Spain won gold at the World Championships 2006 (Photo: FIBA)
Greek players celebrating victory over USA in the semis (Photo: FIBA)
Brazilians getting ready for big time - Jan. 26, 2007 - by Gustavo Cardoso
The Brazilian U19 National Team has finished the first session of practices in preparation for the U19 FIBA World Championships in July. Head coached by Jose Neto , and overseen by Lula, the team trained for two long weeks in Rio Claro.
I was in town last Friday and was able to follow one day of practices with the NT. The work load was divided into two periods and the most interesting part, in my humble opinion, took place after noon when the team scrimmaged Rio Claro's pro team. The Brazilian youngsters had to sweat it out while attempting to impose their game system. The strength, experience, and overall game of the Rio Claro athletes made it tough for the U19 NT, but it helped them face something more similar to what they will get in Canada six months from now.
“Its is extremely important to face such teams, so the players are demanded technically and phisycally", says Jose Neto . “They get to handle pressure situations that when tournament time comes, it will be easier for them to surpass any difficulties that may arise”.
According to Lula, athletes such as Betinho, Carlao, and Romario, that already play for their club's pro squads, add some important ingredients to the team's mix, “these players bring the type of rhythm and experience that only the pro game can give.”, says Lula.
In Cesar Guidetti's opinion, this type of practice also helps the coaching staff on identifying key problems with the squad. “On a higher level and more intense basketball game, it is easier to point out individual and team errors”, affirms Guidetti, South American Cadet champion with the U16 NT back in Montevideo (November), and assistant coach for the U19 squad.
The number of players with playing time in high level basketball will be a key factor for success during the U19 Fiba World Championships in Canada and, when the clock ticks on decision time, will provide greater chances to their teams. Teams with a greater number of guys fitting this profile will have an advantage.
France, the current U18 champion, will probably bring to the U19 World Championships Nicolas Batum, and Adrien Moerman. Both were key figures on France's title in Europe last year in Greece, and in their clubs, Le Mans and Pau-Orthez, play on a regular basis during Pro A's schedule (top league in France), and sporadically in Euroleague match-ups. They are more than experienced when it comes to uptempo game and its demanding qualities, factors that will count towards France's advantage.
Argentina, Lithuania, Serbia, Spain, Turquey, and the US have plenty of players who are used to a faster and more aggressive type of game. Their players will get to Canada with far more “know-how” on highly competitive hoops than their Asian and African counterparts. Brazil sits right in between these two worlds since it doesn't have that many players in top level leagues.
However, during Brazil's last phase of training, the NT will rely on Paulo Prestes (208-C-88) and Vitor Faverani (209-C-88), big Brazilian names in Spain. Paulao is one of LEB2's Clinica Rincon Axarquia top players this season, and is averaging 10 points and 7 rebounds per game. He also leads his team on blocked shots with an average of 1 per game.
Vitor, a 2,09m center, is one of LEB's CAI Zaragoza top players, and is seen by many international scouts as the best Brazilian born in 1988. Vitor averages 8,8 points, and 5,7 rebounds in 18 minutes per game this season and in case he makes it to the final NT in July, he will definitely bring some much needed experience to the squad.
Jose Neto believes that this wasn't the beginning of a work program, but yet, a type of follow-up on what was done during the America's Cup when Brazil qualified for the U19 World Championships after 8 years of absence. “We have observed some new athletes, and reevaluated the ones that were with us last time, and fortunately, there were some good surprises”, adds the Brazilian head coach.
The “canarinhos” will meet twice for another phase of training sessions before heading to the FIBA U19 begins. Next phase of training starts in April or May while the third and last will commence in June. Keep working kids!
Check the link below for more information on the subject. Enjoy!
American Players Do Not Have Lower IQ's Than Greeks - Sep. 4, 2006 - by Arthur Volbert Throughout the USA-Greece game the announcers on ESPN2 commended Greece for playing high-IQ basketball. This, of course, infers that the Americans -- all but one on the court were African-Americans -- played low-IQ basketball. This is totally untrue.
IQ is a measure, however imperfect, of innate intellectual ability. The great majority of USA point guards, the position requiring the most intellectual ability, are African-American. Eurasian big men are far more prevalent in the NBA than are Eurasian point guards. This would not be true if African-Americans had a problem with the intellect required for the position.
