By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Eurobasket 2015 is already part of history as the most successful tournament ever. Still, not everyone left Lille smiling. With the obvious exception of Spain, most other teams fell short on their targets, more bad blood was added in the rivalry between France and the Spaniards and behind the scenes not everything was perfect, Eurohoops presents the most significant moments of the event, good and bad.
- A record audience: In the final 27.372 fans were present at the Stade Pierre Mauroy making this number a record for a Eurobasket game. The mobilization of the French basketball federation was impressive, casual French fans wanted to be a part of Eurobasket and it’s obvious at this point that basketball is booming in the country of Tony Parker.
- Boos for Gasol: Pau Gasol had an epic tournament, arguably even the best ever in the history of Eurobaskets. Still, when his name was announced as part of the best five and MVP of the tournament, he was booed from the French crowd. Not something that you would expect…
- A Eurobasket with financial profit: As it was confirmed in the last days of the tournament, the French basketball federation not only covered the 17 million euros Eurobasket costs but also made a profit. According to the first estimations, it can be marginal, but in any case, a sporting event which makes money for the hosts is most welcomed, considering that even the Olympics can turn to be financial disasters for their host cities.
- Complains for the referees: On the way to final Spain beat Poland, Greece, and France. Only in the game against Greece, the losing side didn’t complain about the calls. Poland’s star Marcin Gortat went on the record and said that maybe the refs respected too much Gasol, while coach Collet insisted that via foul calls and free throws in the third quarter of the semifinal Spain had the chance to get back into the game. Add to that Rudy Gobert complaining via Twitter that he “couldn’t touch” Gasol, which caused a reaction by Ricky Rubio.
- The most epic games: Despite an anticlimactic final, big games decided in details after overtime or on the last shot were an everyday affair from day one. It’s a testament to the general improvement of the basketball level in Europe that very few teams gave up without a fight. Even Iceland, which in theory was the weakest team of the competition, didn’t let its opponents stay relaxed.
- Lost in translation: English was the main language of the event, but that doesn’t mean that English is the language of European basketball, especially for local media. That created a lot of misunderstandings and bad reports. For example after the semifinal a question in English to Boris Diaw about him thinking the possibility of retirement like Vasilis Spanoulis did, because they have the same age and he will also have next summer the burden of the pre-Olympic tournament, was reported by French media on twitter as a question from Spanish reporters to Diaw about him retiring after losing again to the Spaniards. The answer was the same – “No it never crossed my mind” – but the context quite different.
- End of an era: Spanoulis left the building, Nowitzki also got his own standing ovation at Berlin, Gasol, Parker, and Diaw are going to play next summer, but this Eurobasket tournament was the last for many of the players who dominated European basketball the last 15 years. Yes, we will see again some of them in the Olympics, but probably never again in Europe.
- Full gyms: One of the main issues that usually Eurobasket tournament have is that when the host country is not playing, then we have empty gyms. That usually happens in the group phase. The fact that this time every group had a different host, solve the problem and the stands were almost never empty.
- Just a little less: With few exceptions, Eurobasket left a bad taste to most of the teams which competed to the tournament and didn’t achieve their initial goals. The most obvious examples? Germany didn’t make it the second round, Croatia crushed and burn in Lille, Turkey was not even part of the Top8, Greece and Italy believed during the tournament that they were ready to be part of the Top4, but they didn’t, Serbia lost two chances to get a medal and France couldn’t defend it title. Only three teams can be really happy and those are Spain, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic.
- A cult hit: Joe Dassin’s song “Dans les yeux d’Emilie”, or if you prefer the English translation “In the eyes of Emilie”, became the trademark of the French national team. However the French used a cover by a brass band which was much more fitting to a sports event.
Time will tell if it will become a regular cult choice in every basketball competition.