# Dirk ain't nothin... Greek National Team - Euroleague Champions



## dunbladekilla (Sep 14, 2005)

the win by greece is yet another example of how individual stars mean nothing the grand scheme of things. Greece took out Russia, France and Germany in the quarters, semis and final to claim the gold. Each of those teams was led by top NBA players in Andrei Kirilenko, Tony Parker and Nowitzki respectively. the greek team has NO nba players on its roster. they persevered and won playing team basketball and lockdown defense. 
i hope Team USA is taking notes.
go greece!!!! :banana: 


Greece concluded their improbable EuroBasket run with a convincing 78-62 victory over Germany to win the gold medal for the first time since 1987. In front of a raucous pro-Greece, sold out crowd of 19,000 at the Belgrade Arena, the Greeks used their trademark of teamwork and solid defence to roll to victory over a Dirk Nowitzki (211-F-78) led German team. As the final buzzer sounded, players ran on to the court in celebration and the thousands of Greek fans in attendance rose to their feet singing songs from their homeland. Head coach Panagiotis Yiannakis was thrown in the air by his players. Theodoros Papaloukas (200-G-77) scored 22 points to lead Greece, including a pair of three-pointers that started the second half and ignited Greece´s break-out quarter when they extended their lead to double digits and took control of the game. “It´s a big honour to see your country´s flag raised and to sing the national anthem,” said Theodorus Popouloukas. “I know everyone back home is on the streets celebrating.” EuroBasket 2005 tournament Most Valuable Player Nowitzki was once again brilliant, this time in defeat. He scored 23, including a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line. He got little help from his team-mates, with only Patrick Femerling (213-C-75, college: Washington) finishing in double figures scoring with 11. In one of the many emotional moments at the Belgrade Arena, Nowitzki was pulled with 3:22 to go in the fourth and the outcome of the game no longer in doubt. Nowitzki received a thunderous standing ovation, many of were Greek fans. Nowitzki hugged everyone - team-mates, coaches and physios and waved to the crowd. The fact that they gave him an ovation even though he was the opposition was great,” said German head coach Dirk Bauermann . “It´s well deserved.” Said Nowitzki: “Greece played phenomenal and deserved to win.” For Yannakis, it is deja vu all over again. Eighteen years ago, Yannakis was the point guard for Greece´s team that unexpectedly won the 1987 EuroBasket title, similar to the 2005 team which was not considered a tournament favourite. “I'm dreaming,” said the victorious coach. “I'm not on earth. This is unbelievable.” In a competition that featured Nowitzki and a host of other marquee NBA names, it was the team without a single NBA player that took home the gold, demonstrating the importance of team basketball. When it was over, Nikos Zisis (195-G-83) had scored 13 points and Kakiouzis 11 in a dominant team performance. Germany, who used hot three-point shooting to advance to the medal round, shot just three-of-16 from downtown and committed 21 crucial turnovers for the game. Demonstrating the improbability of Greece´s gold medal run, even Yannakis said prior to the tournament that a top-six finish and berth to the FIBA World Championship was the goal, anything higher being a significant feat. Well, Greece did more than just a significant feat, considering that they took out Russia, France and Germany in the quarters, semis and final to claim the gold. Each of those teams was led by top NBA players in Andrei Kirilenko (205-F-81), Tony Parker (183-G-80) and Nowitzki respectively. For Germany, a silver medal was beyond the expectations of many, and even themselves. Coach Dirk Bauermann said it would be difficult to finish in the top six, so clearly the Germans can take away many positives from their second medal ever in EuroBasket. “No one expected us to get this far, so it´s an accomplishment we got this far,” said Nowitzki. They had won gold in 1993. The Greeks have now won four medals overall.


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## Yao Mania (Aug 4, 2003)

Must say France has been quite disappointing in international play, considering they do have quite a few talented players there led by Parker. Then again, I dunno what the heck happened to Serbia and Montenegro....


