billo
Years ago
Euro Champs Semis
It's down to the final 4 in the European Championships. Looking at the calibre of teams and players I'd say this would comfortably be the 3rd biggest international tournament in world basketball, I'm not sure what the coverage is like in Australia but in the UK it is non existant. I've just returned from Greece where they're mad for it, all the Greece games are shown everywhere (jewellery shops, clothing shops, tavernas etc) and they were showing plenty of all others games on the tele. I caught the second half of the Greece Russia quarterfinal, Greece fought back well to edge out a close victory, AK was clearly best of court with 20 and 16 - he's bloody massive out there, I can't imagine a side anywhere in the world that wouldn't be improved by his presence. Was interesting to see the Russian starting point, a black American, similar to when RIcky Grace played for Oz. SOmehow he didn't look right playing for Russia, he had a very US style game (reminded me a bit of Farley) rather than the more rigid European style.
The 2 semis are Greece v France (Greece won comfortably in their minor round game restricting France to 14 first half points despite Tony Parker's best efforts) and Germany v SPain with Nowitzki second in the tourney in points (26.6) and rebounds (11.6). Pau Gasol isn't playing for SPain.
Intersting to see some of the big names like Lithuania, S & M, Russia (are they still a force?) and Croatia not make it through to the semis.
