Unfortunately the German national team couldn't triumph Great Britain which is pretty much the unexpected surprise of the tournament, group of players who are not even playing in their elite leagues but just in local leagues were able to defeat both Israel and Germany, it seems like this great connection and chemistry and great athleticism as well. Anyways, the fact Germany lost will make things harder on Israel and it also means Israel will probably have to defeat Belgium tonight by over 5 points deficit. I hope GBR won't surprise us tomorrow and will win Ukraine too because then the tournament is over for us. I also hope Casspi will finally rise to the occasion and will put a display.
Might very well be true, I don't know if it's really it though but I bet it has something to do with this, I'm not sure if what's matter is the coach being an assistant coach in the NBA or not, it's about attitude, about the willingness about expressing feelings whether happiness and pride or disappointment and frustration. Our Israeli coach Arik Shivek just doesn't have all those things in him, he is very dormant and apathetic, I remember Israel was trailing by two points to GBR in overtime and instead of showing some fighting spirit to the players so it might permeate to them and give them some motivation he was doing the opposite and was talking calmly like if nothing happened, very careless it seemed. I think the coach we need is David Blat, he is an Israeli with a reputation with the Russian national basketball team and seniority, Russia's golden age in terms of basketball took place while he was coaching them, it means something about this person, but it's problematic to change it, too many politics in the basketball association in Israel.
Oh boy, how can you beat France and then lose against Belgium, GB and Ukraine? Unbelievable. Very disappointing, even without Dirk, Schröder and Harris we should have advanced. Just disappointing.
Beating France was a fluke game, it was known before the tournament that advancing past group stage would be a real success. The roster is garbage without the NBA guys, the players are soft and inexperienced, guys like Pleiß and Staiger barely show progression.
zmagal bomo! Bogdanovič is a great player, I don't know why we put Blažič who is one of the weakest guys on the team on him in the first quarter.
Finally, some decent performance from the Israeli national basketball team, a great win against Belgium in the result of 87-69, 18 points deficit. Our player of the game is Afik Nissim, he exploded for 23 points with 4/5 3 point shots. Israel is still alive in this tournament and if it will be able to defeat Germany tomorrow they will probably qualify they only need GBR to lose to Ukraine. Unfortunately Casspi was disappointing again, he contributed only 2 points and didn't play for vast amount of minutes in this ball game.
Not this time! What a great game, I was on the edge of my seat the whole second half. Bogdanović was amazing, too bad he didn't sign for the Nets this summer, he has the quality to make it in the NBA.
If only there was a way to shorten team name from Israeli national basketball team to, I don't know, maybe Israel? That would be really nice for reader's eyes. This Eurobasket is crazy, almost every team, if not every team, made sensation of some kind. A lot of NBA players with great stats are non factors in Eurobasket (Ersan, Asik, Vucevic...), I guess it really shows tournament's high level. Eurobasket is all about a team ball. There's no I in basketball, unless it's NBA basketball #burn
But it seems like the national teams are not strong by NBA standards. Except perhaps Spain and France, and they depend heavily on NBA starters. Could it be that Eurocup teams are completely behind the times in team development/ strategy/game plans etc.?
What's up with Casspi? Has he regressed so much (I'm assuming he had a higher level to regress from, but that's a guess based on not knowing a damn thing about the guy, and giving him the benefit of the doubt) that he can't get minutes on his national team? Does he have a nagging injury? Does the coach have it in for him? That seems unlikely, since when he's gotten minutes, he hasn't produced. Will Mr. Casspi end up being one of Morey's rare mistakes? Where has Casspi's game gone, and can we help him look for it? I'm up for a look, got some free time, and am willing and able, if someone can pay for the trip.
In FIBA Americas news: Congrats to Luis Scola and Francisco Garcia for making it to The FIBA World Cup with Argentina and the Dominican Republic!
How could Casspi possibly be considered a "mistake" for Morey? Dude was signed to the league minimum and has a non-guaranteed second year (making it an even better contract for Houston than had Casspi just signed a one-year minimum deal). The Casspi signing has ZERO adverse cap implications. Zero. Even if Casspi stinks to high heaven, this would hardly qualify as anything more than a small waste of Les Alexander's money.
