 matches, one of each is Senegal+37,5 lol, going well.

[rale93lfc]

My main bet is Montenegro just win and Czech to win 1st half and Full time.
My 2nd bet Lithuania -7,5 and USA-20,5.
And my fun bet (10$) includes 4 matches, one of each is Senegal+37,5 lol, going well.

What a bad officiating in Montenegro game...

[gh123]

My main bet is Montenegro just win and Czech to win 1st half and Full time.
My 2nd bet Lithuania -7,5 and USA-20,5.
And my fun bet (10$) includes 4 matches, one of each is Senegal+37,5 lol, going well.

What a bad officiating in Montenegro game...

This is gg my 100 bucks, damn it.

[rale93lfc]

Its only first half, still time to turn it around. But bad aproach by Montenegro.

[gh123]

Its only first half, still time to turn it around. But bad aproach by Montenegro.

I'm reading Montenegro are super bad, no wonder they got raped by Greece... At least my other stuff is going well so far.