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## Ming_7_6 (May 6, 2005)

Of course Greece won, they have Vassilis Spanoulis, the Rockets future SG, who many consider the top guard prospect in all of Europe.


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## dunbladekilla (Sep 14, 2005)

Yao Mania said:


> Must say France has been quite disappointing in international play, considering they do have quite a few talented players there led by Parker. Then again, I dunno what the heck happened to Serbia and Montenegro....


talent doesn't equal championships. thats the whole point of the thread. if talent alone was enough Team USA would have takin gold at the olympics. france and especially serbia/montenegro didn't play team basketball, they let their egos get in the way... greece has far lass talent but played "the right way" and took the gold... they deserved it.
that should be the future mold for Team USA. u don't need the most "talented" players in the NBA... thats not enough anymore. might have got us by in the early 90's when basketball was rather new to most of the world but the world has caught up. time to start holding tryouts for the US team and take a player who is willing to be a team player over someone who has a ton of talent but is a selfish player.


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## Greg Ostertag! (May 1, 2003)

You are absolute moron, thread starter guy.

Every other team was packed with European stars, and Dirk carried Germany on his back to the final. It was a superhuman effort. A Serbia and Montenegro team with a half-a-dozen NBA players is a mere blip on the radar in this tournament, and you criticize Dirk. Get a life.


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## Kicito (Jun 3, 2003)

Dirk did all he could in the tournament, he was a one-man team and got the the Final which is already great. The german team didn't have anybodyelse that is worth a shot, they are qualified for the World Championship which was probably their goal, everything else is a bonus.The France was never really considered a favorite despite our NBA players who BTW have always been considered better NBA prospects than "european basketball" prospects because they rely mainly on their athletic skills. That team has no inside presence and rely only on their perimeter players who are not great shooters, if somebody would have told me that the France would have got a bronze medal before the tournament, i would have said where do i sign because that would be great.

The Serbia was an absolute dissapointment, what happened is a shame and everybody is to blame, the players for letting their egos win over the team and the coach for not telling who were the clear leaders of the team and letting that mess happened without saying a word. (Plus some disputable calls, like not playing Radmanovic in the last quarter against France)

The Greece are the good surprise, they played very hard defense, a good passing game, a very balanced team with a powerful player named Papadopoulos who really hurt the France. They were not the most talented team but they gave their all, congrats to all of them.


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## USSKittyHawk (Jul 22, 2005)

The title thread "Dirk ain't nothin..." Is an erroneous statement. What do you want him to do get a mad scientist to clone him to play all five positions?  He did the best he can, with little help. Cut the guy some slack!


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## Chef (Nov 24, 2002)

Dirk lead a bunch of nobodys to the Eurobasket final. Discrediting him is stupid. 
However, it's true that the team is more important than the individuals. That's one of the reasons why Greece won... the other is known by the name of Papaloukas (NBA caliber player)


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## dunbladekilla (Sep 14, 2005)

Kitty said:


> The title thread "Dirk ain't nothin..." Is an erroneous statement. What do you want him to do get a mad scientist to clone him to play all five positions?  He did the best he can, with little help. Cut the guy some slack!


fair enough... i admit to a little baiting with that one. i was afraid if i just put Greece -2005 Euroleague Champions no one would even look at the thread. dirk played well throughout the tournament but i'm sick of people saying he had no one else worth a damn. i saw dirk take jumpers with hands up in his grill (take a look at the finals) while teammates where WIDE open. surely if they were good enough to make a national team they are good enough to to take a wide open 12ft jumper. they certainly didn't get much of a chance to prove themselves.


