Congratulations to all the ballers and fans that make Bball what it is today

[Papaloukas]

It was truly a pleasure watching these games. Every Basketball player to me deserves to be on that podium at the end of the day. There was not one game where I can say one team truly gave up. Every team played hard. Im gutted for China and Lithuania. What talented teams, and your prospects can only go up. Especially Lithuania, your fantastic players made the Dream Team. People say it was the Dream Team that made international basketball big. No, it was your outstanding play with the Soviets that forced the NBA's had. For a country of a few million, you are an inspiration to every underdog out there. Congrats to Argentina aswell. I've never seen a team that was basically given up for dead before the tournament, play so well. I would have loved to see 04 Argentina vs 08 USA. That would have been an amazing game. And to Spain. You guys have nothing to be ashamed about. You've had an outstanding sporting year. From Euro 2008, to Nadal's dominance, to Gasol and the boys giving the USA a real heartbreaking thriller of a final game.

Finally to the fans. You guys are what makes this sport go and grow. The USA, Greeks, Spanish ect taking swipes at eachother, only proves the passion for the game. I love the competitiveness. The never say die attitude you guys display and faith in your teams even against the worlds best truly is a great representation of your countries spirits. I believe guys like Ricky Rubio are truly the first wave of international stars that are going to be soon being on the cover of gatorade and slam magazine in place of many American stars. Soon Americans are gonna be having Spanish, Greek, Lithuanian, Chinese ect players on their walls instead of Lebron and Kobe. And thats a GOOD thing.

Thats all I've got to say. Good night peeps. :cool:

[Ilya]

At least there's one thing we all agree on:

WE LOVE THIS GAME!!!!:) :) :)

[mvblair]

Great post, Papaloukas. I feel exactly the same. At the end of the day, I honestly don't care who wins. I just want clean, honest games. For the most part, we had that this tournament. Yes, there were questionable calls, there always will be. But for the most part, I think this was a very succesful Olympic tournament.

The fans are great too. I agree. At IBN, we get some name-calling and some people with personal grudges. But almost everybody here is well-informed and loves the game. That's why it's fun to post here.

Anyhow, yes, congratulations to all the players and fans. What a fun time!!

[Lietuvis]

Yes fully agree and nice words Pap. Without basketball we would all not be here on this forum, arguing, debating, understanding each other, making peace and all becoming one behind our game.

Thankyou IBN I love this site!

[zombie000777]

There is a big difference between the real fans and national's teams supporters:
the love for the game.

Every 4 years every country is full of people supporting their fellows countrymen in evry sport from fencing to weightlifting , archery ...
And that also include basketball.
It is good and i really enjoy to talk about spanish NT with same friends of me, but I know after the olympics they are not going to see another basketball match in a year (maybe NBA finals with Kobe and Gasol :) )

However I suppose that people from this forum don't need to have an own represention to vibrate with a match.

So I find really stupide when we start posting always about USA travelling, Spain diving, Nba sucks , Greece compleins ...

That's the reason I strong admire basketball fans from countries that haven't got any basketball star.

[Dtown]

Awesome topic Papaloukas, while the tournament wasn't quite what we expected. It ended with a hell of a bang that established Spain very much on the USA's level. Pretty much the perfect ending, as not only did the Americans win but it also cemented that European advancement in the last few years has not been an illusion. The US has to send it's best talent, and they need to continue the three year program.

It's going to lead to more awesome games in the future and will only accelerate the advancement of the game world wide. Can't wait till 2010. Hell I can't wait till 09, I'm actually excited for Eurobasket and I can say that's a first.

[Khalid80]

Great thread Paploukas!
I'm really happy with how the level of basketball has progressed over the last decade and how the number of b-ball fans around the world has increased significantly especially since the game is no longer dominated by one team (the US had to prepare and bring their best team available in order to win the Olympics).
Hoping that the basketball craze continues to grow and develop and looking forward for the next World Championships in Turkey in 2010.

[toxmarius]

Thumbs up for the thread,

Its a real joy to debate with people from whole over the world, and these Olympic games, gave us such an opportunity, to say the least :) If not us, the fans, basketball wouldn't even exist.. So its time to cut a peace of cake to ourselfs and forget what went wrong.. At the end it doesn't even matter if you loose or win, its the attitude to your NT what matters the most. An i hope i'll see most of you guys in EC and we'll have the same fun we had in the Olympics.

Good luck and see you next year !!

P.S. I'll never forget the final battle of these Olympics, it was epic, very nice game by Spain and USA, its like a new concept of basketball, awesome !!

[hotjam_2]

There is a big difference between the real fans and national's teams supporters:
the love for the game.