As Kirk Hinrich noted in a FIBA interview, the real problem that the Americans have is lack of experience playing under FIBA conditions. The lane is different, the quarters are shorter, refereeing is different and there are all sorts of subtle things that make playing the FIBA game different from playing the NBA game.
European players, and Argentines as well, grew up playing the FIBA game and have experience playing the FIBA game at the highest levels of European basketball. As a result of this experience, they can make quick decisions based on the subtleties of the FIBA game. The Americans, without this experience, cannot make these decisions nearly as quickly or nearly as well. This has nothing to do with their innate intellectual ability.
If the Americans and the Greeks played one-on-one, the Americans would win in a romp. But international basketball is a team sport and not a showcase for individual talent.
This world championship was a victory for European-style basketball. 6 of 8 quarterfinalists were European, and 11 of the 12 Argentine players have significant European experience. Only the USA, which has by far the most innate basketball talent, was able to reach the quarter-finals playing a different type of basketball. And the USA has not won a gold medal in international competition since the 2000 Olympics, where they barely edged little Lithuania 85-83 in the semi-finals.
This is why I urge China to send its players to Europe for the next two seasons if they want to win an Olympic medal. If they cannot send out all the applicable players this season, the Chinese Basketball Association can concentrate on strength conditioning in 2006-2007 and send out the players who then appear best in 2007-2008.
I have mentioned China sending players to the Euroleague and first division leagues in Spain, Italy, Greece and France. But another option is sending players or even teams to Russia.
Both China and Russia have Capitalist-Leninist societies -- a capitalist economic system combined with a Leninist system of government. Vladimir Putin has moved Russia squarely in the Capitalist-Leninist direction since he took over as President.
Capitalist-Leninist societies view sport as a government responsibility. They therefore can make deals with each other that capitalist democracies do not make.
China might be able to make deals with Russia that will enable more Chinese players to appear in the Russian domestic league in the next two years, or even bring entire teams to the league, in return for other governmental considerations.
Gold For Spain - Sep. 3, 2006 - by Eurobasket Lithuania - Germany77-62 (30-17, 17-24, 11-13, 19-8) Lithuania: D. Lavrinovic 18, Kleiza 16+7reb, Songaila 13+6reb+5st, Gustas 8, Macijauskas 6, K. Lavrinovic 6, Javtokas 6+6reb, Kalnietis 2, Jasaitis 2, Delininkaitis 0, Zukauskas 0, Jankunas 0. Germany: Nowitzki 18+6reb, Okulaja 10+6reb, Roller 8, Herber 6, Jagla 5, Garrett 4, Grunheid 4+5reb, Femerling 4, Greene 2, Hamann 1, Demirel 0, Schultze 0. Darius Lavrinovic and Linas Kleiza combined for 34 points to lead Lithuania to a 77-62 victory over Germany and seventh place at the FIBA World Championship. The game was decided early in the fourth quarter as Lithuania went on a 17-2 run to open the period while Germany went 11 and a half minutes without a basket. Lavrinovic collected 18 points in just 19 minutes including a perfect three of three from long range. Kleiza continued his impressive end to the tournament with 16 points and seven rebounds. Pascal Roller, who got the starting nod from Bauermann for the first time in the tournament, buried back-to-back three-pointers to give Germany a 13-11 lead with 5:44 left in the first period. Nowitzki started the second half by converting a three-point play, which Okulaja followed with a three-point shot. And Germany's star big man evened the game at 49-49 with a break away dunk at the 6:17 mark. In the final period, Lavrinovic scored six straight points and Darius Songalia added five consecutive as Lithuania blew the game wide open with a 17-2 spurt to start the fourth - 75-56.
