Greece win means there is a good chance that we'll see Alpi Vs. Giannis in the semifinals. Poland doesn't have much of a frontcourt. Alpi honestly should straight up dominate them. Then you just need a decent game from Cedi and Larkin, some contribution from Hazer and that should be enough to beat Poland. But Jordan Loyd and Ponitka could be potentially dangerous. Before the tournament I thought that Alpi could cruise a bit because on paper the Turkish frontcourt seems strong but Yurtseven is in terrible shape, Bona is a non factor on offense, Osmani is ok on offense but limited on defense. So Alpi keeps playing heavy minutes. Hope he stays injury free. There will be some fatigue but this tournament is great preparation for the season and the playoffs. Before the 23-24 season he just played a few games in the summer and then made the big jump.
The jumper form definitely looks better right? If that's legit we're going to crush the league this season.
Jumper looked very good against Serbia but not so much against other teams. Against weaker players he prefers his post moves and straight up goes to the basket for an easy layup or a hook shot. His FTs are around 76% and the form looks really good to me.
Antisemitism? Seems like you’re a perfect candidate to get some education, though D&D is not the place. In any case, everyone knows there’s no issue with Jews when you call out Israel. Same like when you want any other country in Eurobasket to loose. It means absolutely nothing more than that, no hate towards citizens and definitely nothing of the sorts where wanting Turkey to lose means anti-islam.
I'm an American-Israeli Jew and I very much want Turkey to win, as I'm a huge Rockets fan and therefore also a huge Alperen Sengun fan, and he's a great story and a likeable dude. I support the actions of none of the governments of Turkey, Israel, or America, and ph#ck yeah, this is just a basketball thread, I dunno why anyone is tryin to steer it into somethin else. Sports are meant to bring us together, especially hoops
Cool! I respect that, but I also understand people wanting countries to lose based on its politics or whatever. And that is fine. And it doesn’t mean anything with regards to the people, that was my point. I should’ve phrased it differently, like I did in the general Eurobasket thread where I was happy to hear the team getting booed. That is on me. And unfortunately politics sometimes does cross over with sports where for example Russia is banned and Israel is not. Not to have a discussion about it, since it’s selective anyway and you could easily ban the USA from all events if we’re going to get into that, but just saying why to me it’s not 100% separate.
In this case the US is banned because it is not part of the European Hoops association, I am kiddin .....
If you're trying to say that people's governments don't actually represent the people of their respective nations ( most of the time, but with certain notable exceptions) , and that the actual citizens of a nation shouldn't be blamed for the actions their governments perpetrate in their nam Its pretty clear what you're trying to say when comparing the situation of Russian sports teams to that of Israeli sports teams, even though the 2 scenarios are not analogous at all, but again, THAT has no bearing on enjoying basketball. And if you "sympathize" with the "plight" of the poor Russian sports squads being banned recently, recall that Russia was somehow allowed to host BOTH the World Cup AND the Winter Olympics AFTER invading and illegaly annexing Crimea AND invading the Donbass, AND have previously installed a Russian puppet in Kiev after massive and blatant election fraud, then egged on Pro-Russian elements to massacre innocent women and children in Maidan Nezalezhnosti ( Independence Square) .... The current ban on Russian squads in international comps is WELL-earned and RICHLY deserved.... To posit otherwise is a blatant denial of recent European history
But that doesnt mean I have any beef with the average Russian, or anybody else in any other country whom I've never met
I was simply saying wanting a team, national in this case, to loose that should never be equated to some kind of attack, hatred or whatever on the people who are holding a passport of said nation. Like in the World Cup I want underdog nations from Latin America or Europe to win and other nations like Brazil, but especially Germany to always lose. The former because they are good, the latter because of WW2 and their general mentality. Still wanting them to lose, does not automatically mean that I despise Germans. So the whole antisemitism card is just not warranted. Since you wanted to discuss content I will just leave it at this and then we’re done on this: both nations want territory that doesn’t belong to them and one invades a country, the other occupies it and is now invading it. And you are right, it has no bearing on enjoying basketball, but you cannot deny politics is part of it and actually I do enjoy a country beating Israel even more because of it. So maybe some bearing
There's really no glory in beating an Israeli National Team in ANY sport, they're always pretty inept. I don't take any extra joy in seeing, for example, say, a Jordanian team or a Saudi team lose, because politics doesn't color or fuel my enthusiasm for sports, there is NO correlation. What's happening in Gaza is an atrocity, there can be no denying of that, and criticizing the sociopathic actions of Bibi and his hypocritical Zealot allies does NOT equal antisemitism.... By the same token, however, the atrocities of October 7 had the exact effect Hamas desired, to push Israel into a disproprtionate response and make them an international pariah, delay forever any progress on normalization of relations with other Gulf States and crush the Abraham Accords. None of that makes me despise any specific people, their faith, or their beliefs, or revile their national teams, as it's all horrific and tragic beyond belief.... There are millenia of blood on the hands of all parties involved, no one is blameless, just as no one is entirely just, and the common people are manipulated like pawns by those in power, on all sides...
I think we agree for the most part and kudos for not having that correlation, but that’s subjective of course. Back to the matter at hand, go Türkiye