Every 4 years every country is full of people supporting their fellows countrymen in evry sport from fencing to weightlifting , archery ...
And that also include basketball.
It is good and i really enjoy to talk about spanish NT with same friends of me, but I know after the olympics they are not going to see another basketball match in a year (maybe NBA finals with Kobe and Gasol :) )

However I suppose that people from this forum don't need to have an own represention to vibrate with a match.

So I find really stupide when we start posting always about USA travelling, Spain diving, Nba sucks , Greece compleins ...

That's the reason I strong admire basketball fans from countries that haven't got any basketball star.


I was surprised to read from the posters in this forum that the one team they hated more than even the US was Spain. i could'nt understand why? Spain was not only the best team from Euro, but the most stylish & exciting as well. I actually picked them to win over the US before the start of the Olympics. But lets face, they could'nt play with the same tenacity & stride like they did at those exhibition games they played the month before in Spain. They finally got a bit of their 'mojo' back in the final, but it was a bit 'too little, too late!

It's a shame we did'nt hear more from Spanish fans on this forum. Spain still got a little bit egde wise on the US in the last 2 years because they won gold(2006) & silver(2008), while the US only won bronze(2006) & gold(2008). Hopefully they'll be more great matchups in the future, Can't wait to see how "Ricky Business" will play when he's 19 or 21 years old in the next olympics

[damelo]

I was surprised to read from the posters in this forum that the one team they hated more than even the US was Spain. i could'nt understand why? Spain was not only the best team from Euro, but the most stylish & exciting as well. I actually picked them to win over the US before the start of the Olympics. But lets face, they could'nt play with the same tenacity & stride like they did at those exhibition games they played the month before in Spain. They finally got a bit of their 'mojo' back in the final, but it was a bit 'too little, too late!

It's a shame we did'nt hear more from Spanish fans on this forum. Spain still got a little bit egde wise on the US in the last 2 years because they won gold(2006) & silver(2008), while the US only won bronze(2006) & gold(2008). Hopefully they'll be more great matchups in the future, Can't wait to see how "Ricky Business" will play when he's 19 or 21 years old in the next olympics

Maybe because for Europeans, the Spanish are clear favourites all the time. They are dominant, and, already, the only team now that can really match with them is the US. Lithuania played great in the OGs, but, if Spain had played as they played against the US, what the score would have been?
On the other hand, the fact US start to respect the other countries, in declarations, etc... have them less concentrating hate. And they are clearly the most talented team, it is a fact known for long long time. Whereas Spain is an emerging superpower. They are a little tricky with the refs. As may be a guy like Ginobili. But, Ginobili, hes done that in the NBA.
Alson they have the brightest future, the best formation system in the world I think as the young guys play as soon as they are ready to play in pro. And if they are blocked in their own team, they are sent to other weaker teams, where they have responsibilities. Joventud and Estu are big part of those successes. But, everybody is doing things the right way.
But, be sure as the US will start to win everything again, everybody will hate you again :D .

Things will be normal again^^

On the thread, yes, I agree. I'd like to say that for someone to find such a forum, he has to be looking for something really serious about basketball. So, it's not a surprise all the guys here are real basketball fans, probably players and interested in coaching, understanding of basketball systems, processes.
Well, I may be a little against the trend, but, I love it... French contradiction spirit :D
I think it's normal everybody here knows things about the game.
But, generally, I struggle finding people as passionate about basketball as I am, and it's a nice place to discuss about it. I'd like to ad I'm not especially patriotic, i like basketball, and don't care really about who wins. I like France winning till I know people here if the NT wins will speak about that a little. And it may make my sport more popular here. Here, there muste more handball games on tv than basketball, even if basketball have much more players registered than handball. It is the second sport in France according to stats. But, people don't know much about this.
In France, only NBA is popular, and I found this forum trying to find a way to watch games from WC2006. A year ago, i discovered French championship in details through Basketnews, French basketball paper, and in the same time, EL. Before that, for me, basketball was the NBA, and NT. I discovered this way a basketball style more deep, worked and strategic. all the stuff I liked to do when I coached youngsters teams, finding schemes that could use the qualities of my guys and they could apply easily. Which is sadly not always very used in the NBA, with the one on one game.
Still, NBA had it all with that slogan: i love this game

[Russ]

Yes, congratulations to all involved in this Olympic basketball tournament. It was a blast!

I thoroughly enjoyed all the give and take here on the various issues which this tournament became immersed in.

I have always watched the Olympic and World basketball tournaments but only from the perspective of a US fan. This time I had the supreme pleasure of seeing the results and issues through the observations and written words of fans of NTs and individuals from around the globe. It was truly an eye opening experience I hope will continue the rest of my days as a basketball fan.

