First upset in the Women's competition, as Spain was defeated by Russia 17-15. Spain's roster includes former 2009 U19 silver medal standouts Cristina Ouvina, Leonor Rodriguez, Amaya Gastaminza and Sr NT Laura Nicholls. Spain men suffered their 2nd setback with Slovenia (after Serbia).
USA women won their 4th straight game at 21 and over, this time with few seconds left, with Argentina. South Americans played well and were clearly overcome just in the final minutes, providing fine passes and good prenetration. But US size and athleticism was finally overwhelming and Diggins & Co are cruising towards the final rounds.
Carlo bro when I told this info. that you highlighted to the Lebanese players they were very surprised. I logged into the FIBA website link and showed it to them and they said it probably was a mistake by the FIBA organizers. Anyways they didn't want to make a big deal out of it as they had bigger issues on their minds which were their games that they were going to playOriginally Posted by carlo
Skylar Diggins also got first place at the skills challenge event as she beat out her competition and went through the obstacle course in just 11 seconds. I took a video of this so you can see what i'm talking about
Last edited by Khalid80; 08-25-2012 at 12:29 AM.
I want to say huge respect for our 4 players representing the Lebanese NT at the FIBA 3x3 WC (Jad Kabbara, Ribal Bechara, Gilbert Nasr, and Richard "Richie" Abi Faris)!
I am noticing that the guys are improving greatly after each and every game in this Championship and today they were very focused in both games against Egypt (unfortunately lost 11-16) but especially that last game against the U.S was so close and the Lebanese team could have been able to get the win... We lost the game against the U.S 14-15.
The amount of appreciation our Lebanese players got after the game was incredible as players from the other teams were coming up to our players to congratulate them on the great game they played... Even fans were coming to take pics with the our Lebanese players and this is something to be really proud off for all the Lebanese
Some pics from todayI managed to take a pic this time with the U.S girls and also the Lebanese NT got jealous so they asked if I could take a pic of them with the American ladies as well
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I managed to take a small clip (quality is quite bad) from the game from Lebanon vs. USA just so you guys can get a hint of what was happening on court).
Last edited by Khalid80; 08-25-2012 at 12:36 AM.
Thanks for the eyewitness reports Khalid. I watched the US games that were streamed yesterday...the men's game against England wasn't much of an advertisement for the format, just a fast-paced brickfest. Women took a while to get going against Argentina but eventually picked up the defense. I thought Ann Strother looked good for someone who hasn't played in a few years.
Romania beat the US 15-14 in an entertaining game...Romania was ahead 8-3 and 12-9, US came back to take a 14-13 lead but Romania hit a two-pointer with a few seconds left to win it.
Watched the quarterfinal Serbia-USA Men, narrowly won by Serbian team, difference being the shooting accuracy beyond the arc. Some fine plays and baskets by #13 of US team (Ira Brown ?).
Lebanon were able to win their last game against England (16-14) and I was extremely ecstatic to see them getting a win!
I was celebrating with them on the court as if I have been playing with them
Our players were playing through various injuries yet they were able to remain focused throughout the game and get this awesome victory! The players from England are extremely athletic and physical yet our players managed to be able to outplay them through very accurate shooting as well as fast penetrations to the basket.
Too bad these kids got no support whatsoever and went to Athens just by themselves without anyone from Lebanon
As for the other games USA lost a really tough game Serbia who really have great shooters on their team.. Marko Savic and Dusan Bulut are their main players and scorers (I know I keep saying "nice" but I can't help it as I don't realize it until after
France has one of the toughest teams in this competition.. They have both great athleticism as well as great shooters... Their man scorer who has a great shooting touch is Karim Souchu.. He was the one who could be accredited for their big win against Greece in the quarterfinals last night... Jean Baptiste Adolphe Michel (aka JBAM) is a beast
I was shocked to see that Ukraine were able to beat Russia in the quarterfinals as the Russian team was also one of the favorites in this competition... I didn't get to see this game as it was taking place at the same time that the U.S-Serbia game was taking place.
Israel to be honest had the easiest path to the semis... Ok they had a tough game against England but their game against Venezuela was quite an easy game for them and was the most lopsided of all the quarterfinal games.