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## el_Diablo (May 15, 2003)

> the Rockets future SG, who many consider the top guard prospect in all of Europe.


right. spanoulis was like fourth guard in greece's rotation (diamantidis, zizis, papaloukas), and he is already 23... same age as tony parker.

germany is a one man team, they couldn't really rely on any other player than dirk to score, and he had a bad shooting day from the three after a few insane performances. their point guards roller and demirel had their moments hitting threes during the tournament, but that was about it... and about those wide open shots, I really am not so sure germany's other players could have hit them, at least with any consistency (except maybe roller). they were also without ademola okulaja (played in UNC with carter and jamison, if someone remembers him...) and a couple of other regular NT players. quite nice achievement... 

greece's coach had a really big part in their victory, he found a way to stop nowitzki (who still had 23 points) with different defences... 

great tournament, too bad serbija didn't play to their potential, I would have liked to see one or two of their games.

I'm a bit baffled why the german coach gave up and subbed dirk off with 2:30 left with greece up by 17 points, it was the european championship final after all. a few stops and threes and they would still have had a chance.


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## Jay_DX (Mar 23, 2005)

It's easy to critizise Dirk just because of his effort in the final.

Nowitzki was tired and still pulled out 23points and 9reb. He played 37 minuted on friday against Slovenia and went the whole strech (40 min) against Spain on saturday. In the final, he got one minute on the bench at the end of the second quater. In the fourth, it was clearly to see that he couldn't force another win against the brilliant defense of greece, so the young guys got some experience. I also disagree on the statements that our guys had no "team". Of course we depended on Dirk 100 percent, but if there hadn't been such great chemistry, we would have lost vs. Slovenia, at the latest vs. Spain. Great effort by our coach, Dirk Bauermann. He did the best job he could do (including taking Dirk out the last minutes to get him his well deserved applause).


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## Stockalone (Oct 6, 2005)

Also you have to mention that the german Starting Point Guard Steffen Hamann wasn´t able to play at the champoinships, and also one of the german´s good Off-Guard Stefano Garris was injured, and last but not least the 2nd best player in germany ademola okulaja (you may konw him, he played at north carolina) didn´t played, because he was injured. I, as a german, thought this team is going to blame itself. But the team-spirit and of course Dirk had made it to the 2nd best tournament in german basketball history. there´s no reason to critise Dirk. Just look where the greece players are playing, at CSKA Moskau or Pan Athen. In the german nationalteam there´s only one Dirk Nowitzki who´s good enough to play there and Femerling as a reserve player.


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## Harry_Minge (Oct 4, 2005)

No-one has mentioned the spanish team who were very tired going into theirsemi final and in my personal opinion are the best team in europe,if pau gasol had been on the team then they may just have done it,

nowitzki was outstanding in eurobasket and deserves every credit

juan carlos navarro IS the best guard in europe,the greek guy is`nt even in the top 5


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## Stockalone (Oct 6, 2005)

Navarro? Are you serious? Okay one of the best guards in europe went this year to the NBA Jasikevicius, Macijaskas, Calderon. But there are lots of better guard than Navarro in europe. Lakovic, Basile, Bulleri, Becirovic, Holden, Rakocevic, Bodiroga. You see, the european basketball is very good in respect to the NBA. I think the spanish Team isn´t the best one in europe, just look at serbia and lithuania. Espacially lithuania, they become 5th but the didn´t played with Saras, Macas, Stombergas, Songaila, Zukauskas, Kaukenas, and of course without Ilgauskas.


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## AMR (Oct 5, 2003)

Stockalone said:


> Navarro? Are you serious? Okay one of the best guards in europe went this year to the NBA Jasikevicius, Macijaskas, Calderon. But there are lots of better guard than Navarro in europe. Lakovic, Basile, Bulleri, Becirovic, Holden, Rakocevic, Bodiroga. You see, the european basketball is very good in respect to the NBA. I think the spanish Team isn´t the best one in europe, just look at serbia and lithuania. Espacially lithuania, they become 5th but the didn´t played with Saras, Macas, Stombergas, Songaila, Zukauskas, Kaukenas, and of course without Ilgauskas.


Calderón isn't better than Navarro.
Neither Lakovic, Bulleri, Becirovic, Holden (OMG), or Bodiroga (right now) are.
Jasikevicius is the best European guard, and then you have Macijauskas, Basile, Rakocevic and Navarro who are in the same level.


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