Cheers everyone!

[kestas]

Soon Americans are gonna be having Spanish, Greek, Lithuanian, Chinese ect players on their walls instead of Lebron and Kobe.

very good post, but I doubt these games changed that much. performances will be forgotten, results will be what remains forever. and the results of these games show that African and Asian champs (Angola and Iran) were unable to challenge any of the remaining teams. what's more, top-3 is basically what many predicted long before the games. and despite the truly awesome final, USA won it by 11 and finished winning all games by the average margin of 28 points. add to this questionable quality of officiating which again remained unchallenged in any way whatsoever and you have an average tournament, imho, that shows little development of global basketball. I know there were some really promissing signs, but they have not been reflected "on paper".


Lithuania played great in the OGs, but, if Spain had played as they played against the US, what the score would have been?

both teams did not play too well in that semi, imho, it was a very tense affair.. also I think LTU deffended a bit better than US did, but that's irrelevant. and although this is off topic, what LTU always lacks against Spain, Greece, Germany, Argentina or Croatia is commitment of our players. More often than not we will have two or three stars having a rest for the summer. Siskauskas, Jasikevicius, Songaila, Macijauskas, Timinskas and so on (not to mention Ilgauskas) - all have taken a tournament off despite being 100% healthy at least once in the past. when did Dirk or Pau have a rest? even this year, when we seemed to have unprecedented commitment from all healthy players (something reminiscent of the golden era of the early nineties), we still managed to lose Ilgauskas and Songaila in the last moment, coz they turned out to be not so healthy afterall... So basically we haven't had a really representative squad for at least eight years (and even in 2000 we won bronze with a relatively new team), which hurts, but I'm optimistic.

[hotjam_2]

Maybe because for Europeans, the Spanish are clear favourites all the time. They are dominant, and, already, the only team now that can really match with them is the US. Lithuania played great in the OGs, but, if Spain had played as they played against the US, what the score would have been?
On the other hand, the fact US start to respect the other countries, in declarations, etc... have them less concentrating hate. And they are clearly the most talented team, it is a fact known for long long time. Whereas Spain is an emerging superpower. They are a little tricky with the refs. As may be a guy like Ginobili. But, Ginobili, hes done that in the NBA.
Alson they have the brightest future, the best formation system in the world I think as the young guys play as soon as they are ready to play in pro. And if they are blocked in their own team, they are sent to other weaker teams, where they have responsibilities. Joventud and Estu are big part of those successes. But, everybody is doing things the right way.
But, be sure as the US will start to win everything again, everybody will hate you again :D .

Things will be normal again^^

On the thread, yes, I agree. I'd like to say that for someone to find such a forum, he has to be looking for something really serious about basketball. So, it's not a surprise all the guys here are real basketball fans, probably players and interested in coaching, understanding of basketball systems, processes.
Well, I may be a little against the trend, but, I love it... French contradiction spirit :D
I think it's normal everybody here knows things about the game.
But, generally, I struggle finding people as passionate about basketball as I am, and it's a nice place to discuss about it. I'd like to ad I'm not especially patriotic, i like basketball, and don't care really about who wins. I like France winning till I know people here if the NT wins will speak about that a little. And it may make my sport more popular here. Here, there muste more handball games on tv than basketball, even if basketball have much more players registered than handball. It is the second sport in France according to stats. But, people don't know much about this.
In France, only NBA is popular, and I found this forum trying to find a way to watch games from WC2006. A year ago, i discovered French championship in details through Basketnews, French basketball paper, and in the same time, EL. Before that, for me, basketball was the NBA, and NT. I discovered this way a basketball style more deep, worked and strategic. all the stuff I liked to do when I coached youngsters teams, finding schemes that could use the qualities of my guys and they could apply easily. Which is sadly not always very used in the NBA, with the one on one game.
Still, NBA had it all with that slogan: i love this game

If only France can get it's best together, they would have a great team! perhaps medal in....hmm.........silver!

here's a rough scratch on what a top French NT would look like

F Jerome Moiso
F Florent Pietrus
F Micheal Gelebale
F Yakhouba Diawara
F Boris Diaw
C Joachim Noah
C Ronnie Turaf
C Alexis Ainca
G Tony Parker
G Tariq Kirksey
G Micheal Pietrus
G Tariq Wahid

basketball is differened from lets' say Futbol, you don't need a team to play together for years. But you definatly need your best players. And a hyper young player with quicker reflexes thats hungry is sometimes better than one of those sturdy old hands but can't score ala Fredrick Weis. Those were the things that a lot of the Euro teams failed to understand at this Olympics.