One era just ended?

[pohani komarac]

After this probably greatest EB ever in my opinion one thing alwas goes trough my mind

When I was young I used to buy basketball magazin "Košarka", (basketball-how original ) and after Eurobasket 2001. there was presentation of new basketball talent that mostley born from 77.-82. that generally itroduced them self in that EC. Players like Gasol, Navarro, Parker, Kirilenko, Stojakovic, Giricek, Vujcic, Turkoglu and so on

Since next EB is not "olympic qualyfier" we can pretty much expect most players will retier from their NT's (as usuall balkanians didi't earlier) and since great France 82. of Parker, Diaw, Pietrus, Turiaf....euro next 5-6 year "era" didn't produce that much talent

Can we say/expect this EB could in some way end one era?

What do you think guys?

[scream2207]

you might be right and there will never be so many nba players because of the lock out.. am glad that we lithuanians even tho lost early at least hosted one of the most memorable tournaments to date

[NorCal]

Speaking more from an NBA standpoint this theory of an era of great European players has held true. Its been stated a few times on IBN that Europe has failed to produce the next Nowitzki, Gasol, Parker, Kirilenko, Stojakovic, etc. Those players were drafted late 90s- early 2000s and since then quality of European players drafted has dropped. I don't know what this can be attributed to, perhaps nothing more than chance (?).

But, this last draft holds a lot of promise as perhaps a new generation of Europeans may be making their way into the NBA. Time will tell.

[pimpekaustas]

but soon enough there will start dario šarić, valanciunas and hezonja era

[Picek]

Speaking more from an NBA standpoint this theory of an era of great European players has held true. Its been stated a few times on IBN that Europe has failed to produce the next Nowitzki, Gasol, Parker, Kirilenko, Stojakovic, etc. Those players were drafted late 90s- early 2000s and since then quality of European players drafted has dropped. I don't know what this can be attributed to, perhaps nothing more than chance (?).

.

Europe has Miličić to rely on

[Alyosha12]

I dpm+t think this has been the best EB at all. In fact i was very disappointed in it. Greece played very bad, Serbia played very bad, Slovenia played very bad, Croatia as well, the hosts played bad... The only teams who lived up to expectations were France and Spain... And the only nice story of the tournament was FYRM.

But apart from that i agree with your thesis. Something in the developing process of Euro youth has gone wrong.

[Alvertis4]

I also think this EuroBasket was not really good.

Not being 100% biased, I think the last great EuroBasket was 2005. In 2007 you had too many referee "mistakes" and in 2009, well most teams didn't send their best players though the best team won. This year, the best team won again, but overall the tournament wasn't really great. And I really hate the 24 team system. So many unnecessary games. I remember not missing one single game in the past and being thrilled from almost every game. Now I missed over 1/3 of the games on purpose and many of the games I didn't watch because there were significantly better games aired at the same time. In the past, I'd probably rotate the channels so that I have an idea of every game.

Only Spain, Turkey, Italy and Germany were full this year, and only Spain is a serious threat to the competition, unless of course Nowitzki plays his socks off and Turkey is a good team but not top tier yet imo, lacks good guards which is pretty obvious. France had a few absences, Serbia hasn't sent their truly best players in a long time, Lithuania suffered with the losses of Kleiza and Siskauskas, Greece sent their B or C team (Xanthopoulos and Sloukas?? Really??), Croatia didn't have Tomas and Ukic iirc...

I expected much better.

Hopefully FIBA finds a way to make the tournament a 16 team one again, don't have another parody like this year where teams were playing qualifiers and then they told them they played just for fun :/
But most important is that FIBA should find a way to impose on players to play for their national teams. And please, adjust the "naturalization" system.

[Mindozas]

Yeah, seems like great era of EB is over, it was great decade and sadly future doesn't look so promising and bright, we lack personalities, young stars like we had some 8-12 years ago like Pau, Navarro, Calderon, Saras, Macijauskas, Siskauskas, Songaila, Parker, Diaw, Dirk, Kirilenko, Turkoglu, Okur, Peja and etc. some already mentioned, some I forgot now, but surely so far there's only few yongsters who looks like will have bigger impact on NT in two years. Hope I'm wrong on this though...

[Mermeri_Disledim]

It's also because the youngsters don't really get much playing time anymore in their leagues because of lame american players. For example in turkey, even the poorest team in the league has many blacks who is nothing special besides their size/strength. All that insignificant players come to our leagues and steal playing time. This is not those players' fault of course, it's the teams that are only looking for temporary success. It is more important for them to finish the league 2 steps higher than growing a young star.

[Straight forward]

New generation is also here though: Kleiza, Teodosič, Kanter, Vesely, Batum, Valančiūnas, Rubio, Motiejūnas, Koufos, Saric, Mazgov, Galinari, Dragič, Bogdanovič and others that I didn't mention. That's new, strong generation.

[twilost]

It's also because the youngsters don't really get much playing time anymore in their leagues because of lame american players. For example in turkey, even the poorest team in the league has many blacks who is nothing special besides their size/strength. All that insignificant players come to our leagues and steal playing time. This is not those players' fault of course, it's the teams that are only looking for temporary success. It is more important for them to finish the league 2 steps higher than growing a young star.

if a youngster is a hot prospect like enes and valanciunas, he will take time under all circumstances. but a over average player cannot take minutes because of foreigners. the problem in europe is the scarcity of players like dirk,pau,parker..

[Mermeri_Disledim]

if a youngster is a hot prospect like enes and valanciunas, he will take time under all circumstances. but a over average player cannot take minutes because of foreigners. the problem in europe is the scarcity of players like dirk,pau,parker..

I don't really agree. For example izzet. Terrific potential but is sitting on the bench. Or erbil or Kenan etc..there are so many.

Belive me even if enes stayed in turkey before the drafts he would have been sitting behind oguz or vidmar. that's just a horrible approach.

[auris1]

Can we say/expect this EB could in some way end one era?

What do you think guys?

I think you are getting old,that is all.
Grass is not that green as it used to be,sky is not that blue as it used to.etc.
But life goes on.
And only your memories clings to the better times.
I remember when it came up recently in interviews that Garastas ,after Sabonis and Marciulionis retired,said - we are fucked.
If anything,we had more success .
And surely,no one will ever compare to Sabas and Marcelo.
But this is truth as well regarding Karnishovas,Macijauskas,Ilgauskas,Siskauskas,Jasik evicius,Songaila.Etc.
And every year the list gets longer and longer.
I hope you get my drift -but the truth is,every year,no matter what,i like watching basketball better and better.
So here goes your argument)

[pohani komarac]

I think you are getting old,that is all.

anway I didn't mean in that way, that there will be no more good basketball players etc.

I meant era of one generation mostley born 77-82 just ending that mostley dominated last 10 years. with all respect players let's say 83.-88. didn't had that much talent and didn't have efect in basketball like guys from 77-82 period had. when you count all best from period of players 83.-88. that's defenetly lover quatity of quality and defenetly they had much efect in nt basketball. i don't think most of the "older" will play at EB 2013., so i always have some fealing that in some way we can say "one era is ending"

[Kwijibo]

I have to say 1 thing. More or less since 75 to 82-83 there is a boom in the natality and more kids born in those years. Then due to some social conditions european childrens and more in the most development countries have stagnant birth rate