As for the ladies... The American ladies have been cruising through their games with relative ease.
Their game against Australia should be interesting as the Aussies play great as a team as well great shooters and defenders even though they're not quite tall... If the U.S qualifies to the final they will be facing the winner from Ukraine-France (I see the French winning this game) and either way the American girls will have to do a good job defending Helena Ciak or Lyubov Alypshkina who are quite tall and talented players.
Some pics below as well from the games yesterday.
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I will upload some videos I took from the slam dunk competition later as I need to get going soon to watch the final day of this tournament... Hope we see some exciting games today!
Excellent coverage ! For what I could see on livestream, I fully agree with your remarks...more pictures pls !
Serbia-France is the Men's final, should be very interesting. Serbia had a hard fight with Ukraine, winning for its quickness and efficiency. France was leading most of the game with Israel and was the clear winner. Jbam a beast.
Just watched the Women's semi won by the Americans over Australia 19-18. Despite the narrow margin, US women were always on a good lead from the first minutes but a harsh defense of upset-prone Aussies and some errors by the Americans in the final minutes closed a previous ample margin to 1.
USA-France will be the final.
To be remarked that, being also finalist in the Mixed tournament, France will play in all finals !
It took me ages to upload the videos and sort through the pics as yesterday's action was plenty and quite entertaining
Mixed competition:
To start things off were the Mixed Semis... The first game was between France and Ukraine which the French won 12-9. Houmounou was taking advantage of his speed and quick penetrations to the basket which was a mismatch for the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians mostly relied on the shooting of Mykola Eryomin.
The second Mixed Semis featured Argentina and Czech Republic which featured a great comeback by the Argentinians who won a really close game 14-13!
Macarena Durso! What a player! I'm not joking with you guys and I wish I had video to prove this but this girl can dish out some really amazing assists... She's link the female version of Steve Nash. Her body is quite small but she's an extremely smart player. From the guys Alejandro Konsztadt is a great shooter and slasher and provides a lot of energy for the team.
From the Czechs Lukas Kraus is probably one of the guys with the best shooting techniques in the tournament from what I noticed.
For the Bronze Medal match between Ukraine and Czech Republic, the Ukrainians just wanted this win sooo bad and they were on fire in the first couple of minutes to the extent that they had a comfortable lead and never looked back to take the Bronze medal with a convincing win 15-8.
Finals Mixed between France and Argentina was exciting at first but the refs were making quite a few harsh calls on the Argentinians who had 3 players foul out in the last 3 minutes of the match! Once it was 3 on 1 (the last Argentinian player that was left on court was Macarena Durso if i'm not mistaken) the ref automatically declared France as the winners with a score of 14-8.
Women's competition:
Women Semis featured Ukraine-France and USA-Australia. Both games were taking place at the same time but since I was on center court I watched the USA-Australia game. The Aussies are athletic, play good pressure defense, and play great as a team.. USA though had the more experienced and talented team and they kept their cool even though the Aussies were making a good comeback in the game in the final minutes.
Women's finals was between France and USA and this was a really great game to watch mostly because the French team was ahead for most parts of the game but the sheer determination of the American girls led them make a huge comeback after a couple of steals and excellent defensive plays to get the deserved win over France 17-16.
Here's the clip for the player intro's for each team and a clip from the game as well:
Here's also a small clip of the US team celebrating
Men's competition:
First semi was between Serbia and Ukraine... Score and game was quite close and both teams fought it out with Serbia having a slight advantage and getting the crucial win 13-11.
Second semi was between France and Israel. Israel at first was able to respond and score once France was taking the lead every time.. Amit Tamir was scoring his 3's and keeping the game close for the half of the match... Then France tightened up their defense and were able to hold on their lead to beat the French 15-12. Jbam was indeed a beast under the basket.
For the bronze medal game I thought Israel was going to get the win which went into OT... But the Ukrainians had other ideas as they were able to win the game with a buzzer beater 3 to seal the victory and bronze medal with a 19-18 win.
The final as I predicted to the Lebanese NT players from the quarterfinals turned out to be true as both Serbia and France made it to the final.
The organizers were trying to have a short of showtime with the player intros.
