France Clinches Olympic Berth, To Meet Spain In EuroBasket Finals

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• LA Huey Posted: Sep.16 at 5:52 pm
  So since they already clinched an Olympic berth, will France sit out their starters?

• Darksaber Posted: Sep.16 at 8:15 pm
  GREAT game, Mozgov and Kirilenko got rolling too late in the game (as did Batum/Noah) and the 1st half was quite the contrast of playing styles.
  David Blatt’s beloved russians ALWAYS look for the extra pass, while the Colet’s french team play hard outside/in, with TP dominating the ball.
  Both teams forced turnovers, gang-rebounded and Noah had a phase in the 4th where he grabbed every board in sight, mostly in a crowd.
  Then Batum took over, multiple 3′s, two poster dunks, blocked shots, the guy was a beast in the 2nd half. Tony Parker actively looks for him on the 3 pt line during fastbreaks and he swished them all.
  The final is gonna be insane, Spain’s 6 Nba players and Euroleague vets agsinst the 4 France has to offer (plus Euroleague/ACB stars).

• Darksaber Posted: Sep.16 at 8:17 pm
  And that benching of TP/Noah 3 games ago is quite passé now. Seems to have worked in France’s favour.

• Donatello Posted: Sep.16 at 8:27 pm
  the main question is.. how that come that macedonia was playing in the semi-finals?!

• UNKNOWN Posted: Sep.17 at 4:29 am
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• mishko Posted: Sep.17 at 7:52 am
  answer to the main question , macedonia plays with heart and soul ,and is ten times stronger and better than your country , italy i guess

• A l a n Posted: Sep.17 at 12:15 pm
  It’s going to be a great game. I hope we beat the all-world team that France is, with guys from Guadaloupe, Congo, Guyana, Cote d’Ivore, Belgium and New York City.

• Jukai Posted: Sep.17 at 12:20 pm
  The Fiba EuropeBasket Qualifiers have been pretty amazing this year. Or maybe I’ve just been watching more intently because of the lockout. Either or.

• palo Posted: Sep.17 at 3:36 pm
  Alan, great comment. I cant remember seeing one ethnic french player (white and with french name)on the floor. THats just how they do it, their football team is no different. It was a big contrast to russian team, with all those slavic looking white russians around. I would like national teams to represent the NATION of the county, not just how fast that country can issue passports

• J Mac Posted: Sep.17 at 5:27 pm
  @palo it has nothing to do about issuing passports. Its the representation of a country trough it’s history and culture.. Otherwise US’s team would be Indians (Native Americans). By the way most of the teams at the FIBA EuroBasket have(had) a “foreign” player by the way.

• Darksaber Posted: Sep.17 at 5:52 pm
  HA, haven’t laughed this hard in a long time. A spanish national team fan complaining about the ethnicity of the french team while his side just added IBAKA before the tournament started.
  Most of the countries Alan named were french colonies/territories, and visit France sometime, the multi-cultural look of the population will blow your mind, palo. Dark skinned french people allover.
  Yeah lucky those slavic looking WHITE (thats the main complaint here, right you 2?) russians didnt show up at Eurobasket 2011 with J.R. Holden, their naturalised afro-american point guard, right?
  So much for the passport issuing argument.
  U cant handle black players on national teams, better start watching curling instead of writing some of the stupidest comments i’ve ever read on a BASKETBALL WEBSITE!

• Darksaber Posted: Sep.17 at 5:59 pm
  How ignorant, for palo French = white with french name. People really should not speak up when their xenophobia overrides their common sense.
  I bet u luuuuved watching the ‘white’ Zinedine Zidane do his magic on the field all those years, eh?
  Google his roots/heritage, then weep.
  Idiocy.

• Darksaber Posted: Sep.17 at 6:09 pm
  U know where the passport complaint would have been valid? Teams like Macedonia (Bo) or Bosnia Herzigovina (Cook?), Croatia, Bulgaria etc. adding american players in the hopes of winning.
  These players have zero connection to the balkan teams they play for, even the German coach, Dirk Bauermann complained about this trend in an interview.
  THAT, i can get behind. Bo got that team to the qtr’s, yet as far as we know, he has nothing that connects him to Macedonia.
  But complaining about skin colour of a country’s team that colonised large areas of the developing world and thus has generations of black players playing for it, well that’s rich.

