It's nearing a conclusion, but I figured I'd start a thread. The world champions won't be the European champions, as Lithuania upset Serbia and Montenegro, who were without injured Peja Stojakovic. No doubt this will infuriate some around the NBA who will not unerstand how players can be put at such risk for meaningless "exhibitions." Here's what's happened thus far: Final group Standings: Group A 1. France 2. Slovenia 3. Italy 4 Bosnia & Herzegovina Group B 1 Lithuania 2 Germany 3 Israel 4 Latvia Group C 1 Spain 2 Russia 3 Serbia and Montenegro 4 Sweden Group D 1 Greece 2 Turkey 3 Croatia 4 Ukraine Knock out round Russia 81-77 Croatia Israel 78-76 Slovenia S&M 80-76 Turkey Italy 86-84 Germany Quarters Lithuania 98-82 S&M France76-69 Russia tomorrow Greece - Italy Spain - Israel
Gotta love any country that's abbreviated S&M. What is the knockout round format--2nd and 3rd place teams advance to a playoff, and group winners advance to the quarters? Greece-Italy should be a tight game. Is Gasol playing for Spain? How many of Israel's players are actual Israelis and how many are American Jews?
Well, that's how I abbreviated it anyway. But they're asking for it with such a long name. Looks like group winners advanced to the quarters, with 2nd and 3rd place teams playing each other to also qualify for the quarters. Italy's scores from the group stage were crap. France pummeled them and Slovenia beat them by 9 or so. They only advanced by beating Bosnia. They did beat Nowitzski and Germany to advance further, but they're still a 6.5 point underdog against Greece. Gasol is playing and evidently playing well, though I can't find any box scores. He had 20 points and 6 rebounds against S&M and 35 points (31 in the first half!) when they beat Russia 89-77. No idea.
Now all we need is for Herzigovina to split from Bosnia, and for the latter to join together with the Croatian providence of Dalmatia to form a new country. Italy and Greece are interesting since they have arguably the top 2 domestic leagues in Europe, but neither one has very many players playing in the NBA. How is France so good? They only have 2 or 3 players in the NBA (only one of whom, Parker, is really a big name), and you don't hear as much about their domestic league as you do about Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain, and even Germany. It always surprises me that Israel can't get together a better team in sports like this. American Jews might not help them that much in soccer or basketball, but you can't tell me that they couldn't get together a team that could qualify and even do well in Olympic baseball and ice hockey (especially hockey, since a good percentage of Jews in the US live in the northeast, and there's also a good number in Canada). There's gotta be 18 American and Canadian Jews out there playing in the North American pro leagues (probably some in the NHL, the rest in the AHL and other minor leagues) who can put together a team capable of beating Japan.
Italy 62-59 Greece A big upset. I believe now that the semifinals will be France v Lithuania and Spain v Italy. A Spain v France final is looking likely.
They have 4 NBA guys: Tony Parker (total stud), Jerome Moiso (Hornets), Boris Diaw (Hawks draft pick), and Tariq Abdul-Wahad (Mavs). I don't know much about France, but Gonzaga forward and legit NBA prospect Ronny Turiaf is having trouble getting minutes. Turiaf's no lottery pick, and he's a bit raw, but can dominate down low on both ends. If France has guys good enough to keep him on the bench, they must be pretty good players.
France is also missing Mickael Pietrus (Warriors lottery pick) and Antoine Rigaudeau (I guess 91 minutes with the Mavs is an NBA career)...they could field at least six guys with NBA experience in Athens next year. I don't think the Israeli team has any American Jews. They do have an American, Derrick Sharp, who has played with Maccabi Tel Aviv for a long time and gotten naturalized citizenship. The official tournament website http://www.eurobasket2003.com has live stats of all the games and boxscores. http://www.fiba.com also has stats and scores.
Changed his name...when he played at Michigan and San Jose State he was known as Olivier St. John. Not sure if he was raised Muslim or converted.
Semifinal results: Lithuania 74, France 70 Spain 81, Italy 79 Spain-Lithuania will play for the championship. Italy-France will battle for 3rd place and the last European slot in the Olympics.
Wizards property Juan Carlos Navarro with 21 points in the second half...they should really look into bringing him over. I think he just signed a new multi-year contract with Barcelona though. Rooting for France in the third-place game...think they have more potential to do well in Athens.
Italy 69 France 67 in the third-place game...Parker led France back from a 12-point deficit but was the goat at the end, with a key turnover, missed FT, and missed the tying shot at the buzzer.
So France won't be in the Olympics. So we got S&M, Lithunia, Spain, Italy, and Greece as European represantatives., right???