With the final warm up games coming to an end, Eurobasket 2015 is set to begin in less than a week. This is the 39th edition of the FIBA European championship. This year it’ll be played on September 5–20 2015 across four countries Croatia, Germany, France and Latvia.
Visit our forum to follow and discuss all Eurobasket 2015 games
Qualification for the tournament took place in two phases; the first featured 13 teams who failed to qualify for FIBA EuroBasket 2013, the winner of which qualifying directly for the finals. The remaining teams then went into qualification with the remaining FIBA Europe sides.
Eurobasket 2015: Big Tournament with Bigger Names
The European tournament is the most popular and competitive of the regional championships leading up to the Olympics next year in Brazil. A large part of Eurobasket’s attraction is he amount of competitive countries participating and their homegrown stars that make playing for their national teams a priority. Some of the bigger name players participating for their countries in this years Eurobasket include Dirk Nowitzki (Germany), Tony Parker and Boris Diaw (France), Pau Gasol, and Rudy Fernandez (Spain) and Danilo Gallinari (Italy).
There are veterans in Nicholas Batum (France), Jonas Valanciunas (Lithuania), Omri Casspi (Israel) and Andrea Bargnani (Italy) as well as up and coming NBA players in Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece), Dennis Schröder (Germany), Mario Hezonja and Bojan Bogdanovic (Croatia). Click here for a full list of participating NBA players.
Eurobasket 2015 Seedings and Groupings
With four numbered seeds in each group, each Eurobasket grouping featured one seed. The top countries in each group are France (A), Spain (B), Croatia (C) and Lithuania (D).
Here is how the countries were seeded for Eurobasket 2015:
Each team will be placed in a group with a 1-6 seed in each group. The Eurobasket 2015 groupings were drawn and this is how they shaped up (ordered by seed).
| SEED | COUNTRY |
|---|---|
| 1 | France |
| 2 | Finland |
| 3 | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| 4 | Poland |
| 5 | Israel |
| 6 | Russia |
| SEED | COUNTRY |
|---|---|
| 1 | Spain |
| 2 | Serbia |
| 3 | Turkey |
| 4 | Italy |
| 5 | Germany |
| 6 | Iceland |
Discuss the European Basketball Championships with hundreds of other fans in our forum.
| SEED | COUNTRY |
|---|---|
| 1 | Croatia |
| 2 | Slovenia |
| 3 | Greece |
| 4 | MKD |
| 5 | Georgia |
| 6 | Netherlands |
| SEED | COUNTRY |
|---|---|
| 1 | Lithuania |
| 2 | Ukraine |
| 3 | Latvia |
| 4 | Belgium |
| 5 | Czech Republic |
| 6 | Estonia |
Spain and France are Loaded Again
Spain boasts the second-best basketball league in the world after the NBA. The ACB attracts most of the best players that aren’t playing stateside and there are plenty of homegrown players dotting the Spanish league. With a strong concentration of basketball talent, it’s no surprise that Spain has placed their stamp on the Eurobasket.
With loyal representation from their stars such as the Gasol brothers, Juan Carlos Navarro, Rudy Fernandez, Ricky Rubio and Sergio Rodriguez Spain has placed in the top three in seven of the last eight European basketball championships (2 Gold, 3 Silver, 3 Bronze).
If Spain has been dominant, then France is next in line. Excluding disappointing 2007 and 2009 tournaments, France has moved up the world ranks placing fourth (2003), third (2005), second (2011) and finally winning gold in the previous Eurobasket in 2013.
This year isn’t different with France and Spain each notching #1 seeds in their groupings with history and rosters loaded. Just a few more days to go until Eurobasket 2015. To follow all the games and discuss with European basketball fans from all over the world, go to our Eurobasket forum.
77730
