[by Kris SANTIAGO] - Felicitaciones a los campeones! 



Spain deserved to be crowned champions after their recent performances in the final phase of the tournament.
They even let Serbia no chance to find their way back into the game, causing me to switch channels to watch "Star Wars" as the game appeared to be too boring for me to watch.
Pau Gasol is now not only a NBA-champion but also European Champion this year, and he showed once more that he is able to change a game completely when being on the floor (I'm not a rapper though).
No matter what the opponents did, Pau scored, rebounded and blocked like there is no tomorrow.
He also relied on the superb Navarro, Rudy, Rubio and his brother as well as on Garbajosa and even Reyes, who all stepped up to reach the ultimate goal of finally taking the European crown to Spain.
The Iberians are worthy champions but will be having a huge problem with Gasol and Navarro sitting out next year to rest...lets see who is going to step up for them to reach out for the World Championship... 

Serbia was also a big surprise to many, while others knew already that the potential was there and counted them into the medal ranks before the tournament started, based on the preparation. Teodosic blossomed into a deadly weapon and should established himself in Europe as a great guard with a huge range (His long-distance shots were instrumental in Serbia's rally to the finals). Young but proven players like Velickovic, Tripkovic and Tepic are going to be the backbone of the national-team for years while even Macvan and Raduljica should emerge as the next stars-in-line from the small country in Eastern Europe which produces so many talents and youth championship-title that you can't even count them anymore. Who needs guys like Rakocevic, Milicic among others when the team did well this year? Ivkovic should look closely on who he is going to call up in the next year as the current team is doing probably better if it stays like that with only Krstic as the only routinier on the roster.


Greece and Slovenia showed some great games in the tournament but had some tough luck by loosing to a superior Spain (Greece) or in an overtime-thriller to Serbia (Slovenia). With some of its best players injured, Slovenia should be bouncing back from its last two unfortunate losses and regroup for even a stronger outing at the World Championships in Turkey next year. Players like Dragic, Smodis, Vujacic and Udrih will be helping Slovenia much more when healthy and maybe Nesterovic can be convinced to join them back for another great tournament next year.

The Greek showed off successfully that they have a long line of talented players that will be able to replace stars likes of Papaloukas, Diamantidis and Vassilopoulos in action for the "Blue and White". The likes of Spanoulis (Who steps up with a big 3 when the team needs it the most), Schorstsanitsis (Who seems to be a better national-team player than a club-team player) Perperoglou, Zisis and Bourousis guarantee Greece another run for the upper ranks of World basketball next year, and if "Papa, Diam and Vasil" decide to join, the roster is going to be pretty deep for Coach Kazlauskas.

About the qualified teams for Turkey:



France made it to the quarter-finals after failing to qualify directly for the event in first place, so we can rate that as an accomplishment for the French, who had some big names in the roster but got crushed by mighty Spain after winning six in a row in the earlier stages. Tony Parker directed the team but chose to struggle during the wrong moment (Spain) and therefore only a fifth place was all France would achieve and they finished with an 8-1 record (!) in this tournament. One of my favorite players was Nicolas Batum, who should have a stellar career ahead of him...

Croatia...my beloved Hrvati did not too well. Lot of my friends complained about the lack of motivation and the missing team-play...it was not fan-friendly to see them playing that way at all.
Winning four but loosing five and still finishing sixth is a miracle to me. Ukic looked good at times and hopefully gets more time in the NBA to display his game, but I can't another name that impressed me in the team. Maybe Repesa is going to form a different roster for the World Champs as otherwise Croatia won't be so lucky again to make it that far.

On the verge of still making it through the backdoor:
Russia started well into the tournament but lacked consistency in the end and dropped out of the qualified nations by loosing to Serbia and Croatia to finish seventh with a win over devastated Turkey.
Mozgrov showed flashes of his potential but looked lost on the court on some other occasions. I liked watching Vitalii Fridzon as he is a true team-player that showed the will to win plus seems to be a nice guy to talk to. I'm pretty sure we will see Kirilenko and Holden next year together with the youngsters in Turkey after the country received its wild-card December 13th.

Already there:

Turkey did impress me with their winning mentality which somehow faded away like Türkoglu's shooting touch. After winning all of their first five (sometimes pretty close) games, the fans and media were hyped up and believed that this young team would make it far. But after loosing to Slovenia in the second stage and to arch-rivals Greece in the quarters, the tournament was over. Ersan Ilyasova proved to be ready for the NBA with his ability to score whenever he got the ball, while Ömer Asik was banging the boards hard. Only Hedo could not live up to expectations although he tried to contribute in other sectors of the game while only 30% of his shots connected. Still, with the home-crowd behind their backs, Turkey should have a legitimate shot at the title.


My All-Tournament Team:

G: Milos Teodosic
G: Vasilis Spanoulis
F: Ersan Ilyasova
C: Erazem Lorbek 
C: Pau Gasol

My top three chokers are: Jaka Chokervic, Hidayet Chokoglu and Tony Choker.

I'm out like thrilling finals.