2013 Greek NT

[macleopard13]

This is greeks topic so i let them speak...but for the last time Diamantidis and Papulakas Greece never beat Jasikevicius and Siskauskas Lithuania and never took better place ! Thats the fact.

Seriously, stop hating on the Greek NT. Most Lithuanians actually respect the Greeks as great opponents very capable of winning. I'd definitely cheer for Greece if it were facing a stronger opponent like Spain or France. You, on the other hand, seem to have caught the Pero Antic syndrome, named after the Macedonian poster who made some foolish remarks about his NT's sure-fire success in the Group stage.

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[Straight forward]

[ot]
Lithuanians are really funny when they talk about their NT: we are talking about a squad that hasn't been playing an international final game since 2003 (last and only Lithuanian post-independence victory). Reading Lithuanians everyone could think that's absurd that Spain is dominating Europe and the U.S. are dominating the world: why basketball legends like Kalnietis, Seibutis, Pocius, Motiejunas and Valanciunas cannot grab gold medals and gold medals?
And why couldn't Jasikevicius, Maciauskas, Siskauskas, Stombergas, Lavrinovic bros win everything in the 2000s?
And why couldn't Marciulionis, Kurtinaitis, Sabonis, Chomichus, Karnisovas and Kurtinaitis listen their Lithuanian anthem at every tournament during the 90s?

It's difficult to talk about Lithuania: it's unquestionable the pure passion in that country, where basketball is the national sport and you can listen sentences like "why do you say that Lithuania is the European Indiana? You're wrong: Indiana is the American Lithuania!" (personally I love it). But it's also unquestionable that Lithuania has always found better national teams, despite the funny FIBA ranking often taken into considerations by Lithuanian fans. Serbia from 1995 to 2002, Spain from 2004 to 2013. And worldwide, not only the United States have been showing to be a better NT, but Argentina too obtained biggest achievements like the Olympic gold medal in Athens.

Lithuania has great and deep tradition and can always put on court a competitive squad: but Lithuania isn't exactly the worldwide basketball emperor. Something that Lithuanians should face and admit.
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Sabonis, Marčiulionis and Kurtinaitis did it in 1988. You will say it's Soviet Union, but it was exactly these guys who basically made it. IMO, even in 1992 Olympics both Sabonis and Marčiulionis wasn't that good.

In 00's Lithuania where very close to Olympic finals in 2000 and 2004. Maybe Lithuania always lacking that one little step forward, but Olympic history since 1992 is impressive enough.

Lastly, yes, Lithuania always lacked a little bit for being worldwide contender.

PS: Putting Valančiūnas and Motiejunas names here already is a little bit unfair... Give these guys a chance first.