Basketball wc 2006.

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GOOOO GREECE! Seriously, this is a sport we could do well at. We recently won Euro Basket so I have good faith in the Hellenic boys. I wonder if they'll be showing the matches on television and if so I'll definitely be watching them! Thanks so much for making this thread Hormiga :).

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Well, what a suprise...no British team! :rolleyes:

:lol:

Seriously, I have no idea who to support - I don't know anything about any of the teams :eek:

There used to be one time though, some years ago now, when I watched the American basketball games on TV. I started getting quite into it at one point, and even picked up most of the rules pretty quick (quite a feat for me! :lol: ).

I thought it was a cool game :D still do, actually...

I'll have to do some more reading up on this :)
 
Spain got a very good team,we have Pau Gasol that plays in the Memphis Grizzlies,he was the first European to be named rookie of the year in the NBA and we have Calderón who plays for the Toronto Raptors.
I think we're gonna do it quite well.
 
I am so into this! (Well, I run a fansite for Dirk Nowitzki and naturally I will be cheering for Team Deutschland...)

Greece, as the Euro champs last year, has to be considered one of the faves...but then, there's also Argentina (2004 Olympic gold), Italy (2004 silver), Lithuania (damn near wrested the bronze from the USA in '04), France (always fields a strong team), New Zealand (Cinderella 4th placers in '02), and whoever the USA can patch together and try to coach...After the Americans' dismal 6th place finish in Indianapolis in 2002, all bets are off...Brazil, Spain and China all also generally manage to field strong teams.

The primo matchup, however, should the victories dictate, will be Germany - USA...Dirk Nowitzki vs Dwyane Wade, a rematch of the NBA Finals. Dirk will be out for some SERIOUS payback. And never underestimate Germany - they blew everyone's minds and took the Euro silver last year. The core players will be back, and apparently Adi Okulaja is healthy this time, so...I have an idea they'll at least medal (as they did in '02), or at the very least play spoiler...in a pre-Olympic exhibition game in '04, Germany came within an Allen Iverson buzzer-beater of defeating the US...GREAT game...

My money for the gold? I can't decide between Greece and Argentina. Are the Greeks' core players from last year all back?
 
I'm pretty sure Dimitrios Diamantidis will be back for the tourney but until the full squad is posted up then I can't say for sure. I believe my hometown of Vancouver BC will be hosting the FIBA U19 or U18 championship. That should be great!

*eta* Never mind, I just found this:

Greek preliminary squad:

1. Theodoros Papaloukas, guard, CSKA Moscow, 8/5/77, 2m
2. Vasilis Spanoulis, guard, Panathianikos, 7/8/82, 1.92cm
3. Nikos Zizis, guard, Benetton, 16/8/83, 1.97cm
4. Panagiotis Vasilopoulos, forward, Olympiacos, 8/2/84, 2.03cm
5. Yannis Bourousis, center, Olympiacos, 17/11/83, 2.11cm
6. Antonis Fotsis, forward, Dinamo Moscow, 01/04/81, 2.08cm
7. Nikos Hatzivrettas, guard, Panathinaikos, 26/5/77, 1.96cm
8. Dimos Dikoudis, center, Valencia, 24/6/77, 2.06cm
9. Kostas Tsartsaris, forward, Panathinaikos, 17/10/79, 2.10cm
10. Dimitris Diamantidis, guard, Panathinaikos, 6/5/80, 1.98cm
11. Lazaros Papadopoulos, center, Dinamo Moscow, 3/6/80, 2.12cm
12. Michalis Kakiouzis, forward, Barcelona, 29/11/76, 2.07
13. Andreas Gliniadakis, center, NBDL, 26/8/81, 2.16
14. Manolis Papamakarios, guard, Olympiacos, 26/8/80, 1.90cm
15. Sofoklis Schortsianitis, center, Olympiacos, 2/6/80, 2.08cm
16. Michalis Pelekanos, forward, AEK Athens, 25/5/81, 1.97cm
17. Alexis Kyritzis, guard, Maroussi, 18/5/82, 1.95cm
18. Loukas Mavrokefalidis, center, 25/7/84, 2.07cm
 
korbjaeger said:
My money for the gold? I can't decide between Greece and Argentina.
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I've always thought that in the basketball wc they only play for the silver and the bronze as the gold is so obviously for USA as they play in other galaxy. ;)
 
