10 years since THE biggest upset in history of basketball

[Kreeshak]

As the person with the most posts in NBA/basketball threads combined in MMO-C's existence: who cares.

There's a reason they do best of 7 in most professional league sports.

1) Missed completely the spirit of the post.
2) Don't be mad. It's the magnitude of the defeated that gives glory to the winner.

[Deleted]

I didn't even know other countries besides the US even acknowledged basketball

[Akylios]

I didn't even know other countries besides the US even acknowledged basketball

I wouldn't say 'not acknowledged', but sadly it's a niche sport in most of Europe. Everyone knows it exists, players like Michael Jordan sort of popularized it, but these days a lot of people don't even know who Lebron is. It's a bit disheartening, for a basketball fan such as myself.

I'm always hoping it garners enough popularity in Europe to have at least a single good league over here comparable to the NBA, but as of now the best we have is probably the Spanish league, which isn't even on US college level in terms of entertainment value and skill level. Just nowhere near enough of a player pool for a strong league to pop up over here. So if you're actually half decent, your only hope is the NBA.

[ItachiZaku]

I didn't even know other countries besides the US even acknowledged basketball

Just like soccer is here, a ton of countries have "teams" and "leagues" and heck, some of those places like Greece or China even get old washed up NBA players like Starbury to come and play for a couple years.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't say 'not acknowledged', but sadly it's a niche sport in most of Europe. Everyone knows it exists, players like Michael Jordan sort of popularized it, but these days a lot of people don't even know who Lebron is. It's a bit disheartening, for a basketball fan such as myself.

I'm always hoping it garners enough popularity in Europe to have at least a single good league over here comparable to the NBA, but as of now the best we have is probably the Spanish league, which isn't even on US college level in terms of entertainment value and skill level. Just nowhere near enough of a player pool for a strong league to pop up over here. So if you're actually half decent, your only hope is the NBA.

You are going a little too far here. US college teams get wrecked in Europe. Saying that the spannish league isnt even on US college lvl is BS. Watching a college game is not that untertaining unless you got two top teams with great prospects. Most of second round nba draft picks cant get spots on euroleague teams. If you are half decent and can't get a spot on an NBA team, you can still get good money and play on a very decent level in Europe.

[JohnBrown1917]

As the person with the most posts in NBA/basketball threads combined in MMO-C's existence: who cares.

There's a reason they do best of 7 in most professional league sports.

Does not happen In the 2 biggest European sports, Football and Hockey(very distant second, could just be my own experience that makes me think its the 2nd most popular).

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True. Although Spain is on a mini crisis during the last couple of years. They dominated the past 10 and are expected to dominate the future as well.

Partly thanks to Cruijf.
While the KNVB continues to ignore all his advice, such a damn shame.


I envy the countries who do follow his methods ;_;

[Spectral]

I remain irritated at how many Americans are too lazy to show up and play a dozen or so games over summer. There's no plausible reason for American basketball to ever lose at the international level.

[JohnBrown1917]

I remain irritated at how many Americans are too lazy to show up and play a dozen or so games over summer. There's no plausible reason for American basketball to ever lose at the international level.

If it became really popular in other countries, it could happen, even against american all-star teams.

[Spectral]

If it became really popular in other countries, it could happen, even against american all-star teams.

Maybe. My comment assumes a continuation of the status quo, wherein the United States has ~90% of elite level players and basically all of the ten best players. The only historical exceptions to that would be Nowitzki and Nash (who, oddly, don't play for internationally basketball-relevant countries).

Canada probably has the best shot if everything breaks out right for them in the long run.

[Allybeboba]

That team was not a team. It was a bunch of inviduals. That was why they lost.

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I remain irritated at how many Americans are too lazy to show up and play a dozen or so games over summer. There's no plausible reason for American basketball to ever lose at the international level.

Phht... Lazy...

[JohnBrown1917]

I didn't even know other countries besides the US even acknowledged basketball

We prefer to play korfball here.
See? We also have our own sport in which we win every world & euro championship!(expect for one, when those sneaky Belgiums won by 1 point)

[Kreeshak]

That team was not a team. It was a bunch of inviduals. That was why they lost.

Agree. But even a bunch of individuals is expected to win. That's how much better individuals they were. Probably it was a combination of all 3 factors:

1) USA not having a team spirit
2) USA individuals underperforming
3) Greece overperforming

[Kreeshak]

It's popular in Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Greece... and I guess Russia and Lithuania? Also if you go a bit more to the south outside Europe, there's Turkey.

But damn that Greek team. Im still upset about Eurobasket 2007, we were leading 61-49 TWO MINUTES before the end and after a massive choke lost 62-63.

It's popular in Israel too.

Greece's worst nightmare is Spain. Spain has something like a 10-0 or 12-1 record playing against Greece.

[Northern Goblin]

Isn't this like saying that Belgium beating USA in the 2014 world cup was an upset as they had no MLS players? lol.

The MLS is so low in the rankings of world football leagues that it doesn't even compare whereas the NBA is as good as it gets.

Plus half the Belgian side play in the EPL, which is the NBA equivalent.

[JohnBrown1917]

The MLS is so low in the rankings of world football leagues that it doesn't even compare whereas the NBA is as good as it gets.

Plus half the Belgian side play in the EPL, which is the NBA equivalent.

For the profit it makes, I agree.
But the best players in the world are playing for Bayern, Madrid and Barca.

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It's popular in Israel too.

Greece's worst nightmare is Spain. Spain has something like a 10-0 or 12-1 record playing against Greece.

Pffft we got a perfect record against all countries, except Belgium(1 loss) in Korfball!


All hail sports that barely anybody knows about!
Although its still far above Fjierleppen in popularity, with the latter only havinf 500~ registered players worldwide(also seems some Japanese like it because you fall into the water if you fail).

[stutt-]

How was this even possible? Greece isn't even a Basketball powerhouse, wouldn't be surprised if Spain did it but Greece?