2016 Olympics ( Rio de Janeiro ) - your final thoughts

[Bad Boys 2882]

There is an upside and a downside. The upside is that the US played four relatively close games. Seeing how the game against Spain played out, one can see that the US without a couple of its superstars is now slightly better than the best international team which is in decline.
In all of the four close games the US has played, it is the European teams which played more aesthetically pleasing basketball. The European teams simply couldn't match the athletic abilities of the USA. Especially the rebounds. I can accept that a country of 320 million inhabitants can line up 12 forces of nature, but it's their loss to have lost against the rest of the world on the tactical side.

The downside for basketball is that, the final, which had by far the highest viewer ratings, was a disaster for the sport and international basketball. The fact that Serbia was unable to compete with the US made it look like basketball hadn't developed for the last three decades. Probably the worst final ever since the US started sending NBA players.

They've had larger margins of victory in the 1994 and 2014 world finals. This is the biggest Olympic final margin since 1992, of course.

[Victorious]

There is an upside and a downside. The upside is that the US played four relatively close games. Seeing how the game against Spain played out, one can see that the US without a couple of its superstars is now slightly better than the best international team which is in decline.
In all of the four close games the US has played, it is the European teams which played more aesthetically pleasing basketball. The European teams simply couldn't match the athletic abilities of the USA. Especially the rebounds. I can accept that a country of 320 million inhabitants can line up 12 forces of nature, but it's their loss to have lost against the rest of the world on the tactical side.

The downside for basketball is that, the final, which had by far the highest viewer ratings, was a disaster for the sport and international basketball. The fact that Serbia was unable to compete with the US made it look like basketball hadn't developed for the last three decades. Probably the worst final ever since the US started sending NBA players.

[Bruno Díaz es Batman]

LOL. Aussies deserved to win, not because they played better, but as reward for their overall contributions for the sport :roll eyes:

I agree it's a shame they eliminated all chances of an Australian win by disqualifying Andersen for purposely elbowing Llull. Oh, wait...

He forgot this:

[Darrell Armstrong]

Group games were more itneresting than final round.The thing i'll remember from this olympics is the disgusting robbery of Australia.I'll never forget it,the refs simply took their bronze and handed it to Spain.What a shameful behavior to a country where bball isnt even top 10 sport but they've been producing solid players for 20 years now.

LOL. Aussies deserved to win, not because they played better, but as reward for their overall contributions for the sport :roll eyes:

I agree it's a shame they eliminated all chances of an Australian win by disqualifying Andersen for purposely elbowing Llull. Oh, wait...

[Obina]

IMO World Cup in Spain was better.

My impressions:

Biggest disappointments
France, Batum, Valanciunas

Surprises
Kalnietis and Australia

Best players
Teodosic
Mills
Bogdanovic Bojan
Durant
Gasol

MVP
Kevin Durant

Best games of the tournament
Brazil - Argentina
Spain - Australia

Was this tournament more interesting for you than London 2012
No for me

[MZT Skopje]

To me most negative thing is that USA won the olympic games playing with out heart in 7 out of 8 matches.

Australia is the biggest positive story only had one bad game and that wos in te semifinal.

Spais wos sleeping during the first 2-3 games and that become expensive bc needed to face USA in the semifinal instead of the final. One of the reasons is the bio biorhythm take some time beofore it seattle.

Serbia with extrem organisation and huge heart won the silver medal with four defeats. The extrem organisation works against all teams in the world part from motivated USA, just a different dimension of basketball nothing can be done when Paul George kills Teodosic in defense.

Basketball needs to become bigger in eurupe and latin america more media cover like football. 99% of Europens can not mention 2 players in the starting line up of CSKA Moscow. Bc poor media cover it become difficult to attract young kids to choose basketall. Europ has very limited registered players.

In USA basketball is a super bigg sport. Everyone play basketball.

[Shawshank]

I didnt like playoofs stage,alot of blowouts...but generally i liked Olympic games as i always do (since my first experience in 1996 i started watching being kid).So grew up with this generation players like Jasikevicius,Javtokas,Ginobili,Scola,Nowitzky,Gaso l,Navarro,,Parker,Diaw,Bogut,Anderson,Melo and so on ...i feel this early 2000s generation was fantastic for international basketball fans ! Enjoyed every minute and every tournament with them.But this was final cut with last of them,fiba changed format and generation will fully change too without those familiars names that i was growing up for 15 years

What i will remember from this Olympic most? Ginobili tears after 20 years in Argentina uniform...myself my eyes begin to water seeing that live...Great great men and Olympic champion !

Biggest dissapintment? Team home team Brasil...player Valanciunas...

Biggest suprise Croatia/Australia

Best game Argentina-Brasil this game will be for ages that you can watch and watch


Olympics is always best tournament no matter what,because you feel that everybody gives everything...there is no other tournament where player play harder than Olympivs overall,i mean all of them gives their hearts out in Olympics.

[Mindozas]

Did you enjoy the tournament ?

Group phase - yes, play-offs the most boring I've seen (1992 onwards)

What do you think about your team/ opponents results and performances ?

Biggest surprise was definitely Australia, dissapointment Brazil

Best players or biggest disappointment ?

MVP - Durant
Surprise - Kalnietis
Dissapointment - Valanciunas

best game of the tournament ?

Brazil-Argentina

was this tournament more interesting for you than London 2012 ?

No

Thoughts... now it's kinda sad. Olympics are over, the basketball tournament didn't meet my expectations, basically cause of play-offs. Sad cause for lot of top stars it was last Olympics and we won't see them again in Tokyo, it won't be the same without them. Sad cause next world wide tournament will be only in 2019

[guilherme.rcf]

Not a great Olympic games for basketball at all. We have not seen a really good display of the sport.

Brazil vs Argentina was the best match by far.

An interesting point that I would like to add is that Brazil won the gold medal in football and volleyball and reached the quarters finals of the handball and waterpolo tournaments. So how can basketball changes its current bad situation through the country being out of the playoff played at home? The answer is: There is no hope for us.

[El Toro]

You do not blame Lithuania for that, do you ?

nope. 5 teams in group b were evenly matched and competitive teams.

[auris1]

our team would have had great chances of reaching semifinals if our opponent would have been another team. We didnt have a chance against US.

You do not blame Lithuania for that, do you ?

[El Toro]

our team would have had great chances of reaching semifinals if our opponent would have been another team. We didnt have a chance against US.
I liked the group games better. knockout games were blowouts, except bronze medal game Spain vs Australia.

Olympic champion always from Americas.
1992, 1996, 2000
2004
2008, 2012, 2016

[auris1]

..The final call on Mills was simply one of the worst calls in history of international basketball..

I do not know about that . Soft call ,maybe ? 50/ 50 ? One could argue about it with no end .
Not so sure if anyone would care enough to jeopardise their careers for this one game or call .

[SashKX]

I think it was a great tournament in general, mainly thanks to group B. Knockout rounds saw maybe 2-3 really inferesting games, so I think that phase was generally disappointing, bronze and final games maybe the most.
A proper rollercoaster for Serbian fans. Disappointing games with Australia and France, then a huge moral boost against USA, then the expected nail biting game with Croatia, followed by a new big moral boost with Australia, which was basically our goal fulfilled, and then a massive disappointment in the finals, potentially ruining everything. No one expected us to win, but we definitely didn't expect an epic blowout either.

But oh well, good times ahead for us, big European rivals getting old and retiring while our team will get better.

[Dtown]

Best game of the tournament was Brazil/Argentina, followed closely by Spain/Australia.