As for the game.. Wow the Serbs never game up and even though they were down by more than 4 points at one point they kept hussling and fighting and were able to somehow pull off an upset in my opinion (final score 16-13) as the French team looked to be the strongest in the competition... The French teams from what I was able to find out had been training very hard for this competition (For the last 6 months)... They had many coaches, therapists, trainers among their staff and they were coming to Athens to take the gold medal in all group events so i'm sure they were very disappointed.. Houmounou was actually crying and
Laetitia Kamba kept trying to show her support to him (you can see the pic I took for this below).
My camera battery died after the game and I couldn't take any videos of the men's celebrationJust a few quick pics.
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Some pictures at the end during the closing ceremony
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And now for the other events:
Skills Challenge:
Name
Winner: Pirgit Puu (EST)
Runner up: Skylar Diggins (USA)
3rd: Burcu Cigil (TUR)
3rd: Sylvie Gruszczynski (FRA)
Semi Final 1: Skylar vs. Sylvie
Semi Final 2: Pirgut vs. Burcu
Final: Skylar vs. Pirgut (I was a bit surprised that Skylar lost her concentration like that in the final)
Samsung Shoot Out Contest
Final
Winner: Stanislav Votroubek (CZE)
Runner up: Radoslava Bachvarova (BUL)
3rd: Charlotte Hoere (GER)
3rd: Mikhail Gyunter (RUS)
I only uploaded the winner Stanislav's shooting round as to be honest it wasn't too exciting or competitive like I hope it would be.
Stanislav Votroubek (CZE)
Dunk Contest
Final:
Winner: Deivi Añanguren Madriz (VEN)
Runner up: Adesanya Adetayo (USA)
First Round:
Deivi Añanguren Madriz (VEN)
Georgi Bojanov (BUL)
Adesanya Adetayo (USA)
Ometayo Ogedengbe (ENG)
Qualifications:
Ribal Bichara (LIB) (I was giving him tips as if I was his coach
Ometayo Ogedengbe (ENG)
Carlos Junior (BRA)
Georgi Bojanov (BUL)
Deivi Añanguren Madriz (VEN)
Meredis Houmounou (FRA) Had 2 dunk attempts in first round as he was tied with 2 others for 3rd place and only 4 qualify to the final round.
Adesanya Adetayo (USA) was the other participant who had 2 dunks in the first round.
Final Round: Ometayo missed all his dunks so he was out and I missed videotaping Georgi Bojanov's dunk which wasn't that impressive to be honest.
Adesanya Adetayo (USA)
First off he started with a very dangerous dunk which could have easily injured him as well as the kids involved
Adesanya Adetayo (USA)
Deivi Añanguren Madriz (VEN) Dunked over a motorcycle to win the Dunk Competition:
That's it for me... Over and out... I'm dead tired
Last edited by Khalid80; 08-28-2012 at 07:08 AM.
Wonderful coverage again, really a hard but fine job !
My favorite pics are the two of the French team with Kamba and Houmounou after the men's final...yes both men and women French teams were ready for the gold. Men's squad was in fact leading towards the end but the score was quickly tied by Serbia and then game was over. Women's roster had this giant Helena Ciak (she's at least 1.97, and she dwarfed Chiney Ogwumike hugging her after the game) who plays fine and a couple of good shooters as well. The win was pending until the last seconds and American girls won thanks to their determination and talent.
Thanks bro, much appreciated! Yeah to be able to have a full coverage for such an event especially in the first 2 days when games were being played on 4 courts simultaneously it would almost impossible to show everything... But at least for the last and most important day of the competition almost all the events took place on center court except for a couple of bronze match games.
Yeah at first I didn't know what was happening but then I concentrated and could see that Houmounou was crying... This French team came to take gold and thus anything less than that was considered a disappointment. I found out that everyday after the games the French players would take their showers and relax in their air-conditioned rooms and then each player would be given a long soothing massage to release all the tension from their bodies and help them relax (as opposed to one of our Lebanese NT members in this event who was playing with a strained back muscle and couldn't be able to sleep the last 2 days because of the pain
Helena Ciak was indeed one of the top female centers (maybe the best) in this tournament and she has great footwork and post moves from under the basket.
One last comment regarding the American teams. I could clearly notice the difference between the women and men's team as the women were of a much higher caliber than the men who were representing the U.S in this event.