Greece - Spain47-70 (12-18, 11-25, 11-11, 13-16) Greece: Kakiouzis 17+9reb, Papaloukas 10+5reb, Fotsis 7, Spanoulis 4, Diamantidis 4, Papadopoulos 2, Schortsianitis 2, Dikoudis 1, Tsartsaris 0, Zisis 0, Vassilopoulos 0, Hatzivrettas 0. Spain: Garbajosa 20+10reb, Navarro 20, Reyes 10, Calderon 7, Rodriguez 6, Jimenez 4+11reb, M. Gasol 2+7reb, Cabezas 1, Mumbru 0, S. Rodriguez 0, P. Gasol 0, Fernandez 0. Playing without superstar Pau Gasol, Spain didn't miss a beat, running past Greece, 70-47, in the gold-medal game of the 2006 FIBA World Championship. Gasol, who led Spain in scoring and rebounding in the tournament, broke his foot in Friday's win over Argentina. Spain, which finished the World Championship with a perfect 9-0 record, led by six after one quarter. In the second quarter, Spain outscored Greece, 25-11, to take a 54-34 lead and all but guarantee its first-ever gold medal. Juan-Carlos Navarro and Jorge Garbajosa filled the void for Gasol, scoring 20 points each. Garbajosa also grabbed 10 rebounds. Spain has won the World Championship that took place in Japan during the last three weeks.
Spain faced Argentina in the semi-final. It was a tough game and the blue and white team played as they like. The beginning was for the men of "El oveja" and they got more than 10 points lead, but Pepu knew how to stop it. The solution's name was Sergio Rodriguez.
With Sergio on the floor, the rhythm was faster. Besides, he took the responsibility from the three points arc and equalized the game together with Rudy. In the end, Calderon and Gasol managed the last minutes and they got the victory from the free throws line.
The bad new was that two minutes remaining for the end of the time, Gasol, in a movement to score, broke his fifth metatarsian bone of the left foot. It was not a new injury because he has had problems in this part of the body.
In spite of the victory over Argentina, the men of Pepu were not so happy... the injury of Gasol was serious and he will not play in the next weeks. Besides, Greece had slammed out USA, and the American team was the favourite for the gold. The Final game seemed very hard.
But Spanish boys wanted to give the title to Pau, especially his brother Marc, who arrived to the National Team after the injury of Fran Vazquez. They knew that they would need more than 100% of every one, but it was possible. Pau cried after defeating Argentina because he knew this opportunity was the good one.
And there were no rest for Greece since the first minutes. The Spanish defense was almost perfect, with Felipe Reyes and Marc Gasol covering the absence of Pau. Calderon played injured, with pain in his knee, and Cabezas did a great work replacing him. Berni guarded Papaloukas as a lion, and Carlos JImenez filled with work all the holes, even took offensive responsibility sometimes in spite of he is not the most talented player.
Navarro showed the answer in offense, with the shooting guard scoring as usual -he scored only 4 points against Argentina- and Garbajosa increased the difference more and more. And Sergio Rodriguez showed in the second half that he is ready to manage a team with a good lead.
There were no Schortsianitis, Spanoulis, Diamantidis or Papaloukas able to stop Spain, and the game had not much emotion. The emotion was in the Spanish bench and then in the locker room, where Pepu Hernandez told that his father had died yesterday. He wanted to keep the chemistry in the group hiding the bad new and he got it.
Pau was helped by his team-mates to go upstairs and get the gold medal. It was really amazing. Maybe this is the best team in the Spanish Basketball history. This is a group of FRIENDS who enjoy playing cards, singing some party songs and changing the lyrics to give then special sense.
This Championship has interested everybody in Spain. The great court Madrid Arena was full with people watching the game in the giant screens, there were a lot of huge screens in Spanish cities to watch the game.
The Championship has been broadcasted by a new TV station: "La Sexta". They have counted of some of the best Basketball specialists in Spain to comment the game and prepare the event. It has been a great impulse in spite of some logic mistakes (it was the first time they broadcasted Basketball).
Spanish population has been so delighted as in Los Angeles Olympic Games, when Fernando Martin -first Spanish man in NBA- and his mates got the Silver Medal. Now, it's time for Basketball in Spain again.
Gasol named MVP, headlines All-Tournament Team - Sep. 3, 2006 - by Eurobasket
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Gasol
Garbajosa
Anthony
Ginobili
Papaloukas
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Despite not playing in Spain's historic victory over Greece in the final of the FIBA World Championship, Pau Gasol (214-F-80) of Memphis Grizzlies (USA) was selected as the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Gasol missed the final after suffering a broken bone in his left foot during Spain's semi-final win over Argentina on Friday. The power forward/center, who was cheering Spain from the sidelines in the final, averaged better than 21 points and nine rebounds as his team went undefeated in Japan. "I'm very happy about the honor," Gasol said. "I tried to play as well as I could to help my team get this far. It was unfortunate that I couldn't play in the final because of my injury. "But the job my team-mates did in this game was so amazing. And I'm so proud of them." One journalist from each of the 16 eight-finalist nations selected the five-man squad. Joining Gasol were his team-mate power forward Jorge Garbajosa (205-C/F-77) of Unicaja Malaga (ESP), who had 20 points in the final, Team USA's small forward Carmelo Anthony (203-F-84) of Denver Nuggets (USA), Argentina guard Manu Ginobili and Greece playmaker Theo Papaloukas.