Hormiga said:
korbjaeger said:
My money for the gold? I can't decide between Greece and Argentina.
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I've always thought that in the basketball wc they only play for the silver and the bronze as the gold is so obviously for USA as they play in other galaxy. ;)
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You're being ironic, right? Because, well, history and fact haven't backed that up lately. In 2002 the US finished 6th, behind Yugoslavia, now known as Serbia-Montenegro (gold), Argentina (silver), Germany (bronze), New Zealand and, if I remember right, Italy (not sure on that fifth place). At the '04 Olympics, they barely squeaked through with the bronze medal behind Argentina (gold) and Italy (silver). Lithuania put up a heck of a fight but ended up fourth.

There's a reason for all this. The national teams of these other countries are established teams that play together every summer after a full pro season of their guys playing on various teams in Euroleague or another FIBA-endorsed professional league. Not as heavy as an 82+ game NBA schedule, but they don't sit around all year. They come back in in the summer, same coach (usually), same core squad, pride in playing for their country. The USA had the upper hand for a long time because, frankly, back then they HAD a "Dream Team", the best players under a capable coach. The past few years? It's been like pulling hen's teeth to get guys to play. American NBA players wanted the summer off. Owners were loathe to allow their guys to play in the summer due to risk of injury (look at the song and dance Mark Cuban and the Deutscher Basketball-Bund go through every summer over Dirk Nowitzki's insurance policy to play for Germany. But the DBB always pays up and he always plays.). So they had a bunch of college and NBDL guys and maybe half a dozen NBA players max...and all the American fans thought "Doesn't matter, we'll walk away with the gold." Oops... The rest of the world had gotten better. Look at the number of international players in the NBA now, from Argentina, Serbia-Montenegro (I think they still have the most), Croatia, Lithuania, France, Brazil, various African countries, the #1 draft pick this year was from Italy...to name but a few...the USA has to do what all those other countries do now - field a REAL team and play like they mean it. I mean when the American baseball team failed to qualify for the Olympics in 2004...time to look at their international-competition teams a little closer. And I say all this being American born and bred. You wanna be #1, you gotta play the other teams to get there. And you also gotta play by the FIBA rules: the rest of the world isn't switching to NBA rules anytime soon.

The USA has a chance, depending on how seriously they take performing as a team. That Greek lineup (thanks for posting that, BTW) is a formidable bunch. Diamantidis is one scary boy. :D I'm curious how many friendly matches the US has before the WC's...I only have Germany's schedule, I'm guessing the overall list will be on FIBA's site (which occasionally drives me nuts)... :lol:
 
Ok so what about France ? Not for the gold medal for sure, but frenchies can make a good tournament. They finished third at the European Championship; and btw they should have won the Gold, I still dunno how they could have lost against Greece in semi :mad:terrific match.
Tony Parker, Boris Diaw and so on are good team-mates and great players.
 
^ Ah yes, I remember that awesome three point buzzer beater that took us through the finals and since then our squad has vastly improved. Unfortunately I can't find any channels that'll be broadcasting the matches so I guess I'll have to watch 'em online :(. For the meantime...GOOOO HELLAS!!
 
jorja_fan86 said:
^ Ah yes, I remember that awesome three point buzzer beater that took us through the finals
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Oh I do remember too, this shoot made me scream and cry :(.
 
Another warm-up match for Spain and against a great team:
Spain 83 Serbia 62.
We're doing great,I wish we'll do it so good when the wc begins. ;)
 
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