Basketball - European championship 2009.

#1
European championship in basketball starts today in Poland. This is probably going to be the "weakest" competition in last 10 years, since lot of NBA players won't show up(Dirk, Peja, Gordon, Deng, Kirilenko, Okur...). Most of the NBA players are going to play for Spain and France, so to my opinion, those 2 are the main favorites this time. Greece is also close to them.

Once again, I gotta say how disappointed I am with the fact that there are no NBA players in Serbian team other than Nenad Krstic. After we lost on EC in Serbia 2005 with NBA players, not one coach wants to bring all of them back on the team because of their personall missunderstandings.
If we went to Poland with Peja, Vlad Radmanovic, Pavlovic, Milicic, Jaric and Krstic, alongside with Rakocevic and this other guys, I am sure we would dominate. Life goes on, maybe this players reach the NBA soon and we again have strong team. Serbia is playing against Spain today and it's the highlight of this 1st day.

More about EC
http://www.nba.com/2009/news/09/06/eurobasket.ap/index.html
http://www.eurobasket2009.org/
 
#2
Game on!

I have to say that I am very excited as the EC began! Just hope I will find some time to visit the venue in person.

I agree that it is a shame that some NBA names will not be attending. Do not agree that this is the weakest competition though. It is the first EC that has 8 legitimate teams combating for the medals.

I am very disappointed that Beno will not play but... life is a....

Slovenija, Slovenija, Slovenija....
 
#3
OK. Slovenia won.

I have to admit that the Brits showed a great game. With Deng and Gordon they will be a team that can surprise anyone in the Olympics.

And Erazem Lorbek is a beast. I am sure that Pacers are drooling watching him and wanting him to come to NBA asap.
 
#4
Serbia has +15 against Spain, it's half-time. To be honest, I don't think anyone expected this, but this Serbian team is playing really well. Rudy is not playing for Spain, that deffinitely has impact on their bad performance.
Gvucko we are playing against you on Wednesday 6:15 pm, right?
 
#5
Also, still no upsets in 1st round. France won against Germany 70-65. Parker's stats is 19/6/4 and Turiaf had 15 pts and 14 rebs. Impressive.
Why there's no Casspi on Izrael team?
 

piksi

Hall of Famer
#6
What a great game kids played today. It is ALWAYS great beating spain in anything. It was a pleasure to wach gasol shoot 1-9 from the line. Macvan was awesome today. Natural born leader we didn't have since Bodiroga. The way he was abusing high school kids in the Nike Hoop Summit game was impressive but today he played against man and was clutch and clutch again.
 
#7
What a great game kids played today. It is ALWAYS great beating spain in anything. It was a pleasure to wach gasol shoot 1-9 from the line. Macvan was awesome today. Natural born leader we didn't have since Bodiroga. The way he was abusing high school kids in the Nike Hoop Summit game was impressive but today he played against man and was clutch and clutch again.
Macvan and Krstic were the best players on Serbian team IMO. Krstic totally stopped Gasol. Although, Pau has that finger injured, I guess that's why his shooting from the line was awful.
Anyway, Spain is still favorite NO1, but I think we proved today that we are coming back.
 

piksi

Hall of Famer
#10
You have a better team but You will never again hit so many shots in a single game. 17 hrs between games weren't enough for us. I hope we meet again in this tournament. I wan't aware Erazem Lorbek has the LBj status by the referees.
 
#11
I am not gonna watch Euro this time - very weak tournament :( No major stars.

I am watching football tomorrow (or today in Europe) :D -

Serbia - France
England - Croatia
Italy - Bulgaria

I hope I will be able to watch all 3 games. May be also Wales - Russia, if I have time. Ok, it is a basketball thread, just wanted to share :)
 
#12
Spain just lost to Turkey. I am really surprised how good Turkey is right now, I guess they are going to be even more stronger next year when World championship is going to be held over there.
I am dissapointed by Spain, I really thought they are going to show the best basketball this year, but right now, they really don't look good.
 
#13
First of all I am Turkish.

Spain being the last champions in the world cup, I was afraid before the game. Their track record for this tournament is not good but they are frikking Spain after all, but after this game, I think this team is imploding.

It was a good game and we had a good win,especially when hedo was a non-factor due to a knee injury.

A link from the official tournament site:

http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/coid_Es3N-kvZG9sefgiPJA5hI1.articleMode_on.html
 
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#14
Results from last night (14.09.09)

Spain 84-70 Lithuania
Slovenia 76-60 Poland
Serbia 64-69 Turkey (OT)

Group standings (2nd round)

Group E
1. France 4/0
2. Greece 3/1
3. Russia 2/2
4. Croatia 1/3
5. Germany 1/3
6. F.Y.R. of Macedonia 1/3

Group F
1. Turkey 4/0
2. Slovenia 3/1
3. Spain 2/2
4. Serbia 2/2
5. Poland 1/3
6. Lithuania 0/4
 
#16
Serbian guys chocked a little bit. Bjelica for example... one day everybody on the tournament is saying that he's gonna be a major NBA star and tomorrow he takes the air-ball in the last seconds. It was a flash back moment last night, Bjelica= Peja in the finals 2002.:)

Btw. Was Hedo really shooting 1-16 from the field?!
 