Actually one of the American guys on the team told me that he currently is without a team and was asking me I could assist him in anyway to find a basketball team in Lebanon that he could play with... I was quite surprised to hear that from him to be honest.
Hey Khalid,
Thanks for all the coverage! With the Olympics over now, it is 'dark times' for us international basketball fans but this tournament and your outstanding coverage made these times a litte more bearable
Anyways, I know this is a broad question but I wanted to ask if you thought this sport has a future in the Olympics or elsewhere? Is it something you would see yourself following as passionately as 5 v 5 basketball?
Last edited by NorCal; 08-28-2012 at 06:48 PM.
Agree, Helena Ciak was probably the best pure post player, imo she could even play in the 5x5 Sr NT (I read she had been contacted in the past by the Centre Federal for this purpose but she refused).
Yes, the US women's team was of much higher level, Diggins, Ogwumike and Hartley are pluri-junior champions, and the first two starred in the World University super team that won the gold last year, while Ann Strother, a substitute, though not having played competitive ball in the recent past, was a great college champion and saw even some (little) play in the WNBA.
Men's team anyway displayed good basketball for what I could see and was eliminated by the eventual champs of Serbia in a close game. Hope they all find good teams to continue playing, they deserved it.
Last edited by carlo; 08-28-2012 at 07:07 PM.
Your welcome bro!Hey Khalid,
Thanks for all the coverage! With the Olympics over now, it is 'dark times' for us international basketball fans but this tournament and your outstanding coverage made these times a litte more bearable
Anyways, I know this is a broad question but I wanted to ask if you thought this sport has a future in the Olympics or elsewhere? Is it something you would see yourself following as passionately as 5 v 5 basketball?
This was the first FIBA 3x3 World Championships event and if you ask me I would consider that it was a success... There were lots of fans during all 4 days the tournament was taking place... After both the Greek men and women teams lost in the quarterfinals I thought that this would affect the attendance but I was mistaken as still almost all games were packed with fans and overall you could see the enthusiasm of the fans.
Of course Greece being a country where basketball is quite popular adds to it as well.
Even though FIBA hasn't promoted this event like they should have (I had many Greek friends who didn't even know that this event was taking place hadn't I informed them). I saw FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann there at the event and he was interviewing the players and asking them about their experiences regarding the event so this is a good sign.
The overall level of the tournament was good but imagine you had well know players or NBA superstars participating in such an event... The hype surrounding Garbajosa since he was playing with the Spanish team was quite big and for example I had to wait like 5 minutes in line to be able to take a pic with him as all the fans were lined up waiting their turn.
I personally can follow 3x3 basketball as passionately as 5x5 basketball without any problems at all... The experience you have with 3x3 events makes you closer to the players and you can easily talk and have a chit chat with them which is really great.
I attended the World Championships in Turkey 2 years ago and even though it was a great event with many well known players involved I couldn't really get the chance to talk with or meet with the players like in a 3x3 competition... I don't know if what i'm saying makes any sense...
And yes I do believe this sport will have a future in the Olympics but FIBA needs to support and promote it more all over the globe which is slowly happening as there are various global tournaments taking place in different big cities of the world and this is definitely a good sign.
Thanks for the insight. Glad to hear you had a great experience. I had never thought of the fact that you could get up close to the games and also get to speak with the players, that sounds great. If a tournament like this could be structured in a way that would let you get up and close to professional basketball players I think it has a lot of potential to succeed. Professional basketball is different when you are watching it up close and many fans, I think, would enjoy such an experience.
Cheers!
The chance to get up close to the players and chat with them was more in the first round and mostly when the games were taking place on the side courts (first 2 days of the competition). Once the games got on main court and the round of 16 started it was different though and the players were more focused on their games... and this is why I couldn't get the chance to talk or even take pics with any of the Greek players (men or women) because all their games (or the big majority of their games ) were on center court and after the games they wouldn't usually hang around much as the fans would flock and bombard them with picture requests and questions
Yeah... I think if I were to watch it on tv I think I would prefer watching a 5x5 basketball game. But attending it on court 3x3 basketball would be as exciting if not a bit more than a 5x5 event.
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