• Jukai Posted: Sep.17 at 11:07 pm
  lol all those guys on that team have massive french roots, most of them SOUND french.
  What a ridiculous complaint. I don’t know if it was xenophobic or racist.

• Jukai Posted: Sep.17 at 11:07 pm
  Sorry, jumped to conclusions— maybe it was just idiotically ignorant.

• A l a n Posted: Sep.18 at 5:11 am
  @Darksaber I was not complaining about the ethnicity, I was stating the places where more than half of that team comes from, that is, outside continental France (I don’t know about you, but when I think in France I think in european France, not in some american colonies or some african countries, but I may be biassed because I live 20 miles from the french border here in Spain…) And yes, Spain has one black player, this is the first year we have had one and Spain has won Eurobasket, World Championship and Olympic silver medal without him. Ibaka expressed his desire to play for the country who helped him to become the player and man he is now, that’s why he is with Spain (Like Olajuwon?) Also, Spain would still get to the final without him… Doubt that would be the case with France, even Joakim Noah did not wanted to do anything with french team because he’s born in NY. BTW the only french white player I can think of is Nando De Colo, good player. And for sure France can issue passports very fast. Everybody knows french white people can barely run or jump, at least that’s what you see in every athletic/football/basketball/… competition here in Europe lol
  My point is just Spain can win it all with guys only from the land between France and Portugal whereas France picks players from 3 different continents, which is nice for them I guess.

• J Mac Posted: Sep.18 at 6:58 am
  @Alan Don’t blame France, because of the stagnant racism in Spain. Maybe Spain should get rid of it’s Catalan players since they want their independence. Like I said before, if it wasn’t for Spain, Team USA should be an Apache team.. Get your facts right Mr. Colonialist

• A l a n Posted: Sep.18 at 8:11 am
  @J Mac you are not getting my point. I don’t care if they are black or white, all I only care is more than half of that team is born outside France. They have many black players born in France, so what. They are french. But this is a national teams championship, right? To have more than half players nationalized seems wrong to me BTW Spain is not racist, is classist. If you are a rich muslim you won’t find no problems here… money talks. And I’ve seem a lot of racism in France, many time against spanish people/products, (spanish trucks being burned on the highways to prevent spanish products being sold in France i.e. …)
  Many teams have nationalized players, like Macedonia, England, now Spain too, Russia had in the past, and I can understand 1 or 2 players, depends on the case, or if the player has lived there for many years. But having 7 out of 12… that’s neither fair nor logical.

• LA Huey Posted: Sep.18 at 10:09 am
  @Alan, I had a much more rigid idea of how FIBA should allow players to play for National Teams. I felt like Becky Hammon, Chris Kaman, and JR Holden have no business playing for the teams they are representing in international competition. But now, I don’t really consider it a FIBA issue but something each national team should decide for themselves. If a national team wants a gun-for-hire representing them, let them do it. We all know it’ll result in the same thing: Star Spangled banner playing at the end of the Olympics and World Championships. =)

• Jukai Posted: Sep.18 at 11:38 am
  Alan: If you have no problem with black french born citizens being on the French national team, why do you keep saying it should be filled with WHITE French citizens? Be careful what you say, or you’ll look like an ignorant tool.

• Yann Blavec Posted: Sep.18 at 12:22 pm
  In the french episodes of South park, Token Williams’ family has a West Indies accent.

• J Mac Posted: Sep.18 at 1:04 pm
  @Alan, you seem more & more ignorant as you speak… Do some research before saying players are nationalized, when its not the case.

• Darksaber Posted: Sep.18 at 5:15 pm
  Glad u picked up on that too, Jukster.
  Palo should be feeling great tonight, seeing that his white (shhh, plus one African) spanish team put a spanking on the french team.
  Not surprising seeing as:
  - Scariolo is a much better coach than Colet
  - Spain had 7 current or former talented Nba players to France’s 4
  - Being in the Finals of int. Tournaments is in the Spanish side’s dna for years now, while the french side hasn’t being this far in a while.
  congrats to Espagna on a well earned title (and to Macedonia to giving tgem the stiffest challenge in the medal round)
  Great tournament. 24 team format sure works for me.

• LA Huey Posted: Sep.18 at 10:14 pm
  Damn. Spain is heads and shoulders above the rest of Europe. I’d love to see Spain v Argentina.