On Thursday night, somewhere in Geneva, FIBA’s social media man hit the nail on the head: “Greece beat England in football. Greece lost to Britain in basketball. Have we gone completely crazy?’ Good for trolling, but own goal or rather… drag basket. The defeat of the national basketball team is solely due to the “civil war” that has been raging for seven years in European basketball. If the Eurobasket qualifiers did not coincide with a full Euroleague season, Greece would travel to London complete, with the sole exception of Giannis Antetokounmpo. She would undress the armored British, sign autographs for the brain drain Greeks and return to her base with the ticket for EuroBasket 2025 sealed. He wouldn’t descend on the Copper Box Arena with a lineup of national hopefuls.
“Thanks… no thanks”
At the start of the mini-preparation, Vassilis Spanoulis was quick to thank Olympiacos and Panathinaikos for the “spirit of cooperation”. After Thursday’s defeat, however, the federal coach varied the trope: “How will we go to Eurobasket if we don’t have the internationals present in the qualifiers?”. Some events had intervened that made the federal feel that he was playing with an empty deck of cards:
• The permission originally given by Olympiacos to Giannoulis Larentzakis was curtly revoked due to injuries to Dorsey and Vezenkov. Larentzakis, who is usually left out of the 12-team in the European matches of the “red and whites”, played just 8 minutes in the easy game against Baskonia in Faliro. Less than any other Olympiakos player except Wright.
• Panathinaikos granted permission to Ergin Ataman and Cedi Osman for the matches of the Turkish national team against Hungary. The fans of the Turkish federation took place, but the “greens” only gave Moraitis to the national team of Greece, who has played all of 17 minutes this year in Europe. Slukas, Mitoglou, Kalaitzakis, Papapetrou were excluded, while Kostas Antetokounmpo remains injured.
• First-class players from third-party European teams regularly donned the coat of arms of their home countries, either with the blessing of their respective clubs (e.g. the once-green Lithuanian Lekavicius of Zalgiris, Serbian Dobric of Red Star) or a race for to play two matches on consecutive nights (eg the Georgian Toko Sengelia of Virtus). The list includes many names.
In Greece, the state within a state is the two “eternals”. Each federal coach is forced to acrobat the tightrope of diplomacy and maintain difficult balances, unaffected by his personal stature. Exposed by the non-existence of the EEC, which does not even intend to threaten with disciplinary penalties the players and teams that renounce the national emblem, Spanoulis tried to strengthen the national team for tonight’s match with the British in Thessaloniki without breaking many eggs. The tank, after all, is very small.
The two players who made statements in favor of the national team, Larentzakis and Kalaitzakis, one “red” and one “green”, that is, were invited to wear the blue today in Pylaia together with the 34-year-old captain Kostas Papanikolaou. Panagiotis Kalaitzakis, of course, had a match the night before last in the distant Kaunas, from where the journey to Thessaloniki is a complete adventure. The Basketball League matchday has fortunately been postponed…
The overworked Walkup was ruled out so that he could be tested in these two games in place of the only “naturalized” forgotten Naz Mitrou-Long. There was no mention of players playing in foreign Euroleague teams, such as Baskonia’s Nikos Rogavopoulos and Monaco’s Giorgos Papagiannis. Papagiannis will face off with Spanoulis from Monday in the shadow of the Monte Carlo casinos, along with Nick Calathes who is injured. From the rest of the internationals, Charalambopoulos, Th. Antetokounmpo.
In the same project viewers
Even with so many rumors, three players from the 12 squad of the Olympic Games (Toliopoulos, Hougaz, Moraitis), last summer’s 13 (Loundzis), one with a successful tenure in the NBA (Mitrou-Long) and many young people who will be called to bear responsibility the following day: Zougris, Avdalas, Mantzoukas et al. The national team led with a difference of 17 points in the first part but collapsed in the second, just as it happened in the corresponding “window” three years ago in Newcastle (7869). It is worth noting that from the “windowless” – and headless – national team of November 2021, only two players competed in this year’s match: Lountzis and Mouratos.
In front of her loyal home crowd, and boosted by comparison, the ‘official favourite’ is expected to defeat the Brits tonight and shake off any threat of elimination. Three of the four teams in the group will qualify for EuroBasket, so three wins will be more than enough, as the Dutch are 0-3 at the halfway mark, behind 2-1 Greece, the Czech Republic and M. Britain.
However, the national team wants the first place, not only for reasons of prestige but also for the best possible draw in the final phase. EuroBasket 2025 will be held in four countries (Latvia, Cyprus, Poland, Finland), however the Greek team will have the role of an organizational “partner” of the Cypriots, so it will certainly compete in the Limassol group, with an opening date of August 28. The finals are scheduled to take place in Riga between 5 and 14 September 2025.
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