Isaac
Years ago

Slovenia wins Eurobasket

Slovenia beat Serbia 93-85 for gold. Spain won over Russia with the same scoreline for bronze.

Goran Dragic had 35 points and 7 rebounds to lead the team in his final international game. Bogdanovic had 22 for Serbia. Dragic won Eurobasket MVP. All-Star Five was Goran Dragic, Alexey Shved, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Luka Doncic, Pau Gasol.

Not bad for a couple of little countries. Slovenia's population is 2 million. Serbia's is 7 million. (Spain 46m and Russia 144m.)

Cue regular "imagine a unified Yugoslavian team" discussion...

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Too bad it was won by cheating the system.

They gave Anthony Randoloph a passport when he had no connection to the country at all. Never even played in Slovenia.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

There is NO cheating the system dear. System ALLOWS it and many use it. Randolph was not instrumental in this tournament, Slovenia played the critical end of the game with Doncic (injury) and Dragic on the bench. Hugely deserved. And another display of "offense wins championships" despite the BS that suggests otherwise.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Yes but the naturalised player rule needs to be looked at when it comes to naturalising players with ZERO links too that country.

A good win however and nice to see a new winner of the tournament.

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ringlord  
Years ago

Great win for a little country,Doncic is the new Drazen Petrovic.

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anon  
Years ago

As a proud Serbian I agree with Anon #052 above. Hugely deserved from Slovenia. The fact of the matter is, despite this being Serbia's 3rd string lineup, the score was 82-82 with a couple of minutes to play and 2 FTs for Serbia. Cue 2 missed FTs and an 8-0 run from Slovenia and that's game.

I quite enjoyed this year's EuroBasket. Some really big performances (not to mention excellent basketball) from teams like Hungary, Finland, heck even Georgia beating Lithuania.

It makes me wonder why Australia doesn't organise more friendlies with European teams?? Surely it would be a better indicator of relative strength than continually beating up on China and NZ.

As far as Serbia goes, despite what the official rankings may say being #2 in the world ain't bad for a small nation ;)

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Was it really their third string lineup? Doubt it.

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anon  
Years ago


Outs: Jokic, Bjelica, Teodosic, Nedovic, Kalinic, Raduljica, Simonovic.

I guess we are just that deep. My dream is to see us beat a full or semi full-strength USA roster in my lifetime. Probably won't happen tho

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Roofman  
Years ago

Anon, 109, I'm assuming you immigrated to Oz in the last few years. We had the Soviet Union come here in 1987 and 1988 (maybe you do remember). The issue now is that with the Euroleague, regional leagues (VTB, Adriatic League etc) plus domestic championship, most European leagues run into June, leaving absolutely no time for tours and fairly limited tournament preparation time.

As for ins and outs, didn't you also have Boban Marjanovic and Micic to ease the blow a little? Talk on Interbasket stated that Boban previously missed NT commitments because of trying to find an NBA foothold and that didn't endear him to Djordevic.

Call it semantics, but Australia's FIBA Asia Cup team was third string, where perhaps only one of Newley/Creek, MacCarron and Hodgson may make a full stength side given team needs. I'd have you at a second string plus.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

I think Australia is also trending to being the one who can knock off the US if our momentum continues. Exciting times.

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Isaac  
Years ago

Australia might want to play friendlies with Euro teams, but I imagine those Euro teams already have enough demand within Europe including weaker nations, and then even African teams?

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anon  
Years ago

#118 Bit longer than that but the Soviet Union was before my time. That's an interesting titbit though. Boban is a beast, but when you're that big it can be tough. He can't move his feet on D and doesn't really have much of a post-game to speak of, he just turns and fires. Great touch for a giant though. As for Micic, he's a junior team star but this was his first run with the seniors.

On that note, Australia's 3rd team absolutely dominated Asia. Those games weren't even close. That team could've had no basketball talent and still won each game by 10-20.

I for one am glad to see an increasingly globalist trend in the world of basketball. The rest of the world is catching up. I project that an almost-full strength USA team will be beaten by someone in the next...10 years. Big call but Australia hung with them admirably during the Olympics.

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Zodiac  
Years ago

Try and watch this clip without a tear coming to your eye, Goran Dragic presented with Drazen Petrovic's Nets singlet.

http://nba.nbcsports.com/2017/09/19/goran-dragic-holds-back-tears-after-drazen-petrovics-mother-gives-slovenian-star-his-jersey/

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Freethrows  
Years ago

Surely it won't take ten years for a full strength USA team to get beaten. I'd be surprised if it doesn't happen at the next Olympics.

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Anon  
Years ago

Seeing Goran get Petrovics singlet was the highlight for sure.

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