China Wins Third Game at Asian Junior Championship But FIBA Asia Remains Silent - Sep. 3, 2006 - by Arthur Volbert China won its third straight game in the Asian Under-18 championship today by defeating Chinese Hong Kong 138-44 but FIBA Asia still maintains its silence. There have been no updates on the FIBA Asia website since this tournament started.
China finished officially tied for 9th in the World Championship. Yao Ming led the tournament in scoring average. Yi Jianlian and Wang Shipeng also appear to be international stars. So FIBA Asia should be giving us game scores and box scores so we can follow the development of Asian players.
The NBA scouting office last week asked me for statistics on Chen Jianghua, as well as five other young Chinese players, and I am attempting to gather these statistics.
Chen went right from playing in the World Championship to playing in the Under-18 tournament. He was the leading scorer in China's 124-94 second-game win over Japan. International scouts are highly interested in Chen's statistics as well as those of China's other young prospects.
212 cm center Su Wei, born 1989, had an article written about him in ESPN magazine. So fans around the world are interested in Su's performance in this tournament. Is the article in ESPN Magazine as good at predicting stardom for Su as was an earlier New York Times Magazine article on Chen?
FIBA itself should provide the statistics if FIBA Asia is too lazy or incompetent to do so. The absence of these statistics are an insult to the international basketball community.
Second game results (Because of FIBA Asia's negligence, I do not have results for the third game other than that for China):
Group A Iran (1-1) 98 Singapore (1-1) 51 Chinese Taipei (2-0) 96 India (0-2) 51 Group B South Korea (2-0) 96 Kazakhstan (1-1) 88 Yemen (1-1) 77 Syria (0-2) 70 Group C China (2-0) 124 Japan (1-1) 94 Kyrgystan (1-1) 87 Chinese Hong Kong (0-2) 64 Group D Lebanon (2-0) 86 Kuwait (1-1) 73 Thailand (1-1) 84 Malaysia (0-2) 76
Yao Leads Tournament in Points Per Game - Sep. 3, 2006 - by Arthur Volbert Yao Ming led the World Championship in scoring with 25.3 points per game. Dirk Nowitzki was second with 23.2 ppg and tournament MVP Pau Gasol was third with 21.3 ppg. Wang Shipeng was 47th in scoring with 11.5 ppg.
The all-tournament team appears to have been limited to players from teams which made the semi-finals, so Yao did not make the team. Nowitzki was also ignored.
Joining Gasol on the squad were Gasol's team-mate power forward Jorge Garbajosa, who had 20 points in the Spain's 70-47 final game win over Greece, Team USA's small forward Carmelo Anthony, Argentina guard Manu Ginobili and Greece playmaker Theodoros Papaloukas.
Yao was fifth in rebounds with 9 per game. Richard Lugo of Venezuela led with 11.4, Gasol had 9.4, Darko Milicic had 9.3 and Nowitzki had 9.2. Yi Jianlian was also among the tourney's top rebounders with 5.7.
Yao was third in blocks with 2.3 per game while Yi was 10th with 1.3 per game. However Yao played 32.5 minutes per game, fifth most in the tournament, while Yi only played 17.7 minutes. So Yi's blocks per minute total was actually slightly higher than Yao's. Yi's rebounds per minute were also slightly higher than Yao's. This shows why Yi is likely to be a lottery pick in the 2007 NBA draft.
Wang Shipeng was eighth in turnovers at 3.7 per game. But he will cut down his turnovers if he is given sufficient international experience. If any NBA or Euroleague team is looking for a pure shooter who excels in crunch time, they should persuade Wang's Guangdong club to do what is best for China and let him play abroad this coming season.
Liu Wei was fourth in assists per game with 4.5. He had 27 assists in the tournament compared to only 12 turnovers. This 2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio shows that Liu is truly learning to play in international competition. Juan Ignacio Sanchez of Argentina, the tournament leader in assists, had a 2.4 ratio which is only slightly better than Liu's.