#17
not only hedo was 1/16 but omer asik was also 1/10 from the line. hedo has a problem with the knee they say, hope nothing serious.

last ball in the regulation was a beauty though it did not score.

OT score serbia 0, turkey 5.
 
#18
It's now safe to say that the biggest surprise of Eurobasket 2009. is Milos Teodosic, Olympiakos point guard!
Not only he was terrific against Turkey, when he scored a clutch 3 pointer and forced overtime, but today he scored 20 points, had 4 rebs and 12 asists against Lithuania. We should replace Beno with him right now:D

Jokes aside, Serbia won against Lithuania 89-79 and clinched 3rd place in group F, so we are playing against Russia tomorrow in quarter finals.
Spain is now playing against the host - Poland in a game which will decide who goes to 1/4 finals and who goes home.
 
#19
Jokes aside, Serbia won against Lithuania 89-79 and clinched 3rd place in group F, so we are playing against Russia tomorrow in quarter finals.
Spain is now playing against the host - Poland in a game which will decide who goes to 1/4 finals and who goes home.
Serbia should beat Russia because I heard the Russians have a weak team this time. And Spain should destroy Poland IMO.

And tell me, please, how is my Germany? :)
 
#20
You didn't watch them?
They had "must win" match yesterday against Croatia, and Croats won 70-68 by scoring a 3 pointer in last second.
I am really sorry that Dirk refused to play this year, because with him, Germany would be real contender. Do you know by any chance if he's going to play for the national team in the future or he's done?
 
#21
You didn't watch them?
They had "must win" match yesterday against Croatia, and Croats won 70-68 by scoring a 3 pointer in last second.
I am really sorry that Dirk refused to play this year, because with him, Germany would be real contender. Do you know by any chance if he's going to play for the national team in the future or he's done?
No, I am not watching them this time. It is tough to follow Eurobasket championships in NA.

As far as I know Dirk always wanna play for Germany but the problem is that Cuban is TOTALLY against it. So, it is up to the owner now because it seems like Dirk does not want to argue with him about it. I have not been to Germany for 2 years, so I have info only from the Internet. I guess local people know much more about it.
 
#22
Russia is no longer European champion! They were defeated in quarter finals against Serbia today and won't be able to defend their gold medal from 2007. Serbia is going to play against Slovenia or Croatia.
Derby match is up today, Spain vs. France. Gasol, Fernandez, Rubio vs. Parker, Diaw, Pietrus. Too bad that one of those teams won't reach the semi-finals and therefore won't be able to play on World championship next year.
 
#23
20:4 in second quarter... that's how you win. Let's hope they keep this trend going. All we need is one bonafide "star" that will keep showing up day in and day out to complete this team. Bodiroga is not too old someone call him!!
 
#25
turkey against greece

god help us tonight. I am very pessimistic about this game.
one side of me whispers "we beat serbia and spain, we can beat greece", the other side says "do you hear what you say, this is greece".
I tell to both of them "shut the @^#& up, I am trying to sleep" .
 
#26
Mito, I thought your coach is going to get a heart attack tonight when Hedo missed that shot in the end:) A guy was sooo pissed.
You had 9 second and the ball and Arslan took a shot from 9 meters. Why?!

Anyway, I don't see Greece in the final. Spain is already there if they continue to play so good.
 
#28
A thriller in the semifinals, one point separating Slo and Ser 5 minutes to go. God I am nervous. I wish Beno was on the court (yes you heard me right).
 
#29
That was the best game ever. Serbia won behind a great Teodosić. He wen't 4/4 for three in overtime. Still the game was close till the end.

Congrats to Serbia! Hope this team stays together for years to come (they are 22 years old on average)!

Congrats to Slovenian team as well. They really steeped together despite all the injuries problems. Hope will be "fully stocked" on next year on the world championship in Turkey.
 

piksi

Hall of Famer
#30
We have a new Bodiroga finally. It is beyond crazy that we made it into finals. Beyond crazy. We are so back and even if we lose by 50 tomorrow it is fine.

Slovenia would have deserved it too but they were to hurt and too tired. They have a better team, better players, great coach and they made some crazy shots but we had bigger heart and bigger balls at the end. Jaka Lakovic played way too much and tonight he paid the price for it. Erazem Lorbek is a phenomenal player.

Hope - Slovenia wins the bronze.