Yao Ming had a 63.9 shooting percentage and Du Feng hit 45.5 percent of his three-pointers.
USA Wins Bronze Medal and France Clinch Fifth - Sep. 2, 2006 - by Eurobasket France - Turkey 56-64 (7-20, 13-15, 23-14, 13-15) Turkey: Atsur 15+5reb, Akyol 10, Ilyasova 9+7reb, Peker 8, Gonlum 6+11reb, Kurtoglu 4, Demirel 3, Erden 1+7reb, Arslan 0, Erdogan 0, Kutluay 0, Solak 0. France: F. Pietrus 12+9reb, Weis 11+6reb, Foirest 10, Diaw 8+6reb, Gomis 8+6reb, M. Pietrus 6, Bokolo 5, Gelabale 2+5reb, Turiaf 2, Jeanneau 0, Diarra 0, Petro 0. A five-point possession following an unsportsmanlike foul allowed France to beat Turkey 64-56 and capture fifth place at the FIBA World Championship. Joseph Gomis (180-G-78) made three free throws and Mickael Gelabale dunked home a missed jumper to give France a nine-point lead with 3:46 remaining in the game. And that would prove enough despite France missing six foul shots in the final 2:20. "We're fifth and that's the main thing that we'll remember," said France captain Boris Diaw (203-F/C-82), whose team finished 6-3 in the tournament with losses to Argentina, Lebanon and Greece. The France's 2P FG percentage is 44%, on the other hand, Turkey is only in 21%. France led the score 35-20 in the first half. The brilliant performance in the third quarter let Turkey made the score in 40-44. But Turkey can not find a way defeat France from then on.
USA - Argentina 96-81 (21-27, 29-22, 19-13, 27-19) USA: Wade 32, James 22+7ast+9reb, Anthony 15+5reb, Brand 11+6reb, Howard 7, Paul 4+6reb, Hinrich 2, Battier 2, Bosh 1, Miller 0, Johnson 0, Jamison 0. Argentina: Scola 19+5reb, Nocioni 18+6reb, Delfino 13, Ginobili 10, Sanchez 6+6ast+6reb, Oberto 6, Herrmann 5, Fernandez 2, Wolkowisky 2+5reb, Prigioni 0, Gutierrez 0, Farabello 0. It may not have been the gold, but Team USA still left the 2006 FIBA World Championship with a medal. One day after suffering a semifinal loss to Greece, Team USA bounced back to topple Argentina, 96-81, in the bronze-medal game on Saturday. USA finished the tournament with an 8-1 record. After trailing by as many as nine in the first half, Team USA rode the hot shooting of Carmelo Anthony en route to a 50-49 advantage at intermission. In the second half, Team USA made sure it would come home with its 10th medal in FIBA competition by increasing its defensive pressure. Tri-captains Anthony, Dwyane Wade (193-G-82, college: Marquette) and LeBron James (203-F-84) led the charge as Team USA outscored Argentina 19-13 in the third quarter. Wade was in the zone in the final period, erupting for 19 of his 32 points as Team USA increased its lead.
USA out of gold medal race, Greece faces Spain in the final !!! - Sep. 1, 2006 - by Eurobasket
Fed up with its recent failures, the United States assembled a new program with new plan. The end result was all too familiar. Greece used a sizzling stretch of shooting across the middle two quarters to turn a 12-point deficit into a 14-point lead, and beat the Americans 101-95 Friday in the semifinals of the world championships. "To lose any game is a shock to us," U.S. star Carmelo Anthony said. "We came in with the mentality to win the game and the gold medal." Instead, the best Anthony can do now is add another bronze to his collection. Greece (8-0) can earn a world title to go with the European championship it won in 2005 with a victory over Spain in Sunday's gold-medal game. Spain (8-0) beat Argentina 75-74 on Friday night. "They played like a champion plays," U.S. forward Shane Battier said of Greece. The Americans will have to wait at least two more years to remember what that feels like. Done in again by their inept 3-point shooting -- and they weren't much better from the foul line -- the Americans will fall short of a championship in a major international tournament for the third straight time since winning gold at the 2000 Olympics. The Greeks -- with no current NBA players on their roster -- danced in a circle at halfcourt after their victory. "Big players play big games," said guard Theodoros Papaloukas (200-G-77), the MVP of the European final who had 12 assists Friday. "And today I think we played very good." The U.S. (7-1) will return to the court Saturday against Argentina (7-1), hoping to match the bronze medal it left Athens with in 2004. "Those guys are hurting," said USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo, who was put in charge of the program after a sixth-place finish in the 2002 worlds preceded the disappointment in Athens. "It's probably a better thing we have to come back tomorrow and play again instead of sitting on this for two days." Anthony scored 27 points for the Americans, who couldn't overcome their 32 percent shooting from 3-point range or 59 percent from the foul line. Dwyane Wade added 19 and LeBron James had 17, but the three U.S. captains were unable to make up for their disappointment from Athens. Vasilis Spanoulis (193-G-82, agency: Beo Basket), bound for the Houston Rockets, scored 22 points for Greece. Michalis Kakiouzis (206-C-76) added 15 and 6-foot-10 Sofocles Schortsianitis (206-F-85) -- nicknamed "Baby Shaq" -- added 14, shooting 6-of-7. "Basketball is not just about dribbling and shooting," said Greece coach Panagiotis Yiannakis , who took a congratulatory call from Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis after the game. "You can come off the bench with a clear mind and give the best of your talent and that's what our players did today." In Greece, thousands gathered in the streets, waved flags and honked car horns. Traffic information screens flashed the final score, and drivers abandoned cars to join celebrating crowds. Continuously burning the Americans' poor defense against the pick-and-roll, the Greek team shot 63 percent (35-of-56) from the field and made 31 of 44 shots over the final three periods. "We didn't make the right adjustments," U.S. center Chris Bosh (211-F-84, college: Georgia Tech) said. "They ran the same play. We made it easy for them." The U.S. hasn't even played for a world championship since winning the last of its three titles in Toronto in 1994. Mike Krzyzewski -- who was looking for gold after winning bronze with the 1990 team -- and a few American players walked to midcourt to congratulate the Greeks, while most of the U.S. roster quickly headed to the locker room. The Americans, who put together a national team program this year for the first time, now will be forced to qualify for the 2008 Olympics next summer in the FIBA Americas tournament in Venezuela. "This one hurts," said Colangelo, who assembled the team. "We had the gold medal as our goal and anything short is disappointing. We go back to work and get ready for qualifying next summer." The U.S. seemed in control after Joe Johnson's 3-pointer gave the Americans a 33-21 lead with about 6 1/2 minutes left in the second quarter. It was around then that James told his teammates on the bench: "They don't know what to do." Well, they figured it out in a hurry. Greece scored nine straight points, pulling within three on Papaloukas' drive with 3:51 left and forcing Krzyzewski to call a timeout. Dwight Howard (207-F-85) converted a three-point play, but the Greeks answered with a 13-2 surge, featuring eight points from Schortsianitis, to open a 43-38 lead and force Krzyzewski to call a second timeout. Greece hit nine straight shots -- its only miss in the last 5 minutes was a heave from halfcourt as time expired -- and led 45-41 at halftime. The Greeks shot 56 percent (15-of-27) in the half. The Americans were 2-of-10 from behind the arc -- after going 10-for-40 in their quarterfinal victory over Germany -- and trailed at the break for only the second time in the tournament. Italy had a nine-point cushion in a group play game. Greece kept it up in the third quarter, hitting 14 of its 18 shots, including all four 3-pointers in the first 5 minutes. Kostas Tsartsaris (210-F-79)' 3-pointer with 5:45 left in the period gave the Greeks a 65-51 lead -- the biggest deficit the U.S. faced in the tournament. After shooting 4-of-12 in the first quarter, Greece was 25-of-33 (76 percent) in the second and third and led 77-65 heading to the final period. "It seemed like they didn't miss the whole third quarter," Wade said. Anthony, Wade and James combined for the first 18 U.S. points in the quarter, and the Americans eventually got as close as 95-91 on Kirk Hinrich (191-G-81, agency: Octagon, college: Kansas)'s 3 with 36 seconds to play. But the U.S. missed its final two attempts from behind the arc, capping a 9-of-28 night. Courtesy of AP
JOSE Calderon's free throw with 19 seconds to play lifted Spain over Olympic champion Argentina 75-74 in a semi-final at the World Basketball Championship. The Toronto Raptors point guard put through the second of two free throws after being fouled for the winning point, which gave the Spaniards their first medal in global competition since the 1984 Olympics. Spain and Greece will meet in Sunday's final. Andres Nocioni (199-F-79), who played for the NBA's Chicago Bulls, had a final chance to win for Argentina but his 3-point attempt with two seconds to go bounced off the rim. Pau Gasol (214-F-80), a 213cm centre with the NBA Memphis Grizzlies, and forward Jorge Garbajosa (205-C/F-77, agency: Interperformances) led Spain's scoring with 19 points each while Emanuel Ginobili (198-G-77, agency: Interperformances), a guard with the NBA San Antonio Spurs, hit 21 to lead Argentina. Ginobili sparked Argentina to a 21-15 lead in the first period. But Gasol sank a lay-up on the break, his third basket of the night, and added a free throw on foul to put Spain up 32-30 halfway through the second quarter. Argentina caught up twice with Spain, which won the 1984 silver and the 1980 bronze from the Olympics but no world championship medal. But two free-throws by Barcelona shooting guard Juan Carlos Navarro (192-G-80) on foul left the Iberians with a slight 40-38 lead at half-time. Garbajosa hit two open shots and a cut-in jumper in the final minute as Spain stood 60-56 at the end of the third period. Down 65-56, Argentina battled back to 69-67 with a three-pointer by Ginobili with three minutes to go. Navarro made it 71-67 with a jumper in the paint. Gasol added two free-throws but Pepe Sanchez (193-G-77, college: Temple) hit back with a three-pointer to narrow the gap to 73-70 at 1:17. Calderon sank a free throw but Ginobini hit an inside shot to make it 74-72 with 28 seconds to go. Argentina forward Luis Scola (206-F/C-80) tied the score 74-74 with two free throws on Fernandez's foul with 22 seconds to go before Calderon's winning throw from the line. Courtesy of the Australian
China Not Only Team to Blow Early Lead Against Greece - Sep. 1, 2006 - by Arthur Volbert Greece's 101-95 win against the USA should make China understand that its 31-point loss to Greece was not a disgrace.
China led Greece 18-11 after the first quarter and increased that lead to 23-11 in the second quarter. The USA led Greece 20-14 after the first quarter and increased its lead to 33-21 in the second quarter. Then, in both games, Greece got serious.
The only difference is that the USA did not give up and mentally go home. China, however, completely lost its concentration when the Greeks showed how good they could be. Qatar only lost to Greece by 20 points and China lost by 31, showing that the magnitude of China's loss was because of lapse of concentration, not lack of talent.
China should learn some things from this game and Spain's 75-74 win over Argentina.
It has the talent to play with the top international teams.
It must send its most promising young players to Europe if it wants to win a medal in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. 11 of Argentina's 12 players have played in Europe. China should be as eager to send its players to Europe as are the Argentines. China can even place its players on the weaker first division teams in Spain, Greece, Italy or France and still benefit from this. In an earlier article, I had my own lapse of concentration and listed Argentina as being in Europe, not South America. I made this stupid error because, in my head, Argentina plays like a European team. All of Argenina's players are ethnically Eurasian, as opposed to the substantial African heritage of American, Puerto Rican and Brazilian players. So Argentines tend to have the strengths and weaknesses of Eurasians. The best Chinese players will tend to have the athleticism of players of Sub-Saharan heritage along with the shooting skills of the best Eurasians, but will have to work on their bulk and strength.
In the Chinese Basketball Association, China must concentrate on weight training and conditioning. The Greek center Lazaros Papadopoulos is no more athletic than Tang Zhengdong and less athletic than Zhang Songtao. But he has developed his strength and knows how to use his wide body. I again emphasize that the Chinese Basketball Association must provide world-class strength conditioning for its players, beginning this year, if China wants that medal. The players best able to benefit from this conditioning this year will be the ones to send to Europe next year.
The CBA must also play strictly according to FIBA rules. This means 10 minute quarters, like FIBA, not 12 minute quarters like the NBA. All rules in the CBA should be FIBA rules, not NBA rules. All refereeing should be FIBA-style refereeing. If, after 2008, the CBA wants to emulate the NBA style of play, that's fine. But for the next two years it should emulate the European style of play. That's the style of play needed to win a medal in